Report: 2015-16 NBA schedule expected out in August

Patience, people.

Apparently inundated with questions about when the NBA may release the 2015-16 schedule, ESPN's Marc Stein tweeted Friday to calm the masses.

The NBA won't be releasing the full schedule until some time in August, Stein reports, which should surprise exactly no one. The league didn't unveil the 2014-15 schedule until Aug. 13 last season, holding a one-hour special to reveal the slate for key dates like opening day, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Day.

The excitement over a potential schedule is understandable, with a loaded and top-heavy Western Conference creating a plethora of intriguing battles; a championship rematch waiting; the Miami Heat back at full strength to try to play foil for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers; plenty of interesting rookies and sophomores returning from injury; a Los Angeles Clippers-Dallas Mavericks showdown a near certainty; and much, much more. Christmas may need to add a sixth back to the annual back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back.

The league probably prefers to delay releasing the schedule into August both because it's an incredibly difficult task to tackle, and because it helps keep the NBA closer to a 12-month-a-year league. With interest in summer leagues increasing and international basketball becoming more accessible during the offseason, dropping the schedule in mid-August would help satiate appetites during what's otherwise one of the lone dark stretches of the NBA calendar.