RealGM

the league is likely to return with a 48-game season starting Jan. 19, assuming there are no major hiccups before then.

“It depends on ratification timeline for PA, but it’s looking more and more like 48 games is going to be the only option,” Daly said in an email.

While there was no sense the deal was in peril, it was clearly taking the parties time to get everything down in writing. As of Monday night, they had yet to complete a memorandum of understanding which was likely to run over a couple hundred pages when completed.