The 2019-20 CBA season is coming back on June 20 in two host cities. A lot of things will be different from before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, including squads that will be made up of only Chinese players.

According to CCTV-5, 12 of the 20 CBA teams so far have not seen their foreign team members return: the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, the Shandong Heroes, the Zhejiang Lions, the Qingdao Eagles, the Shanxi Loongs, the Zhejiang Golden Bulls, the Shenzhen Leopards, the Tianjin Pioneers, the Sichuan Blue Whales, the Bayi Rockets, the Jilin Northeast Tigers and the Guangzhou Loong Lions.

Jilin and Guangzhou are still undecided, but the other 10 have already chosen to go with all-Chinese squads, which means that their opponents' use of foreign players will be limited in the game. Moreover, though the Liaoning Flying Leopards announced they are replacing Lan Stephenson with O.J. Mayo, the team also said they have not decided whether they would add Mayo to the lineup this season.

Currently the Guangdong Southern Tigers lead the whole league with an incredible 28-2 record and one of their key players, American swingman Sonny Weems has been with the team the whole time. Guangdong is very likely to finish the regular season as No. 1 at home in Dongguan.

Guangdong's two major challengers, Xinjiang and Liaoning, will bet their hopes on their domestic boys and fortunately, the two teams are both resourceful in this area.

Xinjiang's front court – Abudushalamu Abudurexiti plus Kyranbek Makan plus Zhou Qi – in addition to Liaoning's back court – Zhao Jiwei plus Guo Ailun – make it one of the Chinese national team's best starting lineups. Of course, Guangdong also have national team members like Zhao Rui, Zhou Peng, Ren Junfei and Yi Jianlian. Another change the Chinese Basketball Association has made may make the competition more grueling.

Instead of playing multi-game series, the CBA teams will only play one game in each the first two rounds of the playoffs this season, just like March Madness, college basketball's annual tournament in the U.S. Furthermore, the semifinals and the finals will also be shortened from best-of-seven to best of three. If you watch basketball, you should know that the longer the series is, the bigger advantage the strong team will enjoy. On the other hand, in short series, anything can happen.