NBA news is a barren wasteland at the moment. We're left to ply the wood grain at the very bottom of the barrel, while the Four Horsemen (Skip Bayless, Stephen A. Smith, Colin Cowherd and Bill Simmons) ride over the blasted NBA landscape, salting the earth with ESPN player rankings and Andray Blatche signing to ride the pine in Brooklyn.

Most NBA fans are busying themselves with fantasy football, the start of the MLB playoffs in early October, the impending NHL lockout, or idle speculation on how quickly Andrew Bynum will get himself suspended by Doug Collins in Philadelphia. Like cicadas preparing to emerge in a display of horrible biotic fervor, so do we sit in our self-made burrows awaiting the first days of training camp and preseason games. Good news: I've prepared a nice, easy-to-read schedule of upcoming dates! Bad news: We're still more than two weeks out. Wah.

2012 Training Camp & Preseason Schedule Dates:

October 2nd, 2012: NBA training camps open for practice.

Saturday, October 6th, 2012: Denver Nuggets at Los Angeles Clippers (8:30 PM MST)

Friday, October 12th, 2012: Denver Nuggets at San Antonio Spurs (6:30 PM MST)

Monday, October 15th, 2012: Denver Nuggets vs. Golden State Warriors (7:00 PM MST)

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012: Denver Nuggets at Portland Trailblazers (8:00 PM MST)

Sunday, October 21st, 2012: Denver Nuggets at Oklahoma City Thunder (6:00 PM MST)

Thursday, October 25th, 2012: Denver Nuggets vs. Los Angeles Clippers (8:00 PM MST) - TNT

Friday, October 26th, 2012: Denver Nuggets at Phoenix Suns (8:30 PM MST) - ESPN

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012: NBA Regular Season Tip-Off