2015–16 Chinese Basketball Association season

The 2015–16 CBA season was the 21st season of the Chinese Basketball Association. The regular season began on Saturday, October 31, 2015, with the Beijing Ducks hosting the Xinjiang Flying Tigers. The regular season ended on Friday, February 5, 2016, and the playoffs began on Monday, February 15, 2016.

Team changes

Two teams relocated ahead of the season.

Name changes

The Chongqing Soaring Dragons moved to Beijing and initially changed their name to Beijing BG in September 2015. To avoid confusion with the city's soccer club from the second-tier China League One, which is also called Beijing BG or Beijing Beikong, as well as to avoid confusion with the Beijing Ducks when only the geographical names of CBA teams are used—a large number of Chinese sports websites have decided to refer to the team as the Beikong Fly Dragons. The practice is consistent with the way a lot of Chinese sports websites shorten the second Zhejiang team's name to Guangsha Lions and the second Jiangsu team's name to Tongxi Monkey Kings. So this means Beikong replaces Beijing as the club's "geographical" designation.
The Dongguan Leopards moved to Shenzhen and changed their name to the Shenzhen Leopards in October 2015.

Regular season

Standings

Top 8 teams advance to the Playoffs

Foreign Players Policy

All teams except the Bayi Rockets can have two foreign players. The bottom 5 teams from the previous season have the additional right to sign an extra Asian player.

Rules Chart

The rules for using foreign players in each game are described in this chart:

#	Facing other teams	Facing Bayi Rockets
Chinese players+	No Limit	No Limit
Asian players++	No Limit	4 quarters collectively+++
International players	6 quarters collectively+++	4 quarters collectively+++

+ Including players from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
++ If a team waives its right to sign an extra Asian player, it may use its 2 foreign players for 7 quarters collectively.
+++ Only 1 allowed in the 4th quarter.