With a pedigree that dates back to the late 1980s, 2016-17 Panini Hoops basketball cards will return next week, offering the first true rookie cards of the 2016 NBA Draft class.
Hoops has always been considered the league’s kickoff set, issued just prior to the start of the NBA regular season.
2016-17 NBA Hoops Cards: The Basics
Hobby boxes will contain 24 packs with 12 cards per pack at an online cost of around $70. With a 300-card base set, Hoops offers a fairly comprehensive look at the 2016-17 season rosters, although late summer roster changes are usually not reflected on the checklist.
Hoops will have two autographs per box (stickers, if the promotional info is any indication), 24 inserts or parallels and three Kobe 2K inserts, which are also being inserted into NBA 2K video games right now.
Hobby and Retail Autographs, Relics, Parallels
2016-17 Hoops basketball will be available at both hobby and retail levels and each will have exclusive content. Hobby boxes will be the only place to find Hot Signatures, Red Hot Signatures (numbered to 25), Hot Signatures Rookies and Red Hot Signatures Rookies (numbered to 25) autograph sets. The Hot Signatures checklist includes Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Anthony Davis and Andrew Wiggins.
Hobby exclusive inserts will include Dreams, Bird’s Eye View, High Flyers, Courtside and Team Leaders. Each will have Artist Proof parallels numbered to 25 and Gold, numbered to 10.
Hoops will be available at Target and Walmart with boxes sold there offering exclusives that will include Great Significance autographs, Rise N Shine relics, Lights Camera Action, Faces of the Future, End 2 End and Swat Team.
Parallels found only in retail will include Bl
ue (numbered to 75) and Red (numbered to 15), Checkerboard cards in Retail, Blue and Red (numbered to 49) cards found only in Blaster boxes, Te
al(numbered to 49) and Orange (numbered to 25) cards 
in Gravity Feed boxes, and Teal Explosion and Orange Explosion (numbered to 75) in in Fat Packs.
Hoops will recap last year’s NBA playoffs with the return of Road to the Finals chase cards that document the Cleveland Cavaliers taking home the Larry O’Brien trophy.
2016-17 NBA Hoops is set to release Wednesday, October 12.
You can see boxes and sets for sale here.
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