For a couple of seasons now, under Commissioner Adam Silver’s direction, the NBA has looked for ways to improve the regular-season product. The playoffs work, they have plenty of drama, but the marathon of an 82-game regular season can lead to some tired players and flat play.
Once again the NBA is trying to adjust to that, something evidenced by the drop of the full NBA season schedule on Friday. Here are a few notes along those lines:
• No team has a four-games-in-five-nights stretch.
• No team has eight-games-in-12-nights for the first time in NBA history.
• Back-to-backs are reduced to an average of 13.3 per team (meaning just under one-third of most team’s games are on one of a back-to-back). For comparison, that was at 14.4 last season, and four seasons ago a lot of teams had 20 back-to-backs (nearly half the schedule).
That’s all good. Coaches are still going to rest players and give them nights off, but that will happen less often now. Also, the league is pressuring teams not to rest players in big nationally televised games (and most of the time, when a team plays on TNT Thursday or an ABC weekend game, they will be coming off a day or two of rest). This is good for the longevity of players, and just for the level of play.
While we already knew about the opening week of the season and Christmas Day, there also were some new homecoming dates dropped with the full schedule release — we are going to have some fun midseason matchups:
• On Nov. 21 LeBron James returns to Cleveland wearing a Laker uniform. Don’t expect him to get booed like his return with the Heat, LeBron will get a warm welcome from the Cavaliers faithful — he brought them a title as promised.
• On Jan. 3 2019, Kawhi Leonard returns to San Antonio in a Toronto Raptors uniform, that will not be a warm welcome.
• On Jan. 14, 2019, Tony Parker will make his return to San Antonio wearing Charlotte Hornets’ teal.
• On Feb. 2, 2019, Blake Griffin returns to play the Clippers for the first time. He was traded away at the deadline last February, but by that point the Pistons had made their West Coast swing. This will be the first time Griffin takes on the shell of what was his former team.
• On Feb. 22, 2019, DeMar DeRozan returns to Toronto with the San Antonio Spurs. He will be greeted like a conquering hero, fans there love him.
Once again the NBA is trying to adjust to that, something evidenced by the drop of the full NBA season schedule on Friday. Here are a few notes along those lines:
• No team has a four-games-in-five-nights stretch.
• No team has eight-games-in-12-nights for the first time in NBA history.
• Back-to-backs are reduced to an average of 13.3 per team (meaning just under one-third of most team’s games are on one of a back-to-back). For comparison, that was at 14.4 last season, and four seasons ago a lot of teams had 20 back-to-backs (nearly half the schedule).
That’s all good. Coaches are still going to rest players and give them nights off, but that will happen less often now. Also, the league is pressuring teams not to rest players in big nationally televised games (and most of the time, when a team plays on TNT Thursday or an ABC weekend game, they will be coming off a day or two of rest). This is good for the longevity of players, and just for the level of play.
While we already knew about the opening week of the season and Christmas Day, there also were some new homecoming dates dropped with the full schedule release — we are going to have some fun midseason matchups:
• On Nov. 21 LeBron James returns to Cleveland wearing a Laker uniform. Don’t expect him to get booed like his return with the Heat, LeBron will get a warm welcome from the Cavaliers faithful — he brought them a title as promised.
• On Jan. 3 2019, Kawhi Leonard returns to San Antonio in a Toronto Raptors uniform, that will not be a warm welcome.
• On Jan. 14, 2019, Tony Parker will make his return to San Antonio wearing Charlotte Hornets’ teal.
• On Feb. 2, 2019, Blake Griffin returns to play the Clippers for the first time. He was traded away at the deadline last February, but by that point the Pistons had made their West Coast swing. This will be the first time Griffin takes on the shell of what was his former team.
• On Feb. 22, 2019, DeMar DeRozan returns to Toronto with the San Antonio Spurs. He will be greeted like a conquering hero, fans there love him.
