http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20286965/nba-issues-memo-detailing-how-add-rest-schedule No more 4 in 5 is huge.
IMO the back to backs are not too bad on long eastern road trips. (i.e Miami /Orlando) They often play better the 2nd night. Plus do we want them to have a night off in south beach or NY? Hell no But the 4 in 5 nights are killers. And even worse are the back to back out west. A home game and then a road game the next night in Utah or Denver have sucked sucked over the years. (Maybe the altitude plays a part-not enough time to acclimate?)
Yeah, honestly, starting the season earlier is a win-win. Fans get to start following basketball earlier and the schedule can be more forgiving. I'd probably start the season at the start of October, but maybe the NBA doesn't want to compete with a month of baseball playoffs.
• Reduction in single-game road trips over 2,000 miles by 67 percent; there are only 11 of them on schedule." Does this one ever occur other than a make up game in NJ? Houston and Memphis are only 1850 air miles away. That leaves only N.O out west as a possibility, and I don't ever recall it happening.
I'm sure they did, in which case we only had one 2000+ mile single game road trip last year - OKC. That one is nearly 3000 air miles, and two time zones away. With three teams in Texas, plus MEM and NOP, it makes no sense to make us fly nearly 3000 miles for a single game. DEN almost qualifies at 1980 air miles round trip. We also had three separate one game road trips to LA (1670 miles round trip) - one for the Clippers and two for the Lakers. With four teams in California, you think they could make those trips more efficient. BNM
I may be in the minority but I wished the season started Christmas Day and went into around August. It would make summer entertaining and would run during the bulk of football season.
It's a good start to hopefully creating more competitiveness in the league. Higher quality product, and all that good stuff.
How are they able to make all these changes by only starting the season 1 week earlier? Seems like it would take at least 2 weeks to accommodate.
Last season was the first time we collectively felt a difference in the schedule. There were days off on the road during trips that we've NEVER had before. We had 2 days off in NYC, Toronto and San Francisco. In my years of traveling, that has never happened. It was great. You could really tell the vibe was better. More rested, less stress amongst the players. You still need talent to win games, but as much as we travel more than everybody else, it was a much needed change. And the extra all star break days off was fantastic.
They've been gradually creeping the start date up over the last several years. In 2004-05, the Blazers season opener was November 3rd. Last year, it was October 25th. This year, it will be around October 17th. This is just the first time they've moved it up by such a large amount in a single season. Still, even an additional 8 days off over the course of a six month season, is significant. As we all know, the Blazers are the most geographically isolated team in the NBA, but last year we only had one single game road trip of more than 200 miles. We also had zero 4 game in 5 nights road trips and zero 5 games in 7 nights road trips last year. We did have 15 back-to-backs, however (14 originally scheduled, the make up game in MIN pushed it to 15). So, they were already doing away with most of the single game 2000+ road trips and the 4 in 5 and 5 in 7 situations. The additional 8 days off will allow them to eliminate more than half out our back-to-backs. One back-to-back per month with no 4 in 5 or 5 in 7 seems quite reasonable. The quality of the play will improve and coaches will feel less need to rest players when they are already getting additional rest between games. BNM
Yep, as brutal as the March schedule was last year (travel wise), it's the first time I can remember when we didn't have at least one 4 in 5 or 5 in 7 road trip in March. BNM