7 things to know about the NBA's schedule for 2017-18 season
It may be August, but there are still plenty of reasons to talk about the NBA.
The latest one came Monday evening, when the league released its schedule for the 2017-18 NBA season, allowing fans of all 30 teams to begin preparing when and where to see their favorite teams play in the coming months. The schedule announcement also was an opportunity to see where the NBA is headed next season and some of the ways the league will attempt to promote its product to fans.
Here are 7 things that stand out from the NBA schedule:
1. High-profile homecomings
Last year, there was one game every NBA watcher had circled on their calendars: the return of Kevin Durant to Oklahoma City for the first time as a member of the Warriors. This year, there will be six all-stars from last season who changed teams in the offseason.
That will make the returns of DeMarcus Cousins (Oct. 26 in Sacramento), Paul Millsap (Oct. 27 in Atlanta), Paul George (Dec. 13 in Indianapolis), Chris Paul (Jan. 15 in Los Angeles), Jimmy Butler (Feb. 9 in Chicago) and Gordon Hayward (March 28 in Utah) fascinating to watch.
2. Rest and national TV games
After multiple nationally televised games on ABC last season were marred by all-stars sitting out to rest, the NBA made it a priority to try to prevent that from happening again. It did so by ensuring that for all 14 games televised by ABC on either Saturday or Sunday this season, the two teams playing in those games will have a day off both before and after. This practice also carries over to the five Christmas Day games, the three Martin Luther King Jr. Day games on TNT and the eight nationally televised games during the opening week of the season.
3. More rest for everyone
The NBA took another step to try to protect its players. By adding an extra week to the schedule and scheduling more games in general on weekends, this year will mark the first time in NBA history that there won't be a single set of four games in five nights for any NBA team. This is after there were 70 in 2014-15, 27 in 2015-16 and 20 last season. Also, every team has between 13 to 16 back-to-backs, and the league as a whole has reduced back-to-backs by over 11 percent since last season.
4. Evening the playing field
The added rest days will also further level the playing field for all 30 NBA teams. How so? By trying to make sure as many games as possible come with both teams having the same amount of rest using what the league calls a "Free/Tired/Even" metric. If the two teams playing in a game have the same amount of rest, they are even. If one team played the night before and the other didn't, the team that didn't play is "free" and gains a point, and the team that did is "tired" and loses one.
As recent as the 2014-15 season, the disparity between the most and least rested teams over the course of a season was plus-nine and minus-nine, meaning one team could theoretically have 18 extra days of rest by season's end. This year, Milwaukee is the most rested team at plus-four, while Atlanta and Chicago are the least at minus-five.
5. Stars - not market size - are driving decision-making
In a league as star- and personality-driven as the NBA, it's not surprising to see the schedule heavily slanted toward promoting the league's biggest stars. But what is fascinating about this year's schedule is that market size seems to have less impact than ever.
Sure, big markets such as Golden State (Bay Area), Houston, Boston and Los Angeles are among the top 10 teams in nationally televised games, but that isn't the case for Cleveland, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Washington and Minnesota (Minneapolis). Meanwhile, markets such as Milwaukee, New Orleans, Denver and Portland all have more national television games than the New York Knicks, and Phoenix, Sacramento, Utah, Memphis and Detroit all have more than the Chicago Bulls.
6. New day in Washington
It's clear the NBA is making a big bet on the Washington Wizards this season. The Wizards have more than twice as many nationally televised games as the Knicks and more than three times as many nationally televised games as the Toronto Raptors. Only eight teams will have more national TV games this season.
7. Golden State in demand
Think people are getting tired of Durant, Stephen Curry and the rest of the Warriors? Think again. A whopping 43 games will be on national television this season - more than half of Golden State's schedule - meaning everyone will get plenty of chances to see the league's most popular team play whether they have NBA League Pass or not.
That will begin on opening night, when the Warriors will receive their rings and then face the team with the second-most national television games this season, the Houston Rockets, which isn't surprising after their summer's acquisition of Chris Paul.