NBA Schedule to be Released Today

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

The NBA announced yesterday that this year’s schedule will be released at 6pm today. My inside sources in the league office tell me every team is slated to play 41 games each at home and on the road.

NBA TV will announce the 2015-16 #NBAschedule during one-hour NBA Schedule Release Special – Wednesday at 6pm/et! pic.twitter.com/kZMabT3v7p

— NBA (@NBA) August 11, 2015

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While I’m sure key matchups will be leaked across various media outlets throughout the day, this evening will be our first chance to put the who and when across the full 82-game slate for the Sixers and everyone else in the league. I realize the Sixers aren’t back at the point where we need to worry about such things from a competitive standpoint, but here are the key things to look for when the schedule drops:

4 games in 5 nights: Adam Silver and the league office have stated a goal has been the near elmination of 4 games in 5 nights on teams’ schedules. The Sixers had two such situations last season, during which they actually fared decently well. They went 1-3 from Jan. 13-17, beating New Orleans, but losing to Atlanta, Toronto, and Detroit, but also finished 2-2 from Jan. 30-Feb. 3, beating Minnesota and Denver, and losing to Atlanta and Cleveland.

Speculation has been that the league will need to schedule less weekend games as a result. The NBA has talked to Turner (Thursday night games on TNT) and Disney (Sunday afternoon games on ABC) about having more scheduling flexibility on those days. However, those Friday and Saturday night games are where teams bring in a lot of their gate revenue, so it’s something to take a look at with the new schedule.

# of Back-to-Backs: Alongside 4 games in 5 nights, the league has always wanted to reduce just the number of back-to-backs in general. Last season, the number of back-to-backs for teams ranged from 16 to 22. The Sixers had 21 of them last year, going 10-32 in those contests, which actually means they fared okay relatively speaking, as the 0.238 winning percentage was slightly above their season mark of .220. I’m interested to see whether the numbers are down for teams across the board this year.

3 or 4 games vs in-conference opponents: It’s set in stone that the Sixers will play everyone in the division 4 times and everyone in the Western conference twice. Against the rest of the Eastern Conference, they’ll either suit up 3 or 4 times. Not a big deal in the big picture (especially with the Sixers not in a position to worry about strength of schedule), but it affects things like, ‘Will Lebron only be coming to Philly once again this season?’.

National TV Games: Certainly a huge issue for out-of-market fans that don’t have the pleasure of listening to the 3M’s on a nightly basis (and that don’t spring for League Pass), the Sixers were tied for the fewest nationally televised games last season with just 2. For comparison’s sake, the Clippers and Oklahoma City each played 32(!). Although the arrival of Jahlil Okafor can’t hurt their appeal across the country, I wouldn’t expect the Sixers to start getting more primetime slots any time soon.

Holiday Travel: This area of the schedule is more certain for the Sixers than most teams because the annual Disney on Ice road trip comes around the New Year. Typically one of the most grueling parts of the schedule, I always look almost immediately at who they’ll be facing over that stretch. Finally, as sweet as the Sixers Christmas jersey designs look, don’t expect to see them become a reality.