No Rest for the Tanking

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Now that we’re had a day to absorb the news that the Sixers’ 3 M’s have been cut to 2, let’s jump back to Wednesday evening’s schedule release. Similar to the last 3 NBA seasons, each team is going with the traditional 82-game slate of games, so no surprises there. The Sixers will open the season on October 28 in Boston, concluding April 13 in Chicago. You can check out the full schedule on the team’s site.

Despite all the talk from Adam Silver and the league about eliminating the 4-game-in-5-night stretch from the schedule, the Sixers actually have as many such sequences (2) as they did last year. Philadelphia is one of only 5 teams with 2 such stretches. The Sixers are also among the higher range of teams as far as total number of back-to-backs, having 19 on the calendar, down just 2 from last year’s 21. The league as a whole did see a slight reduction across the board, as the number of back-to-backs for teams this year range from 14 to 20, down from 16 to 22 last season.

Add it all up and it would appear that the Sixers got a pretty raw deal as far as the scheduling goes (maybe Sam Hinkie put a call in for a little extra tanking juice). Nylon Calculus had an interesting piece where they calculated rest factors for each team based upon rest days for both themselves and their opponents. The Sixers were found to have the 4th-hardest schedule in the league in that regard. The configuration of the schedule alone was calculated to have added 0.2 losses to the team’s total (the other 59.8 losses or so will be entirely due to roster construction).

Other schedule features include:

• Just 2 games on national TV, Nov. 9 against Chicago and Nov. 29 against Memphis. Both are on NBATV however, with no Sixers games on the Turner or Disney company networks.
• The always-challenging 6-game Disney on Ice road trip looks somewhat manageable this year. While the Clippers will almost assuredly lay a beatdown, and Utah and Phoenix are both dangerous on certain nights, the other 3 games are winnable contests against Milwaukee, Sacramento, and the Lakers. A 2-4 stretch wouldn’t surprise me.
• Fans in the area will have a chance to see LeBron in person twice this season (unless David Blatt decides to rest him, always a possibility against the Sixers), as Cleveland comes to Philly twice, on Nov. 2 and Jan. 10. The annual time to see Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and the Thunder falls on March 18; hopefully both guys remain healthy at the time.
• Milwaukee and Miami are the only Eastern conference teams who come to Philadelphia just once this season. Apr. 10 will be your lone opportunity to get your Michael Carter-Williams fix, when the Bucks will probably be clawing for a 7th seed late in the year as the Sixers are on their 3rd-straight 10-day contract at point guard.

While all the hoopla around schedule releases in sports goes way too overboard in my opinion, they do mean one thing: we’re just a few short months away from getting back to meaningful games on the court. That’s always a good thing. Enjoy your weekend, everyone.