NBA Power Rankings: 2014-15 Western Conference Projections

Strength of Schedules

In the NBA, you rarely hear the discussion of how strong or weak a team’s schedule is set to be.  That’s mainly because you always know the 29 teams you’re competing against, instead of the NCAA product, which throws you different curveballs each year.

One wise thing to do, however, is to evaluate each month for each team, in terms of projected strength.

The method for doing so involved using ESPN’s East & West Forecasts, where a panel of over 200 writers voted on projected win totals for each team, 1-30.

For each month of the NBA schedule, we determined how grueling (or weak) each team’s schedule appears next season.  You use the estimated win totals to determine an average opponent winning percentage, which is what you’ll see in the parentheses.

If a team faces a load of bottom-feeders for a given month, their opponent winning percentage will be lower.  If they are matched up against the league’s stronger forces, the percentage will be much higher.

Back-to-backs are also a difficult hurdle in the NBA, as it occurs when a team plays on two consecutive nights, with zero days of rest.  You’ll also have the luxury of seeing how many of those two-day stretches each team is scheduled for.

Now, enjoy ….