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2015-16 NBA Schedule Release: Reducing Travel Strain

By Michael Dunlap

Jun 4, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) walks to the team bus after practice before game one of the 2014 NBA Finals against the San Antonia Spurs at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 4, 2014; San Antonio, TX, USA; Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) walks to the team bus after practice before game one of the 2014 NBA Finals against the San Antonia Spurs at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports /
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The 2015-16 NBA schedule has been circulating behind closed doors and if Zach Lowe’s sources are correct, they’ve nearly eliminated the 4-games-in-5-nights problem that’s been plaguing the league. Part of the reason for that is the increased injury risk, due to general overuse and travel strain. Doing something to help ease the travel is the next step.

NBA schedule makers don’t have it easy, that’s for sure. It’s not like they can bump Paul McCartney from Madison Square Garden on a given day because the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics want to get together. In a bit of a dated interview done by ESPN, they talk more about the building availability. It’s worth a look.

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The whole idea that teams want to reduce travel strain is understandable. No matter how comfortable the team hotel, team bus and team airplanes are, you’re still spending a lot of time going through airports and you’re wasting a lot of time commuting. That’s a drain on anyone.

With that said, I have an idea that can help to ease travel strain — playing back-to-back in the same city.

One major caveat here is that it would only work for conference games, since generally NBA teams don’t play teams in the other conference more than twice. If there’s a flaw in my plan, it’s that — because the most brutal of road trips tend to be the long ones when a West Coast team travels out East, or vice versa. Alas.

Playing twice in two nights against the same team in the same city helps ease the burden of the 82-game NBA schedule. Teams would essentially be able to eliminate a flight on each longer road trip — perhaps even more when travelling to Los Angeles or New York, where they could do a four-game stay.

Does this ease the burden of playing too many minutes in too short of time? No, but it does give the players an easier time with recovery and downtime to rest their weary bodies. When a team has an overtime game on the road combined with a back-to-back, they can find themselves arriving in the next city mere minutes before the sun.

Even if shootaround is cancelled and the players don’t have to get to the arena until later in the day, our circadian rhythms aren’t used to sleeping during the day. It’s just really difficult on a body. Then again, four nights in Los Angeles or New York City could have similar issues — for different reasons.

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