Brooklyn Nets: Breaking down the 2019-20 schedule

The NBA released the 2019-20 regular season schedule earlier this month. What are the main takeaways for Brooklyn Nets supporters?

It’s time for Brooklyn Nets fans to open up their calendars and scour for reasonably priced tickets. The NBA released the regular season schedules for all 30 teams back on Aug. 12. The league’s 74th regular season begins Oct. 22 and ends April 15.

(Credit to Jared (Yaya) Dubin for schedule data)

‘Big’/Nationally televised games

There are two main questions that typically jump to mind for fans when schedules get released: (1) When are the “big” games? and (2) How many games are on national television?

For the Brooklyn Nets, two notable games include an Oct. 25 home matchup against the New York Knicks and a Nov. 27 road game against the Boston Celtics (Kyrie Irving‘s return).

Out-of-market Nets fans should be able to watch plenty of games (assuming they haven’t cut the cord). The team will appear on national television 20 times (12th-most in NBA: six on ESPN, six on TNT and eight on NBA TV).

The Los Angeles Lakers have the most appearances with 43, with the Charlotte Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers tied for last with three.

Strength of schedule

How difficult is Brooklyn’s schedule? NBA freelance writer Jared Dubin (goes by Yaya Dubin on Twitter) did some great analysis breaking down each team’s strength of schedule based on current Vegas over/under win projections.

Before getting too far into the findings, it’s worth noting that there isn’t too much disparity between teams’ strength of schedule in the NBA. Over 82 games, all the teams play each other and things tend to even out.

In the NFL, where there are only 16 games and teams play each division opponent twice, strength of schedule can make a much bigger difference.

A few other things of note: NBA teams play more intra-conference games than inter-conference games. Since the Western Conference is expected to be better, Western Conference teams are projected to have tougher schedules.

In fact, the West accounts for nine of the 10 toughest schedules and each of the top five. The Cleveland Cavaliers, who already have the cards stacked against them, were the one Eastern team in the top 10. All 10 of the easiest schedules belonged to Eastern Conference teams.

Additionally, schedules are inherently tougher for bad teams and easier for good teams since teams can’t play against themselves. For example, the worst team in the league never gets the schedule advantage of playing the worst team (itself).

One final note before the Nets related-findings. Dubin’s strength of schedule rankings don’t account for whether the games are home or away; they just look at the quality of opponents in a vacuum.

Whether or not an opponent is played at home or on the road definitely impacts the difficulty of a team’s schedule and this could increase strength of schedule disparities a bit. If a team plays all of its toughest opponents at home, that definitely makes a difference.

Nets findings

Finally on to the Nets. The findings concluded Brooklyn is tied for the 25th-toughest schedule, with an average opponent winning percentage projection of .495 (equivalent of 40.59-win team).

For reference, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns are tied with the toughest schedules (.519 winning percentage, 42.56-win equivalent). The Milwaukee Bucks have the easiest (.490 winning percentage, 40.18-win equivalent).

The difference between the Bucks and the Thunder/Suns is still rather small, so as noted before, the schedule in itself shouldn’t overly favor or hinder any team. Still, every single game could prove important when it comes to playoff seeding.

As noted before, teams in the western conference are projected to have tougher schedules. Although Brooklyn ranked 25th overall, they ranked 10th among the 15 Eastern Conference teams. Although this is still slightly favorable, it’s unlikely to swing things in the East.

Monthly strength of schedule

Dubin not only looked at the schedule on the whole, but broke down strength of schedule by month. The easiest month of the year is projected to go to the Chicago Bulls in February, while the Thunder have the toughest month to start the season in October/November.

The Detroit Pistons have the easiest pre-All Star break schedule, while the New Orleans Pelicans have the toughest. Post-All Star break, the Miami Heat have the easiest schedule, while the Pistons have the most difficult.

Brooklyn is expected to start out with a fairly moderate stretch in October/November, facing the 26th-toughest schedule. Things get challenging in January however, when the team faces the third-hardest stretch.

From a broader perspective, the pre-All Star break schedule is more favorable than post-break (26th vs 19th).

What’s the takeaway from the month-by-month analysis? Hopefully the Nets can get off to a fairly good start while the schedule is favorable. If they do, expectations should be managed until the team faces the January stretch.

Overall, the Nets will have hot and cold stretches of the season. When evaluating the team, it’s important to not only take wins and losses into account, but also consider the quality of competition.