Unfair Traveling Back-to-Backs

[shrink]

Tonight's game versus the Hawks will be another back-to-back, where the Wolves need to finish their game, board a plane, and arrive at a new city late at night and be prepared for another basketball game. It made me wonder just how many times the wolves had been scheduled for these traveling back-to-backs.

Nov 1 vs Dallas L 85-95 McCants 18/Jefferson 12/Foye 6
Nov 2 at Oklahoma City L 85-88 Jefferson 24/Jefferson 13/Foye 6

Nov 7 at Sacramento L 109-121 Love 20/Jefferson 9/Telfair 7
Nov 8 at Portland L 93-97 Jefferson 27/Love 7/Jefferson 5

Nov 28 at Oklahoma City W 105-103 Smith 23/Jefferson 9/Foye 7
Nov 29 vs Denver L 97-106 Foye 25/Jefferson 13/Foye 6

Dec 5 at New Jersey L 84-113 Foye 20/Jefferson 12/Foye 5
Dec 6 vs LA Clippers L 84-107 Jefferson 28/Love 15/Foye 5

Dec 9 vs Utah L 96-99 Jefferson 21/Love 15/Foye 4
Dec 10 at Denver L 105-116 Jefferson 26/Love 14/Foye 6

Dec 14 at LA Lakers L 86-98 Jefferson 20/Jefferson 13/Foye 6
Dec 15 at Sacramento L 103-118 Jefferson 22/Love 15/Ollie 5

Dec 26 at New York W 120-107 McCants 23/Jefferson 15/Telfair 8
Dec 27 vs Orlando L 94-118 McCants 21/Love 10/McCants 4

Dec 29 vs Memphis W 108-98 Jefferson 38/Jefferson 16/Smith 5
Dec 30 at Dallas L 100-107 Jefferson 21/Jefferson 9/Ollie 6

Jan 2 vs Golden State W 115-108 Jefferson 32/Jefferson 10/Foye 7
Jan 3 at Chicago W 102-92 Foye 21/Jefferson 14/Telfair 6

Jan 6 at Memphis W 94-87 Foye 23/Jefferson 12/Telfair 9
Jan 7 vs Oklahoma City W 129-87 Foye 32/Love 15/Foye 6

Jan 19 at LA Clippers W 94-86 Jefferson 20/Jefferson 17/Telfair 9
Jan 20 at Utah L 107-112 Jefferson 25/Love 9/Telfair 9

Jan 25 vs Chicago W 109-108 Jefferson 39/Love 15/Miller 7
Jan 26 at Milwaukee W 90-83 Jefferson 23/Jefferson 10/Foye 7

Feb 3 at Indiana W 116-111 Foye 19/Jefferson 15/Foye 5
Feb 4 vs Atlanta 8:00 pm

Feb 17 at Washington 7:00 pm FSNO, CSMA Buy Tickets
Feb 18 at Miami 7:30 pm FSNO, SUN Buy Tickets

Feb 24 at Toronto 7:00 pm FSNO, TSNT Buy Tickets
Feb 25 vs Utah 8:00 pm FSUT, KSTC Buy Tickets

Mar 6 at LA Lakers 10:30 pm FSNO, FSW Buy Tickets
Mar 7 at Portland 10:00 pm FSNO, CSNW Buy Tickets

Mar 13 vs New York 8:00 pm MSG Buy Tickets
Mar 14 vs Charlotte 8:00 pm Buy Tickets

Mar 17 at San Antonio 8:30 pm KSTC, FSSW Buy Tickets
Mar 18 at New Orleans 8:00 pm FSNO, CST Buy Tickets

Mar 22 vs Oklahoma City 3:30 pm SPSO, KSTC Buy Tickets
Mar 23 at Atlanta 7:00 pm FSNO, FSS Buy Tickets

Apr 7 at LA Clippers 10:30 pm KSTC, FSPT Buy Tickets
Apr 8 at Golden State 10:30 pm KSTC, CSBA Buy Tickets

40 of our 82 games are back-to-backs in the 2008-09 season. I don't have a problem with needing to have back-to-back games get 82 in, but I bet most teams don't have nearly half their schedule done like this. Of those 20 pairs, guess how many are back-to-back home games? ONE. Even if these 20 were assigned randomly, you'd expect five games or so to be home back-to-backs. Finally, this is particularly unfair to the Wolves. Since they are located the farthest from the geographical center of their conference, their travel time in back-to-backs is an unfair disadvantage.

C'mon Glen - you've been elected head of the GM's .. time to take this information and lobby for a fairer situation for the Wolves.

[Devilzsidewalk]

but then again don't they travel on snooty private jets with big leather massage chairs? Sounds like a vacation to me. Back in my day we had to walk to road games - uphill and through 3 feet of snow.

[Mattya]

I only saw a couple on there that seem like pretty long flights for back to back games, but im not sure if either has home games in them either.

[deeney0]

I had a pet theory a while ago that the Wolves were disadvantaged because they didn't have long road trips and long home stands, but instead had to travel all the time. The teams that have been successful tend to come from the coasts - LA, Boston... the exceptions over the last two decades have been Chicago and San Antonio, who both have giant road trips anyway because of the Circus and Rodeo respectively, so get schedules like a coast team.

[sabonis11]

It'd be interesting to see what the numbers were for some of the media friendly teams ala boston, LA, cleveland, miami, etc.

[revprodeji]

The big issue is, and always will be, that the wolves travel more miles by far* then any other team because of the division we are in. We should be in the same division as the Cle, Chi, Mil** not with teams on the pacific coast.


*(Not sure if OKC has more)

**(just like football--so we can get natural rivals also.)

[Chance1117]

The problem is the Northwest Division has more west then north. I don't remember who was in our division back when we were in the east but our travel would be way less if we were in the central division. I know they want the divisions to have even numbers but we got screwed there.

[TMo519]

You also have to note that back to backs are more common for teams that never play on Thursday (TNT night). So in order to get 4 games in, they basically always will play 4 games in 6 nights (often 5 nights cause Sunday games aren't common either, at least during NFL season), which lends itself to more back to back situations. Teams like the Lakers, Cavs, Spurs, or Celtics play all 7 days of the week often, opening up their schedule.

That's just a theory I have, I might be off with it for all I know.

[mnWI]

Meh. It's a part of pro sports, and not that big of a deal at all with the way they're traveling. As somebody who has traveled on the road with a D-League team, I've dealt with much worse travel than an NBA team has to go through. Try getting up at 5am in Reno the morning after a game, sitting through a snow delay at the airport, missing your connection in Vegas, flying into Burbank, CA, and taking a 2 hour bus trip to Bakersfield only to play in a couple hours. Or taking a bus back from Fort Wayne to Iowa the night after a game, getting stuck in a blizzard where the freeways are closed, sleeping on the bus for several hours, finally getting into a hotel for a few hours of real sleep, and hauling ass the next day to get in at 3:45...when your game starts at 4pm and the league won't postpone it.

[Krapinsky]

Meh. It's a part of pro sports, and not that big of a deal at all with the way their traveling. As somebody who has traveled on the road with a D-League team, I've dealt with much worse travel than an NBA team has to go through. Try getting up at 5am in Reno the morning after a game, sitting through a snow delay at the airport, missing your connection in Vegas, flying into Burbank, CA, and taking a 2 hour bus trip to Bakersfield only to play in a couple hours. Or taking a bus back from Fort Wayne to Iowa the night after a game, getting stuck in a blizzard where the freeways are closed, sleeping on the bus for several hours, finally getting into a hotel for a few hours of real sleep, and hauling ass the next day to get in at 3:45...when your game starts at 4pm and the league won't postpone it.

Anyone that has to go to Bakersfield has my sympathy. That entire town smells like poo.

[shrink]

I have to think its a disadvantage for professional athletes when they get their bodies in bed at 3 AM on some night and are expected to perform the next day against some of the strongest, fastest athletes on the planet that are fully rested.

[casey]

I don't see the point of this thread until we see what other team's schedules are actually like.

[Devilzsidewalk]

and I don't see the point of V-8 juice. Who the hell is drinking tomatoes and why aren't they being studied to discover their mental disorder?

[theGreatRC]

I don't see the point of this thread until we see what other team's schedules are actually like.

I might get back to you on this..After I finish something I might look into a couple of teams back-to-back schedules

[Zeitgeister]

I don't see the point of this thread until we see what other team's schedules are actually like.

This. I do know that the Twolves are definitely not in a favorable division though which forces them to do a lot of traveling.

[theGreatRC]

As requested by Casey...I didn't do all the teams, but I did do the top three teams:
(I'm only doing the back-to-backs from the beginning of the season to today..too much work)

Lakers:

Nov 11 - @ DAL
Nov 12 - @ NOH
-
Nov 20 - @ PHX
Nov 21 - vs. Den
-
Dec 2 - @ IND
Dec 2 - @ PHI
-
Dec 9 - @ SAC
Dec 10 - vs. PHX
-
Dec 19 - @ MIA
Dec 20 - @ ORL
-
Dec 22 - @ MEM
Dec 23 - @ NOH
-
Jan 6 - @ NOH
Jan 7 - @ GSW
-
Jan 12 - @ HOU
Jan 13 - @ SAS
-
Jan 21- @ LAC
Jan 22 - @ WAS
-
Jan 30 - @ MIN
Jan 31 - @ MEM

Celtics

Nov 4 - @ HOU
Nov 5 - @ OKC
-
Jan 9 - @ DET
Jan 10 - vs. TOR
-
Jan 14 - vs. DEN
Jan 15 - @ MIL
-
Jan 21 - vs. DET
Jan 22 - @ MIN
-
Jan 28 - vs PHI
Jan 29 - @ CHA
-
Dec 11 - @ WAS
Dec 12 - vs NOH
-
Dec 25 - @ LAL
Dec 26 - @ GSW
-
Jan 6 - @ CHA
Jan 7 - vs HOU
-
Jan 11 - @ TOR
Jan 12 - vs TOR
-
Jan 21 - @ MIA
Jan 22 - @ ORL

Cavaliers

Nov 7 - @ IND
Nov 8 - vs CHI
-
Nov 18 - @ NJN
Nov 19 - @ DET
-
Nov 25 - @ NYK
Nov 26 - vs OKC
-
Dec 5 - vs IND
Dec 6 - @ CHA
-
Dec 9 - vs TOR
Dec 10 - @ PHI
-
Dec 12 - vs PHI
Dec 13 - @ ATL
-
Jan 15 - @ CHI
Jan 16 - vs NOH
-
Jan 23 - @ GSW
Jan 24 - @ UTA
-
Jan 29 - @ ORL
Jan 30 - vs LAC
-
Feb 3 - vs TOR
Feb 4 - @ NYK

My analysis is that I don't really notice anything from a top team's schedule(LA,BOS,CLE) from a bottom team's schedule(MIN). They have road and home games back to back just like us and therefore every team's schedule is fair or unfair depending how you look at it. As far as us traveling the most, I have no idea as I am not a geography major.

[mnWI]

Meh. It's a part of pro sports, and not that big of a deal at all with the way their traveling. As somebody who has traveled on the road with a D-League team, I've dealt with much worse travel than an NBA team has to go through. Try getting up at 5am in Reno the morning after a game, sitting through a snow delay at the airport, missing your connection in Vegas, flying into Burbank, CA, and taking a 2 hour bus trip to Bakersfield only to play in a couple hours. Or taking a bus back from Fort Wayne to Iowa the night after a game, getting stuck in a blizzard where the freeways are closed, sleeping on the bus for several hours, finally getting into a hotel for a few hours of real sleep, and hauling ass the next day to get in at 3:45...when your game starts at 4pm and the league won't postpone it.

Anyone that has to go to Bakersfield has my sympathy. That entire town smells like poo.

There's some not so great cities in the D-League, but a few awesome ones. I was disappointed with Orem, UT though until I got to try this (I had to keep the bottle of course):

[TrentTuckerForever]

^That, my friend, is terrific.

I think the travel thing is six of one, half-dozen of the other. Long road trips are supposed to be nice for team chemistry, but whatever.