What team will benefit the most from the shortened season?

I would say either the Spurs, Lakers, Celtics as teh older teams just get less games and fresher legs, but then the games are supposedly more back to back and put together so it might be a harder schedule in that case

 

Morey has shown that he can evaluate talent extraordinarily well. He's shown that he makes shrewd business decisions. However, he has yet to show that he can hook the stars into playing in Houston. I'm reserving judgement on him till may 2-3 years down the road; if he does not form a championship foundation by the , I think he has would need to go.

 

But I could see older teams like Dallas, Boston, & San Antonio resting their main players for one or even two the games. Essentially, give up a few games in the regular season and maybe a playoff seed or two.

Then come season's end their players have played fewer games than in previous games and not supremely overworked, so they can perform in the playoffs.

 

Whoever shows up to camp in good shape.

Vets that normally play themselves into shape (Shaq notorious for that) or let themselves go are in trouble.

Who knows at this point. Got to wait two weeks for camp reports.

 

Good point. People seem to forget that they will probably be playing back to back to back which may be brutal for older players. Shaq mentioned it too. I can see it benefiting teams like OKC Miami or Bulls.

 

There were some back-to-back-to-back sets in the '98-99 season. I think they stretched out the season to early May though. If they do the same thing, I expect fewer back-to-back-to-back sets than in '98-99. Then, the number of games per week would be 3.4-3.6 with all-star week, closer to a normal schedule pace than the '98-99 pace. The rookies are going to hit the rookie wall hard this season, though. I expect the rookies will be worn out by February.

 

The 66 game schedule has a 3.92 games per week average.

DD

 

Some will disagree, but here's where the coaching change will hurt the Rocks. Assuming there weren't any major changes (and I hope there are in free agency, to be clear, DD!), I think Adelman and his staff would have had the team going full bore very quickly, since they had finally "got it." With a new coach still figuring out the system and what he wants to add and subtract from it, even with Finch (remember, he's new to the team as well, despite doing so well in the D-League), they are likely to get off to a slow start. And McHale will be looking to improve our defense, and that's not something that will be done quickly, in my opinion.

Don't expect a miracle, folks.

 

I am going to go against the grain a bit here (some people have already raised theses points) and say the older teams are at a disadvantage.

Yes, the OVERALL season is shorter, but about the time you get to the playoffs, the fatigue factor is going to have a stronger bearing on how many games over what period of time you have played LATELY (April-May), more than how many games you didnt have to play in November and December.

If we are talking about the regular season (66 games) win/loss column, yes, the older teams may do proportionally better, at least in the early going.

For the Rockets, I see the shorter schedule being a plus, but a new coach and system being a minus. If McHale's system is a good one, and the guys adapt to it fairly quickly, by playoff time, they may erase their minus. If McHale flops and the team hasnt gotten cohesively into a rhythm, this turns into a big minus and probably no playoff appearance.

 

NYT twitter on schedule.

 

Rockets will suffer, because of less time to learn to play under McHale and with Morris.

Celtics will benefit unless they bring in a dynamic FA who completely changes their play style.

Same with Lakers, Mavs.

OKC won't gain anything, but will suffer because their young stamina will be less of an advantage.

 

HowardBeckNYT Howard Beck
On the compressed season: It will run Dec. 25-April 26. Teams will avg 3.9 games/week, up from usual 3.5/week. About 2 extra games per month

HowardBeckNYT Howard Beck
Every team will play at least one back-to-back-to-back set (i.e. 3 straight nights), and up to 3 back-to-back-to-back sets during season.

HowardBeckNYT Howard Beck
Teams will play 48 games in-conference (4 fewer than usual) and 18 games out-of-conference. Thus, not all teams will visit all cities.

HowardBeckNYT Howard Beck
Also, every second-round playoff series will have at least one back-to-back set, to shorten the playoff time frame.

 

I would have done 58 games all together (enough to play every team at home and away) and 2 additional games with every conference team (4 other teams-eight extra games in total)

58+8=66.

 

Now that a deal has been struck, they will cram every game in that they can to recoup lost revenue.

The 3rd game of those B-B-B games isnt going to be great basketball. Even worse if its B-B-x-B-B-B.

 

Among teams expected to contend, those with continuity from last season and depth should be better off. Dallas, Chicago and OKC come to mind. The Spurs are just too old to be considered a contender. Don't let a hot start by them fool you.

Because the Lakers completely changed philosophy with their coaching change, I expect the truncated camp & pre-season along with fewer days off during the season to hurt them.

 

Right, especially since all the stars and their glamorous events happen in Houston-wood....

 

I love a compressed schedule, more games on more often....

DD

 

A team full of gym rats like Lowry, Martin and Scola would have scorched the less fit teams for the first 10-12 games of the season if they didn't have to deal with the new coach and the unavoidable change in team culture that will come with the change.

Oh well.

 

Yes, but their best player is the biggest gym rat in the league. The Lakers started 8-0 (and 13-2) last year, and 23-4 the year before.

All said: What do we really know? The last time this happened the Knicks road an 8th seed, Latrell Sprewell, JVG and aging veterans to the Finals.

Maybe that means defense has an advantage in a compressed season...Duncan/Robinson won it?

But, defense always wins, right?...except last year.

haha...does that make sense?