Thoughts On The Schedule

As you probably noticed from my previous two posts, the Nets schedule was posted today.  I took some time to examine it and here some of the key points:

Zero Nationally Televised Games (Not counted 2 NBATV games) –  While this isn’t too surprising, but seeing that it was on Friday, I was hoping to get the VC return game on national TV

We have a rough 4 game road trip within a rough start – When you have a young team with a lame-duck  coach (let’s face it, that is what Lawrence Frank is) a good (or at least average) start is important.  You get off to a fast start, and your young guys begin playing with a confidence/swagger.  Get off to a slow start, and your young guys may drop their heads a bit and they can begin to lack confidence.  I don’t know if the Nets are going to be able to get off to a good, let alone average start.  Looking at the schedule through November (First 17 games the final 4 will be against the Nuggets, Blazers, Kings, and Lakers on the road), a quick little evaluation has us at 5-12 (at best – we could very well go 0-17), and that won’t impress anyone.  In fact, that kind of start might even get coach Lawrence Frank fired.

LeBron Coming To The New Jersey- LeBron is coming to NJ to see the fans on a team that he may play for on January 2nd.  Not the best day to have a full crowd show up and get loud (conspiracy anyone?).

What were the schedulers thinking? – My nominee for least attended game in the entire NBA?  Sunday December 6th, Nets at. Knicks at 12:00 PM.  The Jets don’t play that week, but the Giants have a home game against Dallas.  Safe to say nobody (besides myself) will be worrying about the Knicks or the Nets that day.

Home For The Holidays – The Nets have a 7 game homestand starting on December 19th and ending on January 5th, and they don’t play on any of the big holidays.  I don’t know if it is too big of a deal, but for a young team, it couldn’t hurt.

Pack Your Bags – The Nets don’t really have any long roadtrips, but they do have a few medium sized ones.  Their longest is a 5 game stretch, but they do have three 4 game road-trips.

When Do The Wins Come? – The easiest stretch for the Nets to pick up some wins comes in the middle of their 7 game homestand that I mentioned before.  They play Minnesota, Houston (without Yao), Oklahoma City, and New York.  Too bad these games are bookended by the Lakers and the Cavs, which stops any momentum we could get from this run.