2019-20 NBA Schedule - New Orleans Pelicans

[Pelicanidae]

NBA 2019-20: Team's rest advantage, the number of games which each team plays a game with Less/Equal/More rest than their opponents. Teams displayed in order of average rest advantage: CHI has the biggest average rest advantage, ORL the least. pic.twitter.com/RlryYXbpkV

— Ed Küpfer (@EdKupfer) August 12, 2019

The amount of games where we have the rest advantage this year is pretty cool.

Realistically, thinking about our team's strategy of running and pushing the pace to insane levels, you really want two things: depth, and rest.

We have a deep team for the first time in a long time, and we have a pretty decent schedule this year, with relatively little travel compared to other Western teams, relatively few back to backs as the season wears on (I think we have 12 b2bs this season? can't be bothered to count, but not that many, and most of them are pre-January), and we get the rest advantage fairly frequently.

That's all great.

[Pelicanidae]

NBA 2019-20 Strength of schedule by month for each team, using vegas over/under for opponent strength. Teams shown in order of hardest to easiest. pic.twitter.com/l6DCwon9e9

— Ed Küpfer (@EdKupfer) August 12, 2019

Here's a strength of schedule analysis. According to Vegas odds (obviously take those with a grain of salt), we have the 5th most difficult schedule this season.

It starts off extremely difficult (15 or 16 of the first 20 games are against teams which made the playoffs last season, I think), and gets easier and easier every month until the final 15 games, which are very easy indeed. So basically, expect us to start off bumpy, and to 'improve' as the season goes on. Even if we don't actually improve that much, the easing of the season will give that impression.

[Taker597]

NBA 2019-20 Strength of schedule by month for each team, using vegas over/under for opponent strength. Teams shown in order of hardest to easiest. pic.twitter.com/l6DCwon9e9

— Ed Küpfer (@EdKupfer) August 12, 2019

Here's a strength of schedule analysis. According to Vegas odds (obviously take those with a grain of salt), we have the 5th most difficult schedule this season.

It starts off extremely difficult (15 or 16 of the first 20 games are against teams which made the playoffs last season, I think), and gets easier and easier every month until the final 15 games, which are very easy indeed. So basically, expect us to start off bumpy, and to 'improve' as the season goes on. Even if we don't actually improve that much, the easing of the season will give that impression.

Ehhh... Next draft class is looking pretty hot. So, I wouldn't mind another lotto pick.

[Pelicanidae]

Ehhh... Next draft class is looking pretty hot. So, I wouldn't mind another lotto pick.

Next draft class is a weird one. I have a lot of strong thoughts on it already. Doubtless, 50% of these thoughts will be proven incorrect by January that's how college works.

In any case, this season is one where the playoffs are a bonus but not a requirement. All I want to see is growth in the younger players, and consistent play from the older guys. If we make the playoffs, then that will be cool, and I'll definitely enjoy the ride, but if we don't, I won't be too upset as long as we've seen that growth. As a result, a lottery pick wouldn't upset me too much.

[As I See It]

According to the Strength of Schedule Chart, Philadelphia might become the 3rd 70 game winner in NBA History.

[Pels4Life]

I'm So so sad that we have 30 national television games. That's nearly half the season we won't get to hear Joel Myers...

what is worse then that is if you got a 12 game weekend pack you didn't get the clippers, lakers or golden state games even though they were weekend games. Someone needs to let griff know about that...unacceptable.

[Pelicanidae]

Games everyone is most excited for?

For me, it's:

- Opening night, @ Toronto Raptors - first time seeing Zion play for us in a real game, start of the new season hype.
- November 27th, vs Los Angeles Lakers - Anthony Davis returns, 'Zo, Hart, and Ingram get a revenge game.
- Christmas Day, @ Denver Nuggets - Christmas games are always hype, and I love watching Jokic play anyway so that's cool.
- January 10th, @ New York Knicks - Zion vs RJ game, also first time against Randle and Payton after they played for us.
- February 21st, @ Portland Trailblazers - My birthday. Hopefully we can do a re-run of when we annihilated Portland as a gift to me.
- March 16th, vs Atlanta Hawks - Will be a clash of two of the more interesting young cores in the NBA. Zo vs Trae should be cool, Zion vs Reddish will be an interesting narrative.


Anyone else looking forward to any particular games more than others?

[luckyman]

what is worse then that is if you got a 12 game weekend pack you didn't get the clippers, lakers or golden state games even though they were weekend games. Someone needs to let griff know about that...unacceptable.

There's another package for that. Might be called "contenders" or something. Those games will obviosuly be more expensive.

[Taker597]

There's another package for that. Might be called "contenders" or something. Those games will obviosuly be more expensive.

I'm still waiting for single games ticket. They need an outlet for people that live out of state.

[luckyman]

Christmas day game would be the last one. Tip off at 9:30 central. Ugh

And last of a 4 game road trip.

[Pelicanidae]

According to the Strength of Schedule Chart, Philadelphia might become the 3rd 70 game winner in NBA History.

I see your point, and raise you Joel Embiid's cardboard knees.

[Pels4Life]

There's another package for that. Might be called "contenders" or something. Those games will obviosuly be more expensive.

yea that is not the weekend 12 game pack. Contender and Superstar packages are all throughout the week. For use commuters we can only attend weekend games...we got bonked. There were 3 tier one games during the weekend and not one was offered to us. Gailll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

[Taker597]

Christmas day game would be the last one. Tip off at 9:30 central. Ugh

And last of a 4 game road trip.

Back to back years with no Christmas holiday home game. Well, that hurts my feelings

[Taker597]

And tickets are being resold on stubhub.
.

Love these ticket scalper bots.

[Pelicanidae]

Back to back years with no Christmas holiday home game. Well, that hurts my feelings

I was listening to Howard Beck's latest pod, he has the two guys who are in charge of the NBA schedule on there, and he was talking to them about the troubles the schedule presents, the kind of things they plan out specifically vs the stuff they just make work, the ways they avoid b2bs, how to balance back to backs versus travel, and also, how they choose who plays on the big days.

One of the ways they choose is obviously narrative: Lakers/Clippers was happening on Christmas because of the obvious narrative. But they also pointed out that part of it is that they don't want to put the same teams on every single year (which is why they've taken the Knicks off this year, they said). Utah, for example, doesn't have a Christmas game this year because they had a home Christmas game last year.

Which makes it interesting that they can have 10 teams play every year at Christmas, and somehow not feature certain teams for years at a time. I get it if they don't wanna give Charlotte Christmas games: they suck, they've sucked for a long time. Same for Phoenix. But last year, we were coming off a storming end to the season, we had a lot of reasons to be positive, we hadn't played an X-mas game in a while, and they just... chose not to have us, I guess. Kinda sucks.

Not gonna have that problem anymore though

[13 - 3]

Back to back years with no Christmas holiday home game. Well, that hurts my feelings

You talking about holiday week? There is a back to back on December 28, 29th. Which is real good because Sugar Bowl will be in town. Christmas Day is for eating Oyster dressing and Presents!

[13 - 3]

I'm So so sad that we have 30 national television games. That's nearly half the season we won't get to hear Joel Myers...

Depends. Some games you may still be able to switch to Joel if the Network does not have exclusive rights. I think TNT only has that. Oh TNT canned Players Only Broadcast. No more listening to Isiah Thomas.

[13 - 3]

Yas...

Nov 8. Vs. Raptors
Nov 9 vs. Bama
Nov 10 vs. Falcons

Potential to be a mega-Trinity weekend of epic disappointment

We will beat the Falcons!

[Taker597]

We will beat the Falcons!

I feel like that is the only game I feel good about. I know LSU is losing. Raptors gonna be tough.

[pelicanchamp]

Our team is going to be an absolute monster. Think about it....

We have so much depth, we have athleticism, we have defense and outside shooting..... we have vets. We got guys that want to be here and want to win.

How many stars or superstars are on this team? I still think Lonzo is a future legit superstar. Elite top pg. Zion is a superstar. NAW and Hayes? They could be future all stars. Ingram? If he continues playing like he did before injury then we really got a huge return.


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[Taker597]

Yo, sign up for Pelican's insider if you want to get pre-sale tickets link tomorrow.

[Pelicanidae]

Ingram? If he continues playing like he did before injury then we really got a huge return.

Seriously interested in what you think the odds of that happening are? I've seen people mention this a lot since the trade went down, and it's a pretty huge what if.

10% chance? 30% chance? Or is it just some super small 1% chance that we're just crossing our fingers and hoping for?

There's a long history of players putting up big numbers on FG% on terrible teams, and then going to good teams and being turned into the 3rd or 4th option, and just dropping off the map in terms of impact. The most recent Thinking Basketball pod talked about this a little, with reference to Devin Booker's ceiling on a good offense.

Obviously I hope you and everyone else who's investing in Ingram gets their guy at his best, but I feel like there's too much stock being put in the idea that those 10-20 games of good play last year are the real Ingram, ignoring the much larger sample size of him being far less good than that.

[Taker597]

59 minutes till presale.

If you get a presale link.

Make sure your internet is 100% stable. It's a one use link

[PELICANSFAN]

59 minutes till presale.

If you get a presale link.

Make sure your internet is 100% stable. It's a one use link

Hopefully they worked out the kinks. Season ticket holder presale this morning was a disaster and many were unable to purchase without their ticket rep's help. Not a lot available.

[Taker597]

Hopefully they worked out the kinks. Season ticket holder presale this morning was a disaster and many were unable to purchase without their ticket rep's help. Not a lot available.

8 minutes till and haven't received my email link. Maybe the severs got #Zioned