Negative #2 – Most miles traveled
Although the Utah Jazz won’t have the same road-heavy schedule we’ve seen in recent seasons where they’re forced to play several grueling road trips seemingly consecutively (looking at you November and December of the past two years), that doesn’t mean they won’t put in their fair share of time on the road.
In fact, a discouraging aspect of next season’s schedule is that the Utah Jazz will actually travel the most miles of any team in the NBA – well over 50,000.
As I felt I had to harp on countless times last season when Jazz fans were panicking about the team’s slow start, it’s important to remember that these players are real people impacted by things the same way you and I would be. Ever experienced jet lag? Ever had a rough or rocky flight, gotten home, and just wanted to collapse in bed without moving? I know I sure have.
Now imagine instead that after those incidents, you instead had to suit up and play a two-and-a-half hour basketball game against the toughest competition in the world. Is it any wonder that sometimes superior teams falter on lengthy road trips in opposing teams’ buildings? Just like any other season, expect the Jazz to drop some head-scratchers due to fatigue and weary legs, especially considering that they’ll be atop the league in miles traveled.
However, this aspect of the schedule should come as little surprise considering that the Jazz, like many teams in the West, are simply more spread out than others of their counterparts, especially in the Northwest Division that includes trips to Portland, Minnesota and OKC. While many East teams find themselves near the bottom of the list in miles traveled, particularly the closely-located Central Division teams, the West squads typically find themselves near the top.
Not only that, but this heavy mileage is in many ways a direct result of Utah’s shortage of back-to-backs and lengthy road trips. When you stack those together hitting several cities close to one another on the way, it’s going to cut down your overall mileage. Traveling 50,000+ miles in the course of an NBA regular season isn’t ideal, but if it was between that and playing more back-to-backs and/or five-game road trips, I’d most definitely take the former.
In short, this isn’t ideal and we may see the Jazz drop some games as a result of the mileage they’ll be logging. But it’s still far better than some of the alternatives.