The day the NBA releases its schedule is like a holiday for many basketball fans. It’s a continuation of the drama built up from the draft, free agency and Summer League, just ahead of the final stretch of downtime before training camp starts in September.
With the release of the schedule on Friday, the Pistons found out how things will go for No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham, as he tries to mesh with a core group of rookies who got their first NBA experience during a pandemic-shortened season of only 72 games.
The schedule stretches back to 82 games next season, but the schedule makers didn’t do the Pistons many favors. Though they have only 12 back-to-backs — tied for fewest in the league — they have a tough beginning to the season, making it difficult to get off to a good start.
With one of the worst records in the league last season, there shouldn’t be an expectation of having very many nationally televised games. Because they Pistons got the No. 1 pick, there could have been more than the one they were assigned on ESPN and four on NBATV.
Here are five takeaways from the Pistons’ schedule:
►The brutal start: Of the Pistons’ first 22 games, 16 are against teams that went to the playoffs last season. Two of those games, a home-and-home against the much-improved Bulls, won’t be easy either. The first road trip, at Chicago, Atlanta and Philadelphia, will be a test for how the young players can adapt to a difficult opening to the schedule.
Even after a seemingly easier home game against the Orlando Magic, the next stretch is at home against the defending-champion Bucks and then the Sixers and Brooklyn Nets on a back-to-back. At first blush, it will be optimistic to see the Pistons finishing at .500 in that 22-game opening stretch.
If there’s a chance that the Pistons are going to make the playoffs with such a young squad, the best opportunity would be for them to have a hot start to the schedule and ride that momentum. Given the schedule, that’s going to be tough to do.
►Hitting the road: The end of that opening stretch is the Pistons’ first western trip, which includes a matchup at Milwaukee on Nov. 24 — the second of a back-to-back after facing Miami at home — followed by the Clippers, Lakers, Trail Blazers and Suns in a condensed stretch of six games in 10 days.
The Pistons don’t have the lopsided history of losing in Los Angeles that they broke a few years ago, but in some of their western trips, they mix in Sacramento or Denver or Utah. This particular combination of teams, especially in a short time span, will be difficult, to say the least.
The second half of the western trip comes in January, when they face the Warriors, Kings, Jazz and Nuggets in a six-day span. That’s not much easier than the first stretch, and the short time span makes it that much more difficult, especially at altitude in Denver and Salt Lake City.
►No. 1 vs. No. 2: Normally the games against the Houston Rockets wouldn’t register as more than another game on the schedule. With Jalen Green’s recent comments about wanting to be the No. 1 pick but not wanting to play in Detroit, he’s upped the ante.
Generally, games between the top two picks in the draft will draw some attention, and this one did, as the Pistons’ only ESPN game on the schedule on Nov. 10. The Pistons curiously will have five days off before this matchup, so they’ll at least be rested for the start of that three-game road trip, which finishes with a back-to-back against the Cavaliers and Raptors. The highly anticipated matchup in Detroit will be Dec. 18 with an unusual noon tipoff.
►Marquee games: The Pistons will have many of their games against the top teams in the league early in the schedule. Both matchups against the Lakers, two against the Nets and Bucks come in the first six weeks of the season.
Those home-game matchups will be hot tickets — and the Pistons put single-game tickets on sale on Friday afternoon — so getting the desirable seats could be a difficult task. The degree of difficulty in the schedule cools down a bit in December, but picks up against in January, with high-level home games against the Jazz, Suns and Raptors in five-day span, starting on Jan. 10. The favorite for MVP, Luka Doncic, doesn’t visit Detroit until April 6, the final week of the season.
►Getting a break: In past seasons, the Pistons have had as many as 16 back-to-back sets of games. This year, that number drops to 12. Of those 12, four have both games at home, three have both on the road, four have a home-road split, and just one is a road-home combination.
From a travel perspective, not many of them have an unwieldy distance to fly overnight. In that respect, the Pistons may have something of a break from the league. Of note, they only play the Raptors three times instead of four, losing one of the games at Little Caesars Arena, where Toronto fans generally are well represented. They also only go to Boston and Atlanta once.
rod.beard@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @detnewsRodBeard