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SPORTS Tuesday 15 augusT 2017
How the schedule was made: NBA taking hard look at metrics

By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
MIAMI (AP) — Larry Bird
made his plea years ago.
His request to the NBA was
not unique: Bird wanted
the league to eliminate the
dreaded stretches of four
games in five days. What
made Bird’s pitch memo-
rable was that it didn’t
just cite the demand of
so many games in such a
short amount of time, but
also pointed out how the
anxiousness caused by
such tests can hurt a team
beforehand and how the
fatigue lingers long after-
ward.
“What he said to me has
been ringing in my head
ever since,” said Tom Carel-
li, the NBA’s senior vice
president for broadcasting.
Carelli and the rest of the
NBA schedule-making gu-
rus were unable to make
Bird’s request reality — un-
til now. With an extra week
of days to play with, along
with some much deeper
looks at arena availabil-
ity and ways to try to help
competitive balance, the e-This March 4, 2017, file photo shows Cleveland Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving, left, LeBron James, center, and J.R. Smith, right, watching
NBA believes the schedule from the bench during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, in Miami.
released Monday should Associated Press
be the most user-friendly in
the league’s history. ability around the league their respective buildings labeling the schedule by into the season is already
The four-games-in-five-days and trying to minimize the — the past standard — week — Week 1, Week 2, making an impact — even
challenges? Eliminated for nights where a weary team schedule makers like Carel- so on, from Monday to Sun- though the first real games
the first time in NBA history. will face a well-rested op- li, Wasch, Chris Boghosian, day. It’s essentially a idea are still two months away.
Back-to-backs? Only 14.4 ponent. Gene Li and Hao Meng at presenting fans, and fan- “We don’t get scored,”
per team on average, an In other words, NBA fans, instead checked every tasy players, with a sched- Carelli said. “We don’t nec-
all-time low for the third meet FTE. available date and tried a ule that’s broken down into essarily win or lose, which is
straight year. The metric — an acronym much broader look at how smaller bites. nice.
Single-game road trips, av- for Fresh, Tired and Even — the puzzle might fit. “It’s progress. It’s all part The bottom line is that our
erage miles traveled and is a major part of the NBA Their work might be par- of a larger basket of prog- primary, secondary, what-
time zones crossed? All schedule process. It’s a ticularly noticed on ABC ress,” Carelli said. ever goal it is, our goal is
down a bit as well. way the NBA has charted games this season. There will undoubtedly be about the game. Our goal
“I think at this point, and how tired one team will Last season, when stars like some schedule griping. No is about doing the best we
frankly the minute we got likely be when facing an- LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, one is claiming perfection. can to create the most
the extra week, we could other. Kevin Love, Stephen Curry, Improvement, for now, is competitively balanced
conclude the schedule is FTE has been part of the Klay Thompson, Draymond enough, and that extra schedule we can for all the
really, undebatably, the NBA’s internal charting for Green and Andre Iguoda- week of room being built teams.”q
best basketball schedule years, but wasn’t often la all were given nights off
we’ve ever had,” said Evan discussed openly or with when the Cavaliers or War-
Wasch, the NBA’s senior teams. riors were playing national-
vice president for basket- “If a team plays the night ly televised games on ABC,
ball strategy and analytics. before and its opponent there was no shortage of
“That’s what the week af- didn’t, then one team is scorn. This season, teams
fords you, the opportunity tired and its opponent is playing in those marquee
to focus on all these differ- fresh,” Wasch said. “That ABC games will have a day
ent metrics.” fresh-tired ratio will be lower off both before and after
The extra week, which al- than ever. It’s hard to mea- those contests.
lows the regular season to sure and track when you “The more information we
start Oct. 17 — the league’s build a schedule manually, got, the easier it was to
earliest start since 1980 — but it’s easy to track when reduce back-to-backs,”
was an obvious help. But building one with optimiza- Carelli said.
schedule makers went fur- tion software.” The changes aren’t only to
ther, taking a deeper-than- Instead of asking teams for benefit players and teams.
usual look at arena avail- 50 possible home dates for The league this year will be