The NBA schedule’s shadow was spotted today which means that pre-season will come early this year, some time in October they tell me. I like it if we just played the schedule rather than classified it into ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ stretches because as history has taught us, the hard and easy months never go according to plan. Well, the hard ones do, just not the easy ones. Let’s just say that with the Eastern Conference closer to parity than it has ever been and the West being what it is, there aren’t going to be many easy nights. Still, for the sake of completeness let’s look at some of the more salient points of the 2009-10 schedule which tips off on October 28th against Cleveland at home.
Starting out: The schedule begins with nine of the first 12 games against opponents that participated in the 2009 postseason – Cleveland, Orlando, Detroit, New Orleans, Dallas, San Antonio, Chicago, Denver and Utah. There’s no excuse not to do well here, I’m just not going to buy the “we haven’t gelled” yet argument. Most of the teams we’re playing here have undergone major changes and we’re all going to be in the same boat. The measuring stick comes out early this year.
Roadtrips: There’s no 6 or 7 game roadtrip this season and the longest one is four games, twice. November 13-18 and March 9-14. This is the first thing I look for on the schedule. Seeing how we usually end up going 1-6 or these Western swings, it’s best that we’ve minimized the damage to a maximum of 4 games. We got the Clippers, Phoenix, Denver and Utah in the first one. Lakers, Sacramento, Golden State and Portland in the second. It’s early but a 2-2 split in both would be great.
Home stretches: The longest home stand of the season is four games from February 3-17; this includes the All-Star break. The majority of the team’s home games will fall on the weekend with eight games on a Friday and 15 on a Sunday, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the 41 home dates.
Busiest day: The busiest day for the Raptors this season will be Wednesday with 23 games on the schedule. We’ll have 18 Friday games which means 18 Philthy McNasty nights.
Busiest month: The Raptors’ busiest month is October/November with 18 games. The busiest home months are October/November and December with eight games, while the busiest road month will be October/November with the Raptors facing 10 games away from Toronto. The schedule is evenly balanced with 19 home and 22 road games for the first half of the season and 22 home and 19 road outings for the final 41 contests.
Splitting the games: The schedule features four games against divisional foes with two home and two away. The remaining 10 conference teams will be played twice at home and on the road with the exception of four teams — two will be played once at home and twice on the road (Charlotte and Milwaukee) and two will be faced twice at home and once on the road (Chicago and Washington). Each Western Conference team will be played once at home and on the road.
Back-to-back: The Raptors will have 21 back-to-back games this season (up four from last season), with a high of nine being a road game followed by a road game. That’s 9 road back-to-backs, but let’s not complain about this because I get a feeling the Toronto media will be doing plenty of that all season. BTW, the Nuggets have 22 back-to-back sets.
Weekend games: The majority of the team’s home games will fall on the weekend with eight games on a Friday and 15 on a Sunday, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the 41 home dates.
Finishing it off: We finish the season playing Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and New York – all Eastern conference opponents that will have a big say in playoff positioning.
TV Schedule: For the fourth consecutive season, all 82 Raptors games will be aired nationally in Canada. At the present time, the Raptors have one nationally televised game in the United States, January 15 at New York on ESPN. I wouldn’t be too offended at this, it’s early and schedules are liable to change. If we start off 7-2 or 6-3, the schedule will change. This isn’t like the old Turner or NBA/NBC days where the schedule is stuck in stone. This also doesn’t include games that are shown on NBA-TV.
Vince: He’s here on November 1st and 22nd. Don’t boo him, beat him.
T.J Ford: November 24th and January 31st.
Games by month:
| October/November | 18 (8 home, 10 away) |
| December | 15 (8 home, 7 away) |
| January | 15 (7 home, 8 away) |
| February | 10 (7 home, 3 away) |
| March | 16 (7 home, 9 away) |
| April | 8 (4 home, 4 away) |
Games by day:
| Sunday | 19 (15 home, 4 away) |
| Monday | 6 (0 home, 6 away) |
| Tuesday | 9 (3 home, 6 away) |
| Wednesday | 23 (14 home, 9 away) |
| Thursday | 1 (0 home, 1 away) |
| Friday | 17 (8 home, 9 away) |
| Saturday | 7 (1 home, 6 away) |
67 Raps
Only 1 ESPN game this year?
Even less than usual…
But that’s what 33 wins will get you I guess.
Don’t mean to throw cold water on the upcoming bball season, but epidemiologists are predicting a Swine Flu pandemic starting soon and peaking in the winter months.
As a matter of public health, governments may ban large gatherings since Swine Flu is very hard on younger people.
This would stop bball for 2009-2010 … and the team owners would have to declare “force majeure” on all their player contracts .. which means no money for anybody. Easy on the multi-millionaires, but tough on the rookies with no paycheck unless there is some kind of player’s emergency fund.
I suppose, the games could be played in empty gyms with players wearing masks or something .. and only televised games .. pay-per-view undoubtedly.
No Raptors … no Leafs … nothing … Let us Pray …
Link?
Well, at least you won’t be forced to watch your “Ratpors” go “0-12″ to start the season…
Hahahahahaahahahaha. This is the funniest shit I have read in a looooooooong time. Thanks FAQ, needed the laugh!
Oink Oink … YER DEAD … R.I.P. (Ratpors In Playoffs??)
Rookies with no paycheck? Haha. League min is like 700k, Derozan’s making over 2.2m
If you’re so worried about them invite them to stay at your place to save on rent
If you are an optimist, you can look at those first 12 games as a chance for this new roster to prove itself and get off to a solid start (I would call going 6-6 a good start, in this case).
If you are a pessimist, you look at that stretch and say, “Here we go again.”
One thing is for sure: we aren’t too likely to start the season on a high note and go downhill from there. Here is hoping we get through it just fine.
… and a realist would conclude it’s gonna be a 0-12 season start … very likely. You just can’t put up a recently assembled Ratpor team up against the cream of the NBA and predict any wins … you gotta be a total moron to expect that … or a demented tribal honking fan … same thing …!!!!
You got to be joking, 0-12? That’s realism? No sir, that’s pessimism at its peak. If we beat Orlando twice last year why wouldn’t you think we could beat them at home? Same with Chicago. C’mon man, you lose credibility when you make such statements.
pretty sure the credibility train left the station quite a while ago…
honkhonkhonk
blah blah…tribal honking…blah blah…team won’t gell…blah blah….bosh not a max player…blah blah…trade bosh for blah blah
You display abjectly flawed logic, i.e. “illogic”, when you attempt to project last season on to the upcoming season. That’s just plain silly, so just admit yer honking through yer pom-poms.
Last season, only what 4 new plays? .. while this season it’s 6-7 new players and some expected to play major starting and bench roles. Do you realistically think they will play seamless offense and defense in their first 12 games of the season against solid NBA teams???
The Ratpors are gonna be eviscerated as the opposition feasts on their weaknesses and vulnerabilities at the start of the season. If any of those 12 teams loses to the rebuilt Ratpors, their coach and starters should be flogged .. 40 lashes minimum.
Now you be specific and tell us which games will be won and lost and why?? … Go ahead … we’re waiting …!!!!
“Do you realistically think they will play seamless offense and defense in their first 12 games of the season against solid NBA teams???”
You do realize that Memphis and the Clippers are among those first twelve teams. When did they become solid NBA teams? Your flawed logic is showing!
Nobody really knows anything for sure until opening tip. But having said that I would like to hope that this team’s pieces fit better than last years incarnation (to be clear I mean the style of play from each player fits together better). I will say no more since this will spiral into an argument over speculation. Lets stay positive folks!!
Who the **** is this dude???
Who the **** are YOU?
To be honest, I had not even checked out the full schedule. That stretch includes 5 very winnable games:
- Memphis (no explanation needed)
- Detroit (a changed roster there as well)
- NO (outside of CP, I don’t see this as a quality roster at all)
- Chicago (with the loss of Gordon, they have no more talent than the Raps)
- Clippers (no explanation needed)
If they go 4-8, that is not bad. Going 6-6 would not be out of the question, but is far from a stretch if everyone is healthy.
You have to keep in mind that one of our strengths will be depth. While depth cannot carry you in the playoffs (because starters play so many minutes), it wins games in the regular season.
Aren’t they playing Memphis in the second game of the season. You have to be one of the dumbest people in the world to waste your time every day, posting your nonsense on this site, since you hate on the Raptors so much. Get a life FAQ! Get outside and maybe then your lopsided fox news-esque mentality will get more balanced.
I like that the longest road trip is only 4 games. We always get killed on those long west coast trips. On the other hand those back to backs seem really outrageous. I’d like to know how many back to backs other teams have.
One thing to keep in mind is the Olympics. A lot of the hockey schedule is front loaded this year, so it’s forcing a lot of shared facilities to scramble for dates for non-hockey events. This could be a reason for both of your observations.
Appreciate the rundown. I have trouble seeing how 23/41 (=56%) results in ‘nearly two thirds’. It’s actually much closer to 1/2.
0-12? Swine Flu?
FAQ are you a shut in that is afraid of his own shadow?
Will agree that the beginning of the schedule is rough, but Dtroit ain’t shit these days, Chicago was a June mirage, and Dallas and New Orleans are toss ups. So out of the 9 playoff teams that they are going to face, I think its not out of the question they come out of it somewhere between 2-7 or 4-5.
Depending on who the other 3 opponents are, a 7-5 start isn’t terrible.
Swine flu might shut down pro sports, hahahaha. You probably shouldn’t eat bacon either, LOL!
The other 3 opponents are Memphis, Clippers, and Phoenix. The first two are very winnable games, the third is about the same as Dallas (I give us at least a 70% chance of winning one of the two).
At the end of the day, I will be judging the first several games not really on record, but on the following:
1. Effort
2. Playing well as a team
3. Ability to avoid major scoring droughts
4. Improved defence from last year
I see nothing preventing #3 from being true with so many offensive weapons on the roster. Also, this early in the year #1 should not be a problem, and #4 was basically rock-bottom last year, so we have nowhere to go but up.
I think #2 will really be the key to the first several games.
We can also look at the ‘Four Factors of Winning’ identified by long time NBA consultant and the NBA’s first full-time statistical analyst, Dean Oliver:
1. eFG% differential
2. ORB% differential
3. TO% differential
4. FTR (FT/FGA) differential
The only category that looks to be an obvious strong point for Toronto is its turnover differential. Conversely, it’s pretty clear this group is going to get consistently obliterated in terms of offensive rebounding percentage.
Furthermore, our rotation is probably going to have big problems defensively leading to a high opponent eFG%. Let’s hope the offense clicks, and it had better be one of the league’s most potent, otherwise we’re in for a long season.
Well I’m most worried about 8 of the first 12 on the road. The Raps have historically been bad on the road. I think it’s very important for the Raps to get off to a strong start this year to keep esteem high-ish and keep Bosh inspired. His energy drives this club. If Bosh gets “down” then he could bring the whole team down.
Ideally I’d like to see the Raps win 75% of their home games and 50% of the road games. As bad as they were on the road last year, their home record was awful. Then need to start holding court and knocking people on thier asses when at the ACC.
Well ideally I’d like to see them win all the games ;-)
Every team is historically bad on the road.
You can look it up.
Sorry….REALLY bad
I am praying we don’t have any TSN2 (but we will thanks to the Maple Queefs) and too many good games put on (C)RAPS-TV.
Agreed. Anyone know the situation on that? For us poor saps who don’t have digital cable or satellite.
You will see TV schedules rolled out in the next week or two.
I thought the TSN2 thing was settled and all the Rogers whiners now have it? Are there other providers that still don’t have it or is Rogers charging extra for that channel?
I’m in Ottawa and I don’t have TSN2 with Rogers.
I think at this point, its just those with basic cable that don’t have TSN2.
Need to have digital cable.
True, you would need digital cable.
Rye, I’m in Ottawa and Rogers does offer TSN2 on digital cable.
Anyone know what’s the status of TSN2 after the free preview is over (after August 18th)? I’m guessing its part of the Super Sports Pak and not the HDTV Specialty Pak
‘Beginning on Tuesday, TSN2 will be available to Rogers subscribers on a
free preview on Rogers Digital Channel 1. At the end of the month, TSN2 will
be available to Rogers Digital VIP cable subscribers at its permanent channel
location on channel 98. As part of the agreement, TSN2 HD will be available to
customers who subscribe to TSN and have the HDTV Specialty Theme Pak.’
I would assume as long as you are a Digital VIP customer or HD subscriber, you get it.
(assuming you are a Rogers customer)
If you are with Bell, I believe as long as you subscribe to TSN, you get TSN2. I know I get it and I don’t see how I’m paying extra for it.
Damn digital!
Or as an Eastlink, Delta or Coast Cable, or Persona subscriber. TSN2 and TSN2 HD has been available on all of them since last September.
Who here saw the Canada vs. Italy fight? Glad Bargnani and Belinelli were not the cause of the problem and tried to defuse it. The only thing that I was focusing on was Leo Rautins and there was a part that he kinda made a “prick” push on Bargs. If I had one minute to control Bargs in that situation, I would of punched Leo in the face for all of us in RapsRepublic who had to listen to him, lol.
Yeah I saw that. Pretty crazy stuff. I am also very very glad Bargs or Beli weren’t too involved. We don’t need them bad-blooding on Canadians now.
Somebody really needs to fire Leo. He is not representative of our country whatsoever.
LOLOLOL
I think this is the funniest thread I’ve read in a long while.
Leo is retarded- punch in the face would of been just great
Any change Bargnani’s giant spaghetti arms can catch Rancid Mullinichicicis and Jamie Crapbell at the same time?
As for paranoid FAQ boy, I’m hoping youre not joking. Just too funny
Jamie Campbell is fine with me, but he will never be as good as a 10-year old Dan Schulman (who probably had “the voice” when he was born). Rancid is okay because at time I like it when he harps out his fundamental batting frustrations on Vernon Wells when he strikes out.
Despite being retarded, Leo’s done pretty well for himself. National team coach and NBA commentator among other things. Nick, what do you do for a living?
leo Rautins kicked our best player off the National team…the guy became a Candaian citizen to play ball for us and Leo kicked him out!!!
please please dont defend Leo Rautins hes is a sub par coach/commentator and he doesn’t seem to be a real people person
Did you ever think that maybe he deserved to be kicked off the team???
And by the way, I’ll defend whomever I please, especially if its warranted.
Anyway, I mostly objected to Nick’s use of the word retarded. It’s one thing to have differing opinions, but show some class.
Yeah i’ve thought about bout it….Samuel Dalembert went on a two year mission to become Canadian citizen in order to play for us, Canada.
I can gaurantee you that if Jay traino was still coaching thier disagreement #1 probably wouldn’t have happened in the first place and #2 Wouldn’t have resulted in Dalembert leaving practice and the team
Do you EVER hear anything bad about Dalembert from the sixer’s coach or team?
I’ve thought about it: i think that based on Leo’s basketball results and people skills LEO deserves to be kicked off the team.
Leo seems to use Team Canada to develop his son.
But maybe his son is that good? It’s hard to say.
He’s probably not a bad coach, better than any of us.
On the other hand there’s JT and with his creditials, he should be guiding the Canadian ship when Leo’s contact expires.
If we can get by the first month and catch some teams off guard , I think we’ll be alright. Our style of play is pretty easy to learn. Just pick and roll , Chris Bosh iso and some catch and shoot plays for our shooters. So hopefully with the easy plays we can catch some teams off guard , we are still learning and adjusting.
Long range prediction …. Bosh + Banks for Nowitzki … and the only outstanding question is when will BC and Cuban pull the trigger on this feasible deal.
It could be as early as Xmas if both teams are not functioning as intended or hoped for …. believe it.
How does that help the Raps? They’re trying to turn Bargnani into Nowitski, so why would they acquire the guy who’s 8 years older than Bargs & Bosh? And both contracts are the same length.
The logic eludes me.
Sure, no road trip is longer than four games, but between November 6th and 18th, their sched looks like this:
Fri 06 @ New Orleans
Sat 07 @ Dallas
Mon 09 @ San Antonio
Wed 11 vs Chicago
Fri 13 @ LA Clippers
Sun 15 @ Phoenix
Tue 17 @ Denver
Wed 18 @ Utah
This team better gel quickly…
I noticed that as well….that is one mean schedule maker.In 4 days you go from Texas to Ontario to California. Their body clocks will be messed up in a big way. Usually when you see a span like that, the middle game is an afternoon weekend game to get the team out of town and in the next city at night to rest up and adjust. This one is a killer.
thanks for making FAQ’s post “rap of the day”.
and i mean this in an entertaining way. sometimes the most absurd post needs to be highlighted.
What do you guys think the raptors’ record is going to be after the first 12? I’m gonna go out on a limb here (not like FAQ though,sorry)and say 7-5.
Those 7 road games with the one home game scheduled between San Antonio and the Clippers (all within twelve days) is going to be a killer. Give me five wins in the first twelve and I’ll be happy.
I may be the eternal optimist, but I don’t see the team coming out that bad for the first 20 games (for the record I voted 12-14 wins). There is a lot of multi-year veterans on the team that can come together quickly. Also, the two guys that probably mean the most at this point, in terms of new additions, are vets that have been traded before (Hedo and Jack) and know how to work into a system quickly. Really the only cats I worry about fitting in right away are DD and Antoine Wright…
I also have no real idea how our offensive sets are going to go. In the past teams could bank on pick and roll, pick and roll; now we have ball movement and fluidity (potentially)which may catch a lot of teams off guard initially. That might be good for a win or two against a team with a sub-par coach (hello van-gundy). Yes, we’re not going to be great defensively; Yes we’re probably going to get killed on the boards – I still think we can steal a game or two early in the season if our coach can manage to keep his head out of his ass (a tall task perhaps). Don’t forget too, Bosh is in a contract year (for better or worse) and that means he’s going to come out like gangbusters.
The schedule (& logic):
1. Cleveland – L (obviously, sadly)
2. Memphis – W (Rudy Gay what!)
3. Orlando – W (sub-par coach + deep bench = bad rotations = L) Steal this one!
4. New Orleans – W (switch wright onto paul and hope for the best)
5. Dallas – L (I think Dallas is going to be good early in the season with those old legs, lose it late…)
6. San An – L (Fuuuuuck)
7. Chicago – W (match up well, Jack on Rose, we’re a deeper team)
8. LA Clippers – W (Eric Gordan what!)
9. Phoenix – L (again old legs are good early)
10. Denver – L Just a better team. More physical and smarter
11. Utah – W Wishful thinking… nah! A flawed team with distractions. Steal this one!
12. Miami – W We’re a better team; O’Neal will be hurt by this point.
13. Orlando – L Maybe if it was in Orlando, Vince wouldn’t score 40+
14. Indiana – W Keep Troy Murphy in check! Just kidding. Pacers suck.
15. Charlotte – W My crush on Wallace grows deeper yet he only grows older and less productive. if only we got him a few years ago…
16. Boston – L We’ll get stomped.
17. Phoenix – W Late afternoon game? WTF? Suns are a flawed team – as long as we attack, we win this game. Suns…getting…tired…
18. Washington – W A fun game! Shoot out! Raps are deeper we win
19. ALT – W By this point Josh Smith will have murdered Woodson and replaced him with a plank of cedar – horrible shot selection only increases leading to Raptors’ win (this one may be a stretch)
20. Washington – W I think we’re a tougher team than them (maybe one of the only teams in the league) and I think we take this one. Only guy I’m scared of is Butler.
Total Record for first 20: 13-7! Maybe? Please?
nope, we beat the Cavs in the opener. San and Dal and Denver too. But lose to Atl. We’re going 16-4 babies.
Homer – ya better BELIEVE it!
I’m not optimistic about those first 20 games, they look troubling to me.
I’m leaning towards the 6-8 wins choice in the poll.
The new Raptors have been hyped up and we’ve all been led to believe a home court advantage is a real possibility but until we play the games a successful season is only a hope not a certainty. I’m just hoping to see some exiting ball played by talented players who love the game. If we can build some momentum at the right time anything could happen.
Im excited to see if Turk can finish some games for us…he MIGHT be able to pull off a couple last second wins on the road.
I know we are all worried about the raps and their intensity on a consistent basis but Turk and Jack could help with this
this could amount i wins we don’t often see…eg.Clevland, Denver, Dallas
but i agree this sched is tough. no joke.
I will be going to college this September, I doubt that I will miss watching some Raptors game. When I was in high-school, I watched 81 games — missed one because I had to attend my school formal (I believe it was February).
I don’t really care about the schedule.
a good team will win and get a good record and vice versa.
It’s like complaining that strong teams are in your division.
If you’re out to win it all you have to be able to beat them anyways.
Well, at least for the summer, it seems the latest acquisition gets the most hype from the fans.
Go Raps.
There are several things I love in here:
-The lack of long road trips,
-the fact that 2/3 of the home games are on the weekend, and
-”Don’t boo him, beat him.”