4 important notes from the Portland Trail Blazers schedule release

The Portland Trail Blazers have officially released their schedule for the 2019-20 season. Rip City Project picked it apart so you wouldn’t have to.

This Monday afternoon held host to the release of the official 2019-20 NBA schedule. The Portland Trail Blazers will have to run the gauntlet against their competitive Western Conference rivals if they wish to secure a high playoff seed.

Despite the hard road ahead of them, they didn’t hold back on releasing possibly the cutest schedule announcement of all-time.

https://twitter.com/trailblazers/status/1160990082133684225?s=20

Once you’ve recovered from adorable animal induced-shock, we can roll right into the five biggest takeaways from next year’s schedule.

1. Portland receives national television attention

Next season, the Portland Trail Blazers will have 20 games televised on ESPN, TNT and ABC. An additional 11 will be available to watch through NBA TV. That mark is good for the eighth most nationally televised games, and the most of any Northwest Division team. Check out the full break down here.

In order, the teams ahead of Portland are the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, Rockets, 76ers, Bucks and Celtics. It seems the Blazers have finally got some fair representation relative to the successful big market teams. What is strange however, is that the New Orleans Pelicans also received 20 nationally televised games — same as Portland. The marketing train is apparently full steam ahead.

2. Rough season-opener stretch

Seven of the Blazers first ten games will be match-ups against projected playoff teams, including the Clippers, Warriors, 76ers and a season-opener home game against the Denver Nuggets on ESPN. Those three teams that aren’t projected playoff teams? The Kings, Mavericks and Thunder.

Needless to say, the Blazers have their work cut out for them to begin the year. Similarly, Portland has a ten game stretch from January 20 to February 7 where they will play nine projected playoff teams, including the Lakers, Rockets and two games against the Jazz. The other team? The Mavericks again.

3. Reunion tour dates

Hassan Whiteside was the Blazers big acquisition of the summer, and left Miami in a disgruntled state. Although the big man is certainly incredibly talented, it’s not surprising many Heat fans won’t be happy to see him back. The Blazers head to Miami on January 5 for a Sunday afternoon game where Whiteside will surely be met with at least a few boos from the crowd.

Other relevant dates for ex-Blazers include:

• December 20: Al-Farouq Aminu returns to Portland
• February 25: Enes Kanter stops by the Moda Center
• April 15: Moe Harkless returns to Portland for final game of season

 4. Lengthy road trips

Already taking into consideration that Portland has to travel the fourth most miles of any NBA team, they sure didn’t pull any punches when building the Blazers schedule on the road. The team now stares down two six-game road trips, on top of two smaller but still substantial five and four-game road trips.

It doesn’t help that half of these lengthy road trip games will be against projected playoff teams, which will grind the team down. Limiting fatigue and staying at the top of their game is going to be essential towards Portland’s success in the playoffs. Taking a step towards incorporating load management is an unfortunate but possibly greatly beneficial decision for maintaining the Blazers longevity.