Did the NBA schedule makers do the Cleveland Cavaliers any favors? | Cavs get 24 NATIONAL TV games

Did the NBA schedule makers do the Cleveland Cavaliers any favors? | Cavs get 24 NATIONAL TV games

Welcome back to the ultimate Cleveland sports show. We spent the first part of today’s show talking about the Cleveland Browns. Let’s switch our attention over to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The 64 win and second round exited Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten their upcoming schedule for the 25-26 season, and if you don’t like the Cavs on local TV, you are in luck because they have 24 nationally televised games this season. Also on the schedule, Jason 14 back to backs, the most of any team in the league was 16. The fewest of any team in the league was 12, so the Cavs fall right in that middle sweet spot. They have 6 games on holidays, which is 2 more than last year, and I thought it was at least worth noting, but they finished the season, the final 33 games, 20 are on the road, so 13 at home, 20 on the road. Jason, we did this with the NFL when the Browns schedule comes out. Did the makers do the Browns any favors? Let’s pivot this and ask about the Cavs. How did the schedule makers give the Cavs and help them out this season, or did they do them dirty? No, I covered the NBA for 10 years, and for the most part schedules are schedules. Every schedule has rough pockets. Every schedule has a little bit of a breathe easier part. The curious part to me is. 4 days off in early March, highly unusual in the NBA. The one thing I like that I think the NBA needs to do more often, the NBA is obsessed with rest now. They’re obsessed with trying to get these guys proper sleep at night. There’s a couple of instances where they’re in Miami for 3 days. I mean, I know it’s Miami, but they play both games at one time, and I think that’s a good thing. I’ve been advocating that for a while. It’s almost like a baseball series. You go and you stay in one place for 3 or 4 days. You get these guys. I mean, it’s Miami, but theoretically they get a full night’s sleep in there in a bed rather than landing in a city at 3 a.m. and only getting a few hours, play both games and then you’re done with that commitment to that city, and then you move on to the next one. I think they have one in Philly like that this year and one in Miami like that. I think they need to be looking for avenues to do that more often in the NBA. Uh, ending the schedule more on the road than at home isn’t ideal, but again, that 4 day break at the start of March helps. Yeah, usually in March is when guys are really starting to drag a little bit. That’s when you hit the wall. So if you can get them off their feet. Gets them some time at home and rest. I’m sure they’ll take a couple off days. They can really dig in with a couple of practice days at that point as you get into the grind of an NBA season, a lot of times you can’t practice. We saw that last year. You’re trying to get these guys rested in the little pockets when you can. So getting those 4 days to the start of March, they can get a couple of really good practices in before you click you start that final stretch toward the end of the regular. You know, I think the fans are more on the fans uh perspective of it, you know, they got a bunch of national TV games and so they’re everybody’s like favorable, this is favorable for me. I love it. I can go watch the Cavs and it gives you that validation. People always say locally you could probably watch the Cavs every single Cavs game if you, you know, get your package together, um, but You know, people want to see those national televised games because they want to see the national perspective, 24 national TV games. Uh, the big one is you, you finally get a Christmas Day. You’re backing Christmas Day, uh, against the Knicks, and, and, and basically what the league has said is, right, we’ll look around. Pacers is out of here. We don’t believe in the Sixers. The Milwaukee Bucks look like they they’re on the decline, uh, and you look around the league, the Cavs, they’re saying, yes, the Cavs in the Knicks two-man race. We putting our money on those two guys, so I think fans will be excited about it, um, and you know, people, it’s always good to see national TV games. So I think people are excited about what the Cavs can do. They know it ain’t the playoffs though, but they’ll take the, they’ll take the national TV. It’s also cool. We’re on WKYC right now. 5 of those nationally televised games are via Peacock, which is also part of the NBC family. So basically we’re now brothers with the Cavaliers. So that’s, that, that’s pretty cool. — I do
— the craziest of all time. I do think though in all. It’s kind of hard for the NBA schedule makers to do a team dirty versus not because you go into, you know exactly who you’re gonna play. You’re gonna play the West Conference teams twice. You play your division teams 4 times, you’re gonna play the other teams twice like you already know who you’re gonna play. You already know where you’re gonna play. I mean you play at home and home with each team. It comes more down to, are you getting an absurd amount of back to backs? Who are you playing off those back to backs? And I saw a graphic on Twitter from real Cavs fans this morning who said, the Cavs who have 14 back to backs. They are playing 17 times against teams in the second night of a back to back, so they have a plus 3 advantage, which is the second highest mark in all of basketball, and I think those little things over the course of the season do matter. So if we’re saying, did they do them a favor, do they do them dirty, I think frankly, they, they had a pretty favorable schedule. Obviously you want to end the season with more games at home than on the road, but I go back to last March, Jason. They’re playing every other night and to have 4 days off in the month of March before that final playoff stretch, that’s huge. And one thing that doesn’t really get discussed is where Cleveland is located in relation to other you’re, you’re an hour flight away, so when you’re going on a road trip. You’re leaving from Cleveland, you can be in a lot of spots in an hour, whereas if you’re in Miami or you’re in Portland and you gotta get somewhere, it’s a lot longer of a flight, and that adds up and it’s something that doesn’t really get talked about, but if you look at like the miles flown every year that these teams have to fly. Cleveland is normally like middle of the pack, even toward the top, because most of the flights are, they’re easy to get to. You can get to DC, — you can
— get to Charlotte the country in half. So if you go west, if you go west, you’ve got a day off before and you’ve got a day to recover because everybody goes at the same time. But for a lot of these back to backs, you know, if you’re at home and then you’re leaving. You’re only going an hour. You’re going to Charlotte. You’re going to New York. You’re going to Boston. You, you can get to a lot of places 1 hour, 1 hour and 15 minutes. — I feel
— like if you, if you play for this Thunder, I feel like everywhere is 3 hours. Like you, you’re at Oklahoma City. You’re like, alright, well I gotta go to Portland. That’s kind of far. I gotta go to New York. That’s super far. I gotta go to Miami. That’s crazy far. Well imagine if you’re in Miami and you gotta go on a West Coast road trip and you’re hitting up Salt Lake City and Denver. Last thing on the, uh, cab schedule, they obviously have the Christmas game. They’re part of ESPN’s opening Wednesday night doubleheader. They also on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, where the whole world shuts down, they have basketball nonstop, a 2:30 home tip off against the defending NBA champion OKC Thunder. The only time all season Cleveland welcomes OKC to town. It is a nationally televised game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the prime time 2:30 window spot. Which I think shows what the league thinks of these two teams and — how exciting those matches were last and
— by the way, people say they don’t care or they will care then just for that game. I mean that’s all well and good, but I’m looking forward to rivalry week and the Charlotte Hornets. What a stupid. How could you promote that rivalry rulers in the Charlotte Hornets? Well, it has to be Lonzo versus the Mela. That’s the only thing I could think of. — But
— how about Orlando? Like, if you wanna try and put some sort of budding rivalry in there, how about Orlando? Like there’s, I’ll take Atlanta. Like give me. Something besides Charlotte. How and then to promote it like if you run out of teams and you gotta play Charlotte. OK, fine, but don’t put out the vote. What about Detroit? They could have gave us Detroit. Could have gave them Detroit. — Detroit would have been a lot of
— better options, but, uh, apparently the Cavs are rivals with the Charlotte Hornets, and we will find that out. How much how you know is, uh, is in that matchup. right.

The Cleveland Cavaliers just found out they’ll be under the national spotlight 24 times this season, and that’s no small thing for a team looking to prove they’re legit contenders in the East. With Donovan Mitchell locked in and a roster built to win now, the league clearly sees the Cavs as must-see TV — but the question is, did the schedule makers actually make their road any easier? National TV games bring energy, but they also come with tougher opponents, brighter lights, and often grueling travel.

From a competitive standpoint, the Cavs will see a heavy dose of Eastern Conference heavyweights like the Celtics, Bucks, and Sixers in primetime slots, plus marquee West matchups with the Nuggets, Warriors, and Mavericks. That means little room for “off nights,” but it also gives Cleveland a stage to make statements. The flipside? A few of those national TV showdowns come in tough back-to-back situations or on extended road trips — the kind of stretches that test depth and mental toughness.

Bottom line, this schedule isn’t about doing the Cavs favors, it’s about giving them opportunities. If they navigate the grind and win big on those nights when the whole basketball world is watching, it could reshape how they’re viewed heading into the postseason. But if they stumble under the spotlight, the narrative will flip fast. Either way, Cleveland fans better get used to hearing that familiar “we’re live from…” on national broadcasts — because the Cavs are officially part of the league’s marquee package.

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The Ultimate Cleveland Sports Show is your daily source of the best conversation about the Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Guardians, Cleveland Cavaliers and Ohio State Buckeyes, as well as sports throughout Northeast Ohio. Produced by Mike Lucas, Anthony Antonelli, and Earl Mauldin. Hosted by Jay Crawford, Adam the Bull, G Bush, Jason Lloyd, and Tyvis Powell.