The Minnesota Timberwolves are the closest competitor with the fourth-easiest schedule, Phoenix has the eighth, the Clippers tenth, and Golden State with 17th. With the knowledge that the Denver Nuggets have the easiest schedule in the league next season, which contenders in the Western Conference also compare? Denver Nuggets: How does their schedule advantage compare to other contenders? A rest advantage is described as “a game in which one team is rested and the other is unrested”, with references to multiple bodies of work including John Schuhmann and Michael Lopez. On the rest side, Denver will have 11 games with a rest advantage and 11 with a rest disadvantage according to the data. The VETS model believes that the Nuggets are the seventh-best team in the league (trailing the Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers, and Golden State Warriors in the West) and since a team obviously can’t play themselves, the pool of worthy opponents is greatly reduced for these teams. ![]() Combine that unfair home-court advantage with one of the stronger Denver Nuggets rosters ever assembled and it’s no wonder Denver is projected to have the cushiest schedule. Denver and Utah enjoy a 31 percent stronger than normal home court advantage, even after accounting for the strength of teams and their rest coming into the game.”īut when it rains it pours. “Altitude is more important than the home team’s rest, and almost as important as a two-point per possession efficiency advantage between one team and another. This article from Nylon Calculus in 2016 goes deep into the altitude boost for Denver and Utah and after using several models, one spit out the following: The only two teams with a ‘high’ altitude rating are the Nuggets and the Utah Jazz but given the direction the Jazz are heading, it doesn’t matter how thin the air is (they could probably play games in the Gravity Machine from Dragon Ball Z, it wouldn’t matter). The strength of schedule metric for Positive Residual is calculated based off every team’s Vegas-informed Estimate of Team Strength (VETS), the team’s rest advantage/disadvantage, a team’s expected wins, and the aforementioned altitude boost. This effect is once again benefitting the Nuggets as they have the easiest schedule in the entire league for the upcoming season according to Positive Residual. Obviously, the altitude plays a part in home games for the Denver Nuggets as teams like to get to Colorado early, acclimate for at least a little while, and practice in the stadium before tip-off. It was incredibly tongue-in-cheek as both recognized that their tasks in the altitude were hardly comparable to playing a full NBA game, something the road team had to do after touching down in Denver, Colorado after midnight. This would’ve been nearly ten years ago now so I can’t remember who it was, but at the end of the episode, Zach jokingly warned the reporter to drink enough water and watch out for themselves given the high altitude. ![]() ![]() I remember listening to The Lowe Post podcast, back in the Grantlanddays, and the host, Zach Lowe, was speaking to some other reporter about the Denver Nuggets.
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