re: SB Nation's NBA divison realignment

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The NBA has 160 days to play 82 games per team. (That includes taking Thanksgiving and one week in February off.) If every team played every other day, you'd only need four back-to-backs per team per season. Of course, this is impossible -- teams are going to need two days off to handle long travel, work around arena availability and to match up with the opponents' scheduling needs.

But by minimizing the number of two-day breaks while on the road or at home, you can reduce wasted days within the season. (If the Lakers are doing their only Southeast road trip of the season, they don't need two days off in between Orlando and Atlanta, unless they are hitchhiking.) Perhaps I'm underrating the difficulty of matching up schedules, but I think you can cut out five back-to-backs per team just through this improved realignment.

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There's another way to pick up some schedule breathing room and cut down on back-to-backs: shorten the preseason to five games max and start the regular season in mid-October. FIBA is committing suicide anyway by switching to a FIFA-style qualification system. The NBA Board of Governors has no allegiance to the international body, which holds some its tournament in September. Moving training camp up to mid-September and tip-off to around October 14 or 15.

You might cringe at expanding the season to cover even more of the calendar, but every day of breathing room at the front end means one more rest day during the season. If my math is right -- don't you roll your eyes -- you could eliminate back-to-backs by starting two weeks earlier and avoiding multi-day breaks when major travel isn't involved.

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