The Orlando Magic were thrilled to get the trip to Berlin and London for the league's international games. The team will not only get to expand its brand in a market the team is increasingly becoming more involved in, but also get to play in the home of two of its key players.
Not to mention, these are marquee games -- both games against the Memphis Grizzlies will air on Amazon Prime in January.
But that trip was going to come with a cost.
Reporters covering the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2024 Playoffs all noted that the Cavs were a bit sluggish after their game against the Toronto Raptors in Paris that January. Cleveland still went 26-19 to close the season and stayed in fourth in the East.
Reporters covering the Indiana Pacers noted that Rick Carlisle got rid of morning shootarounds in the aftermath of their trip to Paris. Indiana had a stronger finish to the season and reached the NBA Finals.
There is a physical cost to playing overseas. And that usually manifests itself in a cramped schedule to make up for a two-game week and an international trip.
As the Magic prepared to receive their schedule, they were surely bracing for some lopsided road trip or an excess of back-to-backs to make up for their week away from home.
But as the schedule came out, they saw none of that. They were actually on the low end of back-to-backs. There are no excessive road trips -- the longest trip is five games at the start of the season. The Magic retained a lot of advantages in their schedule. They do not really pay at all for their sojourn overseas.
There is a lot of evidence that the Magic have quite a favorable schedule.
It is more than just the opening 10 games that do not feature a Western Conference team or a manageable first quarter of the season. Orlando does not suffer from any major rest disadvantages to make up for their trip to Europe. Nor does the team face loads of back-to-backs.
There is still a cost for going overseas. But it is nowhere near as bad as it could have been. And it should help the Magic stay competitive despite taking a week off to play overseas.
The schedule by the numbers
There has been one widespread complaint about the NBA schedule since creating the NBA Cup. The week where the league plays its NBA Cup quarterfinals and semifinals goes unscheduled for everyone. Because everyone pauses to play just two games that week, it creates downstream effects where the league has to cram more games into the same amount of time.
Breaks like the one for the NBA Cup week puts more games in less time on the calendar.
While the league has tried to reduce the number of back-to-back and four-games-in-five-nights, the addition of the NBA Cup and this week means many of the team's back-to-backs are backloaded onto the schedule.
Orlando's trip to Europe is like having a second NBA Cup week to compress their schedule. They have even less time to fit in their 82 games.
But the Magic did not get penalized for this in a significant way. They have only 14 back-to-backs this season. The fewest in the league is 13. Five of those 14 are more advantageous home-home back-to-backs that do not require travel.
It is true the Magic travel the most miles of any team in the league at 53,208. That is understandable considering the Magic are in the corner of the map (they usually rank near the top in miles traveled) and they are traveling to Berlin and London. The Memphis Grizzlies are third at 50,015 and they are more centrally located.
The Magic also have two five-games-in-seven nights throughout the season. Those can wear a team down.
And Orlando does not have any particularly long homestands. The team's longest homestand is four games -- one heading into the All-Star break and the other after the West Coast trip following the All-Star Break.
But the Magic are not put at a disadvantage despite this.
Because of their schedule, they are expected to have more rest disadvantage games (game where the other team has more rest than them). But the NBA did the Magic a favor here too.
Orlando has 12 rest disadvantage games (the most in the league is 14). But the team has 11 rest advantage games, right in the middle of the league. They almost break even.
Considering the disruption to their schedule, this is a benefit to the team. The Magic should be able to handle the schedule.
March is the tax for the Europe trip
That tax is always present, though. It is a geography and calendar problem. The Orlando Magic must make up for the time lost by traveling to Europe and reacclimating at home.
That tax comes in March, which will undoubtedly be the Magic's toughest month.
Orlando will play 17 games in 31 days during March. The team has only two instances where it has two days of rest. And the Magic will play four back-to-backs. Two of them are especially tough -- a Cleveland-to-Orlando back-to-back (to play the Washington Wizards) and another difficult Orlando-to-Cleveland back-to-back to play the Cleveland Cavaliers on national TV after facing the Indiana Pacers at home.
In March, the Orlando Magic play nine playoff teams among those 17 -- and that does not include the Atlanta Hawks. At least the opponent load might be manageable. But the schedule was going to catch up with the Magic at some point.
The team, at least, plays 10 of its 17 games at the Kia Center in the month. But they have no more than three in a row (and that is to open the month).
The schedules gets to everyone at some point. And Orlando has a major disruption in its schedule that will create challenges.
But even with that disruption, things could have been much worse for them.
The NBA does well not to penalize the teams they send to Europe too badly. The Magic will not be too harmed by their trip to Berlin and London.