Utah Jazz 2019-20 Schedule Release: First Reactions

The 2019-2020 NBA schedule is available now. It was released and made public earlier today at 1:00 PM MST, and we now know everything about the Utah Jazz schedule this upcoming season. (You can download the schedule here) Without getting too deep (a more detailed look is to come) Here are some first reactions from looking the schedule, and what this year might entail for the Jazz.

Playing in the Spotlight

Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports

The Jazz will play 16 games on national TV next season, including 10 on ESPN and 6 on TNT. Games played on those same broadcasts last season were 8 and 3 respectively, so the national spotlight is definitely increasing this upcoming season. Although the Jazz will not play a Christmas game like they did last year, there will still be plenty of national exposure, including a game on ESPN during opening week against the Lakers on Friday night 10/25.

Including games televised on NBA TV, the Jazz will play in 25 games on national broadcasts, up from 17 last season.

New Faces, Different Places

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

There was a lot of turnover from last year’s Jazz squad to this years, which will create several “return” games for both departing players and new ones that arrived on the roster this season. Here are a few notables:

10/28 @ PHX: Jazz facing Ricky Rubio for the first time as a member of the Suns

11/6 PHI: Raul Neto returns to Utah as member of 76ers

11/8 MIL: Kyle Korver returns to Utah

11/15 @ MEM: Mike Conley makes return to Memphis, Jae Crowder and Grayson Allen meet again with the Jazz

11/23 NOP: Derrick Favors makes his return to Utah

2/24 PHX: Ricky Rubio’s return to Utah

Tough/Easy stretches

Looking at the schedule in it’s entirety, there really isn’t a stretch that you look at it and think “oh man, that’s a really tough stretch”. Last year just by looking at the schedule you could tell that December was an absolute gauntlet. There are still some challenging/easy stretches this season, but not near as extreme as last season. Here they are:

Difficult:

10/30 to 11/12: 7 games - LAC, @SAC, @LAC, PHI, MIL, @GSW, BKN (b2b)

11/25 to 12/4: 6 games - @MIL, @IND, @MEM, @TOR, @PHI, LAL

Easy:

It’s tough to call out any portion of the schedule as “easy”. But there are definitely some stretches that should pile up wins a little easier than others.

12/30 to 1/10: 6 games - DET, @CHI, @ORL, @NOP, NYK, CHA

2/12 to 2/28: 6 game home stretch- MIA, SAS, HOU, PHX, BOS, WAS

Reduced Back-to-Back games

The NBA as an organization made a push to reduce back-to-back games that each team plays in. Per Shams Charania, the NBA will see a historic low in B2B games this season, with the average coming at 12.4 per team. The Jazz will have 10 instances of B2B games, which is down from each of the last two seasons. This is a great sign of a doable schedule, and one that the Jazz should be able to take advantage of as they try to make their first NBA Finals run in over 20 years.