New Orleans Pelicans Schedule: the Long and Winding Road(trip)

All young teams struggle on the road, but recent history proves that long trips are particularly rough on the New Orleans Pelicans. The 2016-17 schedule is not doing the team any favors in this regard.

It happens every year for the New Orleans Pelicans. Like clockwork, recent seasons have been marred by the same occurrence. Season-ending injuries to key players? Yes, but that’s not the topic we’re here to discuss. Catastrophic coaching meltdowns? Well sure, but also not what we mean. Ok, this is just getting depressing; we are here to talk about the no good, very bad long road trip.

All young teams struggle on the road, but the Pelicans’ longer trips usually don’t go well. In 2015-16, the team’s first long jaunt in December lasted five games and pitted them against the Chicago Bulls, Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, and Denver Nuggets. The team finished that stretch with a 2-3 record. Not awful for a team that was clearly having a bad year. However, the second five-game road trip of the season (in March) – this time crisscrossing the country against the Charlotte Hornets, Memphis Grizzlies, Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, and Sacramento Kings – saw an abhorrent 1-4 record, with the lone win coming against the Kings.

While it is tempting to chalk the March 2016 road woes up to a lost, injury-riddled season, the 2014-15 season looks even more discouraging in retrospect. That team eventually made the playoffs, but a 2-3 Eastern Conference road trip put the postseason in doubt as early as January. While that record was not a disaster, the three losses were inexplicable for a team with postseason aspirations: the Boston Celtics (in their prior, less successful form), the Philadelphia 76ers, and the New York Knicks.

The 2016-17 schedule has multiple long road stretches, with the longest coming first: five straight road games against the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Brooklyn Nets, Chicago Bulls, and Solomon Hill’s first game against the Indiana Pacers. Nearly all of these teams improved this offseason, and none of these games will be easy wins. Further, due to the East’s weak stable of teams, all five of these opponents may well be in contention for a playoff berth. The good news is that this trip falls in early January. By then, the rebooted Pelicans should have begun to gel and find an identity.

While the January stretch is the Pelicans’ longest run, it is not the most difficult. The team has a four-game run before the All-Star break that passes through Minnesota, Sacramento, Phoenix, and Memphis. The Timberwolves are expected to break out this year, and the Grizzlies added Chandler Parsons, but the Kings and Suns should be beatable.

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However, the biggest challenge comes with the final four games of the season being on the road. The opponents? The Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, and Portland Trail Blazers. That is…not great. While the Lakers may find themselves yet again vying for a high draft pick, there is an excellent chance the Nuggets and Trail Blazers will be battling for playoff seeding.

If the Pelicans are themselves in the playoff hunt, these games could have huge postseason implications. Further, it is equally possible that the Warriors are either resting starters or fighting for a top seed in the final games of the season. Should the Warriors have something to play for down the stretch in a home game, it is difficult to imagine the Pelicans pulling off an upset in that situation (though it isn’t impossible if your star player is capable of the occasional monster block).

Next: New Orleans Pelicans Schedule: There's No Place Like Home

While the 2016-17 season has many generous homesteads, the Pelicans pay for it with some brutal road trips. Because the team has historically struggled during these trips, one can only hope that the new-look Pelicans learn from this history instead of falling into tradition and repeating it.

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