The NBA schedule was released on Wednesday night, and the biggest thing most teams look at is how many back-to-backs they will play and how many nationally televised games they have. This year, the NBA made a concerted effort to try and limit the amount of back-to-backs due to health concerns. However, that didn't seem to be the case for the Detroit Pistons, and Andre Drummond doesn't seem very happy about it, according to his Twitter account.
The average amount of back-to-back sets for NBA teams lat year was 19.3, and this year it has been cut modestly to 17.8 per team, according to Sekou Smith of NBA.com, which is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately for the Pistons, they are not one of the teams that benefit from the reduced amount of back-to-backs, as they are scheduled to play a total of 20. Drummond is the Pistons marquee player and is clearly not happy about this, as they are playing more back-to-backs than last season's average.
Aside from the high amount of back-to-backs, the Pistons are not scheduled to be on national television at all this year. It is possible that if the Pistons have a better year than most expect, the NBA could move them into a national TV spot. But as of right now they won't be afforded the luxury of playing in front of the whole country.
The Pistons come into the 2015-16 season with very low expectations, as they have lost Greg Monroe and replaced him with guys like Marcus Morris and Ersan Ilyasova. Reggie Jackson will now have a full year in Detroit, and 22-year-old Drummond is a budding superstar, so maybe there is cause for more optimism there. The one thing Stan Van Gundy and the Pistons are priding themselves on this season is their depth, as they believe they have 10 solid guys that can be contributing rotational players.
The Pistons are a team that could possibly surprise people this year, but they in all likelihood aren't going to be a playoff team. Regardless of how good they are though, the country deserves to see Andre Drummond on national TV, as he has become a dominant force in his three seasons in the league. In each of the past two seasons, Drummond has averaged over 13 points and more than 13 rebounds per game while getting close to two blocks, and it is scary to think that he is only going to get better.
