With the start of the 2023-24 season right around the corner, I decided to look at how far each team is scheduled to travel throughout the season (roughly). I say roughly as we have the new in-season tournament this year so we don't have the full schedule due to the unscheduled knockout rounds. This means the analysis is incomplete, nevertheless, you can find a summary table of the total distance each team will roughly travel.
| Rank | Team | Total Distance (km) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles Clippers | 80,882 |
| 2 | Brooklyn Nets | 75,512 |
| 3 | Portland Trail Blazer | 73,356 |
| 4 | Denver Nuggets | 72,600 |
| 5 | Minnesota Timberwolves | 72,371 |
| 6 | Sacramento Kings | 72,364 |
| 7 | Miami Heat | 70,038 |
| 8 | Golden State Warriors | 67,646 |
| 9 | New Orleans Pelicans | 67,262 |
| 10 | San Antonio Spurs | 66,931 |
| 11 | Boston Celtics | 66,895 |
| 12 | Los Angeles Lakers | 66,846 |
| 13 | Memphis Grizzlies | 66,582 |
| 14 | Phoenix Suns | 65,665 |
| 15 | Orlando Magic | 65,568 |
| 16 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 65,030 |
| 17 | Dallas Mavericks | 63,994 |
| 18 | Philadelphia 76ers | 63,435 |
| 19 | New York Knicks | 62,671 |
| 20 | Utah Jazz | 62,593 |
| 21 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 61,513 |
| 22 | Atlanta Hawks | 60,691 |
| 23 | Houston Rockets | 60,554 |
| 24 | Chicago Bulls | 59,218 |
| 25 | Washington Wizards | 58,378 |
| 26 | Charlotte Hornets | 57,840 |
| 27 | Milwaukee Bucks | 55,456 |
| 28 | Detriot Pistons | 54,302 |
| 29 | Indiana Pacers | 53,480 |
| 30 | Toronto Raptors | 52,411 |
Each distance is calculated from stadium to stadium along a line of minimum distance. It's also assumed that a team will only travel from one game to the next, so everyone sleeps at the stadium until they're set to play their next game - no going home (or anywhere else) between games (sorry teams!).
For example, the Lakers play the Nuggets on opening night, so their travel distance is from their home stadium to the Nuggets' stadium (1,337 km). In the analysis, the Lakers will stay at the Nuggets' stadium until the next game, where they travel directly from the Nuggets' stadium back home (1,337 km). The total distance travelled is 1,337 + 1,337 = 2,674 km and so on and so on until we get the above numbers.
I've also made an interactive dashboard in Tableau where you can dive deeper into the distance analysis at the link below. If you enjoy it and fancy helping me out, nominate it for "Viz of the Day" using the little ribbon button in the top right of the dashboard.
NBA Schedule 2023-24 Dashboard
TL;DR The Clippers are scheduled to travel the furthest total distance (80,882 km) this season with the Raptors scheduled to travel the least (52,411 km).
lol The Clippers travelling the most even tho they have a team in their city is hilarious
And it's not like Sac/Warriors/Suns etc aren't relatively close 😂
Even compared to Lakers, who are based on the same damn arena, they're way worse off lol
There was an article in the LA Times (I think) how the Clippers have been screwed over the last couple of years on scheduling when it was announced they we’re getting their own arena. It was always bad for them anyway as they got the short end on scheduling behind the Lakers and the Kings(NHL). Arena owners, AEG, were not going to do any favors for Ballmer.
What’s also crazy is that the Nets have a game in Mexico and Paris and still don’t travel as far as the Clippers!
I guess but Brooklyn is really close to Boston, NY and Philly.