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.

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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).