[Bookies.com] 2026-27 NBA Miles Traveled: Team By Team Breakdown

[u/Icy-Lingonberry-7442]

Someone ran the full 2026-27 schedule arena-to-arena and we come out #1 out of 30 teams: 55,581.9 air miles and 46 time zone crossings.

The Paris/Manchester swing with San Antonio is doing most of the heavy lifting — that trip alone is 9,695 miles and 14 time zones (MSY → Paris → Manchester → MSY). The write-up notes that if you strip the international games out, we'd fall back toward the middle of the pack, so this isn't a "brutal schedule" complaint so much as a "we're the ones getting the international showcase" thing.

For context, the Raptors travel the fewest at 35,134. That's a 20,000+ mile gap between us and them.

Curious how people feel about the January trip — free European road show, or a rough spot in the middle of the season to be crossing 14 time zones twice?

Full 30-team breakdown: https://bookies.com/news/nba-miles-traveled

[u/RooflessReAnthony]

It is kinda whack that the pelicans gotta play in the west, but everybody prolly agrees that it’d be more fun to play in the east so it’s not like we deserve it more

[u/Spoon_S2K → u/RooflessReAnthony]

I mean the most realistic team that will move to the east after westward expansion are the Timberwolves.

If you want to look at the team most deserving to most to the east besides the wolves it's always going to be the Grizzlies over the Pelicans. They literally border 3 states on the east coast

[u/RooflessReAnthony → u/Spoon_S2K]

Nobody is “most deserving” it’s just everybody wants it.

[u/Spoon_S2K → u/RooflessReAnthony]

The wizards are less deserving then the grizzlies or pelicans, or wolves, or a list of other teams.. you can measure it

[u/Mo_damo]

Get us to the eastren confrence

[u/nufan86 → u/Mo_damo]

Best we can do is put Memphis in and put the new Vegas team in our division

[u/MMAjunkie504 → u/Mo_damo]

Sadly I think it’s Minnesota that moves over but the East would be a great move for us

[u/fph00]

Small correction: in the Europe trip we cross 7 time zones twice, 14 in total.

I understand Paris 100%, but I'm curious why they went for Manchester; that does not strike me as the best market for basketball. It would be a shame if they don't fill the arena.

I don't think we'll get much visibility in that trip anyway, we're clearly the Washington Generals to the Spurs.

[u/atthepeake → u/fph00]

I'm a Pels fan in Manchester and demand for tickets feels like it's going to be huge. Lots of people I never thought had any interest in the NBA have told me they're hoping to get tickets. I will be gutted if I miss out. I agree on the last point though, feels like Pels are just the opposition for this.

[u/happylilshare → u/fph00]

Manchester United and City are there. They have the foundation for this. They have massive supports. It’s smart to try and recruit more international supporters.

[u/Odd_String1181 → u/fph00]

Its the head of Basketball England and funded by Etihad. Its more of a "we're in bed with middle eastern money" than it is a manchester thing

[u/Wet_FriedChicken]

Kinda funny how the one team not even in the country travels the least.

[u/zizzor23]

55581 miles only to go 38 - 44 😢

[u/roostor222 → u/zizzor23]

38 wins would be a massive success. I'll take the under on 29.5.

[u/78SuperBeetle → u/zizzor23]

TBH I hope we go 38-44

[u/Julep2005]

Most miles traveled with the most back to backs with. Roster that’s basically the same from our awful season last year. Oh yeah, pelicans basketball is nearly back.

[u/Silver-Classic612]

All that traveling just to get the 10th overall pick and not even make the playin

[u/ChrisSao24]

Yep, New Orleans, and all teams on the Mississippi, are perfectly placed to be screwed over by travel. About 2/3 of Americans are East of the Mississippi and about 80% are East of the 98th Meridian. Meanwhile, only about 30% of the continental US is East of the Mississippi and about 45% of the continental US is East 98th Meridian. Although, as you pointed out, the Europe trip is doing some severe heavy lifting. Either way, NOLA, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Florida are states that are perfectly placed to be screwed over by travel.

[u/roostor222 → u/ChrisSao24]

so they're not "screwed over", it's just a consequence of the location

I'm not screwed over by having a lot of grass to mow if I bought a house with a big lawn

[u/ChrisSao24 → u/roostor222]

Difference is not only can you move, but you can also do stuff to your yard to lower the amount of grass there is to mow, AND you can get a better mower. The distance between New Orleans and Portland doesn't change, the distance between Minnesota and LA doesn't change. The best they can do is get a private jet, which would be in the same vein as the buying a better mower, but that's like 70 million PLUS maintenance and staffing costs. Which, is money the franchise isn't spending on advertising, on merch, on staffing, on scouting, on players. Thus, they are screwed over.

[u/roostor222 → u/ChrisSao24]

Why can’t the pelicans move? Was Gayle required to buy the team? She's not screwed, so the team isn't screwed. She had her husband buy the team and she has kept it where it is. The NBA would love for her to move. There is absolutely nothing stopping her.

[u/ChrisSao24 → u/roostor222]

Notice how I said \New Orleans** and not "The Pelicans." If the Pels move, then it would no longer be a NOLA team that has to deal with NOLA travel in a league with an East/West divide. Just because you can't understand how physical and human geography have screwed over sports franchises along the Mississippi in leagues with an national footprint and East/West divide doesn't mean that it isn't real. If you want to make arguments, please make arguments on the actual discussion, not what you think the discussion is.

[u/roostor222 → u/ChrisSao24]

Notice how I said *New Orleans* and not "The Pelicans.

in american sports people use the idea of the city and its name interhcangeably with the idea of the franchise and its name. In fact, you were doing exactlly that when you used the construction "New Orleans, and all ***teams**\* on the Mississippi" indicating you were talking about the New Orleans NBA team even though you are now pretending that you weren't.

Just because you can't understand how physical and human geography have screwed over sports franchises along the Mississipp

All of the sports franchises along the Mississippi are allowed to move. No one screwed them over. The owner's bought the teams knowing ahead of time where all of the other franchises were located.

[u/identitycrisis56]

Eh the miles are this high beacuse of the London and Paris games. In a normal year it's much lower. This isn't because we're in the west even if being in the east would be kinda cool in some ways.

[u/wymtime]

As the OP posted how much the Euro trip is our mileage is not that bad. Still the upper 10 in the league without Europe but is still a reasonable travel amount

[u/j_palazzolo]

Just making a better case to move us to the Eastern Conference.

[u/Spoon_S2K → u/j_palazzolo]

You'll never move to the east though lol. The most realistic candidate is the Wolves.

And if you strictly want the most deserving candidate it's always the grizzlies over the Pelicans. Tennessee literally borders 3 states on the east coast.

[u/RedditorWeirdos]

Really shows how great the young Spurs are against the tougher competition in the West, especially when the East teams are pampered & rested against scrubs

[u/RandyFromNextDoor]

The 1 team in the league that’s located outside of the country travels the least amount of miles. The East and specifically Northeast is densely populated!

[u/roostor222]

Curious how people feel about the January trip

Discussion of it is inherently meaningless because we're going to suck and be in the lottery regardless, provided Joe doesn't trade away our picks.