The Denver Nuggets have announced their preseason schedule and there are some interesting items of note.

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First, there are only five games, down from eight in previous years. The move to reduce the preseason schedule was made a year ago when Adam Silver informed fans that the preseason schedule was needlessly long and that fewer games were needed in order to accommodate some of the other changes that the league wanted to make to the regular season schedule (more on that in a moment). Five games is more than enough for a team to accomplish all that they need to before meaningful games begin. Most teams use the preseason to figure out their lineups and rotations, get a look at their rookies and new additions, and get into game shape. Five games is enough to get all of that done.

Second, the preseason schedule begins in September and ends on October 10th, much earlier than previous years. That’s because the NBA is starting the regular season earlier than previous years in an effort to cut down on back to backs. Last season, tipoff began on October 26th. This season, opining night will be October 17. That extra week and change will help stretch the season out and provide more rest in between games, hopefully eliminating or reducing the need for coaches to rest their star players.

Third, like last year, there is just one game in or around Denver. Four of the five games will be played on the road and beyond driving distance from the Denver Metro area. This will make it difficult to get an up close look at the 2017-18 Nuggets before the regular season begins. Thankfully, with the shortened schedule, the wait won’t be too long.

Lastly, just three of the games are televised by Altitude. This was really annoying last year as die-hard Nuggets fans were blacked out of watching their team play. Nuggets.com did not carry a live stream of any kind and a pair of those preseason games slipped through the cracks. Hopefully that won’t be the case this year. There is a small but rapidly growing base of die-hard Nuggets fans that are itching for NBA basketball right around the start of the season. Just as thousands flock to Dove Valley to catch a first glimpse at the Broncos and their training camp, there are thousands of Nuggets fans dying to catch a first glimpse of the new-look Nuggets.

We are officially in the dead of the off-season but this schedule makes you realize that the season is right around the corner. That first game against the Warriors is just eight weeks away which means media day is somewhere around six or seven weeks away. That’s close enough to start a countdown.

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