The Precipice of the New Schedule

The 2006-07 schedule will be released today, and some reports are already leaking out.

Thanks to Sekou Smith in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, we know that the Kings will host the Hawks on Dec. 10 and visit Atlanta on March 19.

What are the immediate things I'll look for when the full schedule comes out later today?

• Please, let there be no game on November 7. Unless, of course, you want to ruin the chances for an arena tax passage. (A game the day before, against say the Knicks, and a game on the 8th against the Lakers is A-OK, though.)
• Only one Texas Triangle, por favor. If the Kings must play Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio in the same week, let's hope it only happens once.
• Can we see the Lakers before January? It could really liven up the home crowd to get Kobe in here earlier.
• Let's just take Miami off the schedule, okay? The Kings haven't beat them since Shaq arrived, and Shaq didn't even play in all of those games.
• One sure loss is probably at Indiana. Ron-Ron played awful there last season - the worst I've ever seen him. I don't care how down they are - that's always going to be a difficult place for Artest to play.
• At Detroit will be fun, however. I really can't wait to hear the starting lineups announced at that one.
• Let's hope a string of Clippers games come right after a tough stretch. For the Kings, there's nothing like playing the Clippers to get things on the right track.
• The games against the Hornets should be interesting. Bobby Jackson seriously raised his games against Sactown last season, and I bet Peja Stojakovic will have something, too.
• We didn't get to see Gilbert Arenas vs. Ron Artest last season, since the one post-trade match-up was the only non-TV game of the year. So I'm really looking forward to that.