The NBA's Christmas Day schedule shows why Damian Lillard should have stayed in Portland

There are four key parts of the NBA regular season that fans must watch: the season opener, the NBA In-Season Tournament, the playoff race at the end of the season and Christmas Day. The NBA's biggest superstars and top teams take center stage on December 25th, making for one of the most exciting days of regular season play.

The NBA schedule for the 2024-25 Christmas season was recently released by NBA Insider Shams Charania. As expected, there are many familiar names and former championship teams included. Here is the five-game schedule:

The team that seems out of place is the San Antonio Spurs. Granted, it will be awesome to see Victor Wembanyama play at Madison Square Garden on Christmas Day. It's understandable why the NBA added the Spurs, but it's still surprising since they finished last season with a record of 22-60.

Some may complain that the storyline between the Lakers and Warriors seems contrived since neither had a great season in the 2023-24 season, but we don't get the chance to see two of the best players of all time compete against each other that often anymore.

One team that didn't make it but had a good chance is the Oklahoma City Thunder. They finished the season as the best team in the West at 57-25, have their own superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and should be even better next season. It would have been great to see how they fare against another top team.

The other team not on the list is the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks meet the criteria the NBA values ​​when deciding who to feature on Christmas Day. They are newly crowned 2021 NBA champions and have two superstars in the spotlight in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. Last season, they had one Christmas Day game, losing 129-122 to the New York Knicks. But the excitement surrounding their revamped team after their blockbuster move to sign Lillard last summer has died down.

The markets of Oklahoma City and Milwaukee certainly played a role in the NBA's decision to cut them from the schedule. But the Bucks also appear to be in disarray, finishing last season with a 49-33 record, capped by a first-round playoff exit. Taurean Prince and Gary Trent Jr. are much-needed additions to give them more depth. But the other teams in the East, particularly the 76ers with Paul George and the Knicks with Mikal Bridges, have gotten significantly better.

The Bucks are, at best, the fourth-best team in the East. And what makes matters worse is that they have a 36-year-old center in Brook Lopez and no young player to fill that inevitable gap.

The Bucks disappointed expectations when they signed Lillard, and his trade request doesn't seem to have been worth the inconvenience of leaving him behind and the player he established in Portland as arguably the franchise's best player of all time.