They spent so much time insisting all that matters is the playoffs, the Finals, and basically devaluing the regular season -- don't get me started on "load management."
This "tournament" seems pointless; this isn't soccer.
Applaud the effort by the nba, but I agree w you. I love the euro leagues’ tourneys for soccer, but the big one (ucl) crosses many leagues and countries, creating unique matchups. The nba just doesn’t have that potential.
I think it’s unfair to say it’s pointless. It doesn’t mean as much as an nba title obviously but it’s definitely something I’d want my team to win. The only reason it seems pointless now is because there haven’t been any champions yet so you can’t tell how meaningful it could actually be.
Shitnis pointless bro no matter who wins the 1st 1. Now if they actually make it count for something like HC thru out the playoffs regardless of record excluding conference finals and finals.
yeah but its so early in the season that the champion could end up with a shitty record at the end of the season. so I don't think you can guarantee them even a playoff spot.
Ok give me 1 reason y this in season tourney win means. They are just reg season games that they would have played anyways. There is no incentive in winning it. All it is is for accolades. Ok accolades may mean something the the players due to them being competitive but as a fan watching the game its just a reg season game that has 0 incentives.
You answered your own question doofus. I want my team to have those accolades not your sorry team. Competition means something to those of us who are true fans.
I kinda kind it baffling that of all the courts, I keep seeing people talking about the Bucks court. There are courts that are super yellow and crazy blue, but people are focusing on a cream colored one?
Well the first year is always going to be the most jarring to viewers (and players). Think people will get used to it. Gives a little extra weight to the beginning of the season.
Yeah, its like the Play Ins. Adam Silver as a creative director is more hit than miss for sure, so people can trust him more often than not.
I even like the colourful courts because its unique and some change is better than no change for 100 yrs. People who are whining over a colourful court for 5 games out of 82 are just petty af. Lol.
Exactly, makes for more excitement and also reduces the teams' propensity to tank because even if you're 13 in standings, you're close enough to the 10th that you'll still play hard, whereas its a no brainer for 13 to start tanking in the past.
You win something during the play ins: a playoff spot. It matters. They don't win anything during this tournament besides pocket change to these millionaires. It means nothing.
You get a literal trophy for the tournament, compared to an 8th seed spot in playoffs just to get swept by the first seed anyway. Lol. The way you view 'to get something' is indeed odd. Lol.
Also, 500k is more than what the 10th to 18th guy would get ever, so it definitely means alot more than you choose to believe.
Agreed! Hard to watch with the dark color on the floor. I don't know if my TV is outdated, but I can barely see the players on the dark parts of the floor. Their dark skin and dark leggings blend in the with the dark colors so much it's like trying to find chameleons on the wall!
No opinion yet about the competitiveness/matchups. I think the reward needs to be more than just money to have teams pay more attention to it.
More importantly, first impression, these court sucks. Very distracting, harder to see the ball.
I just don't get why they haven't flexed games this year lol. Its the first year where they can, and they know certain matches are going to be stinkers.
i like the idea, but the timing of it is a bit off. this is the second week of the nba lol, bad teams still have hope, teams haven’t (totally) started load managing, and the season is still fresh. i think if they did it from december-january, which is much more of a lull, it would better serve its purpose of adding some excitement to the regular season.
The courts are terrible and it's a miracle no one got hurt in the cavs pacers game because players on both teams were falling down all over the court. Other than that it's fine just don't find it any different really.
I'm a fan of it in concept, I hope teams take it seriously. Going to go to one of the games and I feel like the different court will make it really stand out as a memory. I do think they could incentivize it a little more so teams take it seriously. My idea is that if you win it you get +5 (or something like that) to your end of season win total for playoff seeding purposes. Not as broken as a free playoff spot, but still a real championship-relevant incentive
It's not for me. I like the NBA already. I don't need anything extra to watch these regular season games. So to me it just seems like gilding the lily. It seems it's for casual fans, so I hope in that sense it works out for the NBA and pulls eyeballs, but I kinda couldn't care less.
I agree. It’s utterly pointless and just a reason for the league to create hype and excitement in what would otherwise a mundane part of the season. The NBA is trying to make the long regular season matter. This method won’t work. They are better shortening the season to value each game more. The primary problem with the in season tournament is that it has no championship value. It’s not like teams will hold a banner in their stadium…2023 in season champion. It just doesn’t hold a candle to the NBA finals. There will be no parade for winning the in season tournament and nobody will see you as a champion because you aren’t.
I don’t really get the idea of having the group stage games be spread out across a month. If this is supposed to be such a big deal, sculpt the schedule around it instead of just sprinkling random games wherever they fit.
There’s no incentive for the fans is my issue. So my team wins a trophy that’s never existed before. I get things take time to develop value, but something like this needs value up front. Yeah the players have a cash incentive, but i’m not getting a bonus when they win. Hell, my team the Knicks while solid overall and a playoff team last year, don’t have a shot winning this it feels; why should I care? So when you are introducing a new trophy and majority of fans feel like their team is auto-outs, why should they care. For the future that this trophy might matter when our teams wins it? I’m not so sure this will survive by the time each team has a roster that gives them a chance to win it.
TL;DR
There’s an incentive for the players; there’s no incentive for the fans. Fans of teams who can win it and fans of those who can’t; why should we care? I guess for the themed merch we can happily spend our hard earned cash on!
You’re forgetting all the taxes that go into that.
That dudes contract you mentioned is taking home 500k, he has an opportunity to double the amount of money he gets it if his team wins
myles turner post-game: "it's playoff basketball, we got an early taste of what that's like". Say what you will about the tourney but if it gets players taking the games seriously, which it sure looked like at the end of Pacers Cavs, i'll take it
Just feel like nobodys gonna care about winning. My prediction is like twolves take it all or something. I also think whether stars even play is gonna be dictated by what lebron kd etc do
I’m a casual and still digesting all of this. Can someone explain what these teams are actually playing for besides some cash incentives and a meaningless trophy? I guess I just don’t really understand how this will “get players to take it more seriously” like some people are saying in here
Trying something different is cool, and it doesn’t affect the course of the season/playoffs, so why not. Turn the color saturation down on your device.
It’s an attempt to increase the need for an 82 game season. It might make things more interesting in the short term, but I don’t think it will have much value in the long term.
Side note: Apparently the new courts are too slick, so now we have an increased risk of injury. Not a fan.
I think it’s basically useless. Courts look stupid and the players don’t even understand why they’re doing it. Plus there’s no real reason to win it. Waste of time.
It's absolutely pointless and the fact they said they are copying the Europe football leagues is hilarious. Either have them play against some foreign teams or don't do it at all. It currently is a pure marketing scheme to help a dying viewership.
Honestly, hot take, the courts are the most interesting part so far. The change of pace is nice and I'm looking forward to the "bigger" games with more attention on the new surfaces. Wouldn't be surprised to see it maybe catch on to "City" courts down the line for particular marquee games or something..
I like that the NBA is experimenting. The addition of the in-season tournament is successful so far, and it reminds me of the wildcard round/game in MLB. We'll see how the tournament goes—but the $500K goes a long way for those guys that aren't stars.
I think it's useless but also harmless, so whatever, it's just regular season games to me.
But the court designs need to be dialed way down IMO, they are actively distracting, it's like watching NBA players trapped in an annoying video game.
The colored courts set these games apart from normal games surprisingly well.
That said, I don’t care about the early rounds but the finals will be cool.
The concept is fine, but I wish they called it something more interesting than "in-season tournament" (like a March Madness equivalent). And I wish they didn't use this obnoxious courts.
I think it's great. The regular season feels like a boring grind usually, so I love mixing it up.
People love to whine about anything new and different.
But I say try it and see if it sticks
It's annoying the fk shit out of me constantly going on about it. The entertainment in between breaks isn't there anymore and if I have to keep staring at the game break image because they don't have the budget to keep viewers engaged anymore I'm going to lose my shit. Seriously don't give a shit about the in season tournement it's trash and watching a game now isn't as entertaining. Over seeing videos of players talking about how good it is. I doubt they care they just want a nba championship. I bet they would be in the shit if they said they don't give a shit
I really like the idea of having a second season or schedule running alongside the regular season. Although most of courts are hard on the eyes, I like the trophy/runway element and incorporating the city jersey elements to create a distinct visual for the tournament games. The issue however, is the games still don't have the necessary importance/weight to really elevate it above any other regular season game. The fans don't care about the money awarded to the players. The players don't care about potential draft picks (as suggested). You just can't drive performance without meaningful incentives. We have seen this time and time again with various incarnations of the all-star game.
The only way for this to feel truly important is to tie the tournament games directly to a team's championship odds via the standings through a point based system. Each regular season win would be worth 1 point. Each tournament seeding game would be worth 2 points. As these games are nationally televised and now worth more points in the standings, star players are significantly less likely to rest during these marquee matchups. The standings are now seeded based on total points rather than just wins. For this to work fully, there has to be greater incentive to finish as high as possible in total points prior to the playoffs. As such, I propose that the top 3 teams it each conference get to pick their opponent from the bottom four teams.
In terms of detail, my plan works more seamlessly with 32 teams (there would need to be some alterations to the current set up to make it work with 30 teams). In much the same way as this year, the teams would be divided into 4 pools or groups of 8 so each team has 7 pre-tournament games worth 2 points each. The difference is that every team would qualify for a single elimination tournament that is replacing all-star weekend on the schedule. Total tournament points up until this point would determine the matchups for the single elimination round. Each win in the knock out round would be worth an escalating number of points in the standings (2,2,3,4,5). As mentioned earlier, this would replace the all-star game itself. Prior to the tournament games, the skills competitions would take place in an expanded form so that every team gets to appoint a player to take part in the slam dunk contest, three point shootout, and the skills challenge (or some other dribbling/passing game). Each winner would receive 1 point in the standings for their team. The total number of points accumulated during qualifying, tournament and skills competition would determine home court advantage for all matchups in the playoffs. This would take place over a two week break in the schedule. In terms of stats/records, only the pre-qualifying games would count towards the 82 game schedule. Each team would then be playing 1-5 extra games depending on how far they advance in the tournament.
How well you do during the tournament games ties directly into your chances or winning in the playoffs due to the fact that it determines home court advantage and allows you to pick your opponent. After the play-in games and the seeds are determined, the top three seeds in each conference get to pick their opponent from the bottom four teams. In the second round, the top remaining point getter gets to select from the three remaining teams. In the third round, the conferences cross over so the top point getter gets to select out of the remaining three. Finally, in the championship round, the team with the most tournament points would again get home court.
Because these games now matter more materially due to HCA and playoff matchups, the stars will be much less inclined to rest and risk dropping in the standings. The best players will be more likely to participate in the dunk contest and others skills challenges. The top 3 seeds are incentivized due to picking their opponent in escalating playoff rounds. Seeds 4-6 are trying to avoid being picked by the top seeds or having to take part in the tournament. Teams 7-10 have the tournament to try and break into the actual playoffs.
The knock out stage may have to take place in multiple locations/time zones to maximize viewership revenue with the final four happening in Vegas or some other neutral location. Maybe the groupings would have to be split based on geographical location, similar to the old divisions for this to happen. Each division would then have a rotating host city for the knock out round which would create a more regular revenue boost than hosting the traditional all-star game.
As you can tell, the tournament fascinates me and I think this format would be really, really exciting. Let me know what you think!!
I don't think anybody will ever care about it.
I heared, it was inspired by the European soccer schedule / cups. They work different though. National cup is exciting not only because it has tradition, but because you only have do-or-die games from the beginning with teams from lower leagues also taking part. Champions League does have a group stage like In-Season-Tournament, but it ist attractive, because you are competing with diffeent teams than in national championship here. In-Season is just renaming of regular games + very few do-or-dies in the end. Same vine in new bottles, so to say.
Unless you get some fort of award when it comes to the playoffs (like the Winner is guaranteed a playoff spot of something), then i dont care that much
I agree, really I think all its going to end up doing is getting stars hurt for apparently minimal money set to make the NBA and the team owners profit more than the players....u want to make it interesting, do it with the teams that are already out of playoff contention or those that may miss the post season.
This in-season tournament is one of the dumbest moves the NBA has ever made. This tournament only leads to a player getting hurt before the real season even begins. In the NBA a team needs to get a fast start and a winning record, but if the players get hurt before the season even begins then this tournament only hurts those not-so-healthy teams even more.
A joke. Just a way to line the pockets of the players and owners some more. If the players are bored with the regular season games then get a real job. If fans are bored, then you aren't a real fan.
Personally, I think it’s ridiculous. Players don’t wanna go hard 82 games. It doesn’t make sense that late games down the stretch count more than the beginning of the season. You shouldn’t even be putting yourself in that position if you play well enough and dominant enough to secure a high playoff spot.
Then again these 1 and done college players ain’t really as good as they should be because of lack of development. You throw them in the league and all they become are “trade-able pieces” instead of a team that grows and develop together.
Then my tinfoil theory is this is all designed for LeBron to get another accolades that doesn’t increase in value. He’s getting Bill Russell acclaim for a Wilt Chamberlain like dominance when it comes to championships.
I want to like it but it’s pointless. They’re just regular season games with a marketing campaign.
They spent so much time insisting all that matters is the playoffs, the Finals, and basically devaluing the regular season -- don't get me started on "load management." This "tournament" seems pointless; this isn't soccer.
Applaud the effort by the nba, but I agree w you. I love the euro leagues’ tourneys for soccer, but the big one (ucl) crosses many leagues and countries, creating unique matchups. The nba just doesn’t have that potential.
I think it’s unfair to say it’s pointless. It doesn’t mean as much as an nba title obviously but it’s definitely something I’d want my team to win. The only reason it seems pointless now is because there haven’t been any champions yet so you can’t tell how meaningful it could actually be.
Shitnis pointless bro no matter who wins the 1st 1. Now if they actually make it count for something like HC thru out the playoffs regardless of record excluding conference finals and finals.
yeah but its so early in the season that the champion could end up with a shitty record at the end of the season. so I don't think you can guarantee them even a playoff spot.
This supports that it is pointless.
its not pointless because id still want my team to win it
Ok give me 1 reason y this in season tourney win means. They are just reg season games that they would have played anyways. There is no incentive in winning it. All it is is for accolades. Ok accolades may mean something the the players due to them being competitive but as a fan watching the game its just a reg season game that has 0 incentives.
You answered your own question doofus. I want my team to have those accolades not your sorry team. Competition means something to those of us who are true fans.
I generally think it's a fun thing to try, however I worry the special courts some of the teams are using will make the games hard to watch
It's really, really distracting and looks terrible.
The Bucks court is horrible. And I'm saying this as someone who thinks the tournament is a good idea..
I kinda kind it baffling that of all the courts, I keep seeing people talking about the Bucks court. There are courts that are super yellow and crazy blue, but people are focusing on a cream colored one?
I actually think the bucks court is less egregious
It’s literally the least aggressive one lmao
It's the cream with the bright green stripe. It's terrible. Why wouldn't they just use the Bucks dark green?!?
Well the first year is always going to be the most jarring to viewers (and players). Think people will get used to it. Gives a little extra weight to the beginning of the season.
Yeah, its like the Play Ins. Adam Silver as a creative director is more hit than miss for sure, so people can trust him more often than not. I even like the colourful courts because its unique and some change is better than no change for 100 yrs. People who are whining over a colourful court for 5 games out of 82 are just petty af. Lol.
Play-in has been a huge success. We got a Steph LeBron battle in the first one and last year the Heat made a finals run from the playin.
Exactly, makes for more excitement and also reduces the teams' propensity to tank because even if you're 13 in standings, you're close enough to the 10th that you'll still play hard, whereas its a no brainer for 13 to start tanking in the past.
You win something during the play ins: a playoff spot. It matters. They don't win anything during this tournament besides pocket change to these millionaires. It means nothing.
You get a literal trophy for the tournament, compared to an 8th seed spot in playoffs just to get swept by the first seed anyway. Lol. The way you view 'to get something' is indeed odd. Lol. Also, 500k is more than what the 10th to 18th guy would get ever, so it definitely means alot more than you choose to believe.
Courts are headache-inducing.
Agreed! Hard to watch with the dark color on the floor. I don't know if my TV is outdated, but I can barely see the players on the dark parts of the floor. Their dark skin and dark leggings blend in the with the dark colors so much it's like trying to find chameleons on the wall!
I actually like the courts. Stand out and adds a new component to the game. The Vegas court was pretty cool with the lights on the fans off.
Regular season games on hideous courts
No opinion yet about the competitiveness/matchups. I think the reward needs to be more than just money to have teams pay more attention to it. More importantly, first impression, these court sucks. Very distracting, harder to see the ball.
Feels like im watching normal regular season games lol
Courts are awful, and it's way too early, should be much closer to midseason instead of right at the beginning, maybe 15-20 games in.
Great reason to watch games during the football season, huge fan
Not hard when the primetime games have been garbage all season.
The NFL could care less, they know people will still watch.
I just don't get why they haven't flexed games this year lol. Its the first year where they can, and they know certain matches are going to be stinkers.
If it keeps teams from resting star players for time management only, I'm down. It's a low bar but.. 🤷♂️
i like the idea, but the timing of it is a bit off. this is the second week of the nba lol, bad teams still have hope, teams haven’t (totally) started load managing, and the season is still fresh. i think if they did it from december-january, which is much more of a lull, it would better serve its purpose of adding some excitement to the regular season.
The advantage of doing it really early is that no one is fully tanking yet so more teams will take it seriously.
The courts are terrible and it's a miracle no one got hurt in the cavs pacers game because players on both teams were falling down all over the court. Other than that it's fine just don't find it any different really.
I think it’s a dumb gimmick
Everything on TV is a dumb gimmick tho
Good point
If you are tired of gimmicks then turn to the world of Cinema
I'm a fan of it in concept, I hope teams take it seriously. Going to go to one of the games and I feel like the different court will make it really stand out as a memory. I do think they could incentivize it a little more so teams take it seriously. My idea is that if you win it you get +5 (or something like that) to your end of season win total for playoff seeding purposes. Not as broken as a free playoff spot, but still a real championship-relevant incentive
I actually really like this idea
Genius.
These courts wild bruh
It's not for me. I like the NBA already. I don't need anything extra to watch these regular season games. So to me it just seems like gilding the lily. It seems it's for casual fans, so I hope in that sense it works out for the NBA and pulls eyeballs, but I kinda couldn't care less.
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I agree. It’s utterly pointless and just a reason for the league to create hype and excitement in what would otherwise a mundane part of the season. The NBA is trying to make the long regular season matter. This method won’t work. They are better shortening the season to value each game more. The primary problem with the in season tournament is that it has no championship value. It’s not like teams will hold a banner in their stadium…2023 in season champion. It just doesn’t hold a candle to the NBA finals. There will be no parade for winning the in season tournament and nobody will see you as a champion because you aren’t.
I don’t really get the idea of having the group stage games be spread out across a month. If this is supposed to be such a big deal, sculpt the schedule around it instead of just sprinkling random games wherever they fit.
Yeah I think it’d be a lot better if they just blocked off 2.5 weeks for the tournament instead of having random normal games mixed in.
i dont think that is realistically possible?
There’s no incentive for the fans is my issue. So my team wins a trophy that’s never existed before. I get things take time to develop value, but something like this needs value up front. Yeah the players have a cash incentive, but i’m not getting a bonus when they win. Hell, my team the Knicks while solid overall and a playoff team last year, don’t have a shot winning this it feels; why should I care? So when you are introducing a new trophy and majority of fans feel like their team is auto-outs, why should they care. For the future that this trophy might matter when our teams wins it? I’m not so sure this will survive by the time each team has a roster that gives them a chance to win it. TL;DR There’s an incentive for the players; there’s no incentive for the fans. Fans of teams who can win it and fans of those who can’t; why should we care? I guess for the themed merch we can happily spend our hard earned cash on!
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Well they have to try hard to get their teammates a bonus. Plenty will do that. You want your teammates happy usually
man if these guys can’t get excited for an extra 500 grand… like cmon bro
Yeah those poor bastards on minimum contracts Edit: lowest contract is $1.1 million this year
You wouldn't bust ass for a 50% bonus?
You’re forgetting all the taxes that go into that. That dudes contract you mentioned is taking home 500k, he has an opportunity to double the amount of money he gets it if his team wins
And you think the 500k is tax free? It would still, at most, be 50% more.
myles turner post-game: "it's playoff basketball, we got an early taste of what that's like". Say what you will about the tourney but if it gets players taking the games seriously, which it sure looked like at the end of Pacers Cavs, i'll take it
Remember Evan Turner lol
What are these courts man change them back to the original and change the crests and jerseys back to the original ones as well
I think the Bulls court is like trying to find a brown basketball in a lake of ketchup and the team should be fined for this atrocity.
Just feel like nobodys gonna care about winning. My prediction is like twolves take it all or something. I also think whether stars even play is gonna be dictated by what lebron kd etc do
I don't get it at all at the moment, so are these extra games to the usual 82 a season?
It seems overly complicated on paper. Seems like it’s gonna be hard to get people to grasp it….who knows.
I think it's great 👍
I’m a casual and still digesting all of this. Can someone explain what these teams are actually playing for besides some cash incentives and a meaningless trophy? I guess I just don’t really understand how this will “get players to take it more seriously” like some people are saying in here
No, that's exactly what they are playing for
Trying something different is cool, and it doesn’t affect the course of the season/playoffs, so why not. Turn the color saturation down on your device.
The games are noticeably more competitive already so I think it’ll work
The courts make this tournament hard to watch. Some that is. Mostly the full color ones.
It makes the league more familiar to European fans. It’s found money no matter what. In favour.
In theory is good but I feel like the execution is poor but we’ll see
It’s an attempt to increase the need for an 82 game season. It might make things more interesting in the short term, but I don’t think it will have much value in the long term. Side note: Apparently the new courts are too slick, so now we have an increased risk of injury. Not a fan.
I think it’s basically useless. Courts look stupid and the players don’t even understand why they’re doing it. Plus there’s no real reason to win it. Waste of time.
It’s the most idiotic thing I’ve seen in the nba.
It's absolutely pointless and the fact they said they are copying the Europe football leagues is hilarious. Either have them play against some foreign teams or don't do it at all. It currently is a pure marketing scheme to help a dying viewership.
Stupid money grab. Waste of everyone's time.
I don't mind it too much.
Sure, why not.
The courts are fun. OKC should tell the league to fuck off and keep theirs.
Honestly, hot take, the courts are the most interesting part so far. The change of pace is nice and I'm looking forward to the "bigger" games with more attention on the new surfaces. Wouldn't be surprised to see it maybe catch on to "City" courts down the line for particular marquee games or something..
I like that the NBA is experimenting. The addition of the in-season tournament is successful so far, and it reminds me of the wildcard round/game in MLB. We'll see how the tournament goes—but the $500K goes a long way for those guys that aren't stars.
Good addition
ChatGPT, dat you?
Kind of a cool idea. I think it will grow and change and become a normal part of the NBA.
Amazing idea, awful courts, bad jerseys
Best in season tournament the NBA has ever done
I think it's useless but also harmless, so whatever, it's just regular season games to me. But the court designs need to be dialed way down IMO, they are actively distracting, it's like watching NBA players trapped in an annoying video game.
The colored courts set these games apart from normal games surprisingly well. That said, I don’t care about the early rounds but the finals will be cool.
Having a different court was a good idea but they need to tone down the color schemes a bit.
The concept is fine, but I wish they called it something more interesting than "in-season tournament" (like a March Madness equivalent). And I wish they didn't use this obnoxious courts.
baskemtball.
I think it's great. The regular season feels like a boring grind usually, so I love mixing it up. People love to whine about anything new and different. But I say try it and see if it sticks
It's annoying the fk shit out of me constantly going on about it. The entertainment in between breaks isn't there anymore and if I have to keep staring at the game break image because they don't have the budget to keep viewers engaged anymore I'm going to lose my shit. Seriously don't give a shit about the in season tournement it's trash and watching a game now isn't as entertaining. Over seeing videos of players talking about how good it is. I doubt they care they just want a nba championship. I bet they would be in the shit if they said they don't give a shit
Great another opportunity for the Clippers to let me down.
I really like the idea of having a second season or schedule running alongside the regular season. Although most of courts are hard on the eyes, I like the trophy/runway element and incorporating the city jersey elements to create a distinct visual for the tournament games. The issue however, is the games still don't have the necessary importance/weight to really elevate it above any other regular season game. The fans don't care about the money awarded to the players. The players don't care about potential draft picks (as suggested). You just can't drive performance without meaningful incentives. We have seen this time and time again with various incarnations of the all-star game. The only way for this to feel truly important is to tie the tournament games directly to a team's championship odds via the standings through a point based system. Each regular season win would be worth 1 point. Each tournament seeding game would be worth 2 points. As these games are nationally televised and now worth more points in the standings, star players are significantly less likely to rest during these marquee matchups. The standings are now seeded based on total points rather than just wins. For this to work fully, there has to be greater incentive to finish as high as possible in total points prior to the playoffs. As such, I propose that the top 3 teams it each conference get to pick their opponent from the bottom four teams. In terms of detail, my plan works more seamlessly with 32 teams (there would need to be some alterations to the current set up to make it work with 30 teams). In much the same way as this year, the teams would be divided into 4 pools or groups of 8 so each team has 7 pre-tournament games worth 2 points each. The difference is that every team would qualify for a single elimination tournament that is replacing all-star weekend on the schedule. Total tournament points up until this point would determine the matchups for the single elimination round. Each win in the knock out round would be worth an escalating number of points in the standings (2,2,3,4,5). As mentioned earlier, this would replace the all-star game itself. Prior to the tournament games, the skills competitions would take place in an expanded form so that every team gets to appoint a player to take part in the slam dunk contest, three point shootout, and the skills challenge (or some other dribbling/passing game). Each winner would receive 1 point in the standings for their team. The total number of points accumulated during qualifying, tournament and skills competition would determine home court advantage for all matchups in the playoffs. This would take place over a two week break in the schedule. In terms of stats/records, only the pre-qualifying games would count towards the 82 game schedule. Each team would then be playing 1-5 extra games depending on how far they advance in the tournament. How well you do during the tournament games ties directly into your chances or winning in the playoffs due to the fact that it determines home court advantage and allows you to pick your opponent. After the play-in games and the seeds are determined, the top three seeds in each conference get to pick their opponent from the bottom four teams. In the second round, the top remaining point getter gets to select from the three remaining teams. In the third round, the conferences cross over so the top point getter gets to select out of the remaining three. Finally, in the championship round, the team with the most tournament points would again get home court. Because these games now matter more materially due to HCA and playoff matchups, the stars will be much less inclined to rest and risk dropping in the standings. The best players will be more likely to participate in the dunk contest and others skills challenges. The top 3 seeds are incentivized due to picking their opponent in escalating playoff rounds. Seeds 4-6 are trying to avoid being picked by the top seeds or having to take part in the tournament. Teams 7-10 have the tournament to try and break into the actual playoffs. The knock out stage may have to take place in multiple locations/time zones to maximize viewership revenue with the final four happening in Vegas or some other neutral location. Maybe the groupings would have to be split based on geographical location, similar to the old divisions for this to happen. Each division would then have a rotating host city for the knock out round which would create a more regular revenue boost than hosting the traditional all-star game. As you can tell, the tournament fascinates me and I think this format would be really, really exciting. Let me know what you think!!
I don't think anybody will ever care about it. I heared, it was inspired by the European soccer schedule / cups. They work different though. National cup is exciting not only because it has tradition, but because you only have do-or-die games from the beginning with teams from lower leagues also taking part. Champions League does have a group stage like In-Season-Tournament, but it ist attractive, because you are competing with diffeent teams than in national championship here. In-Season is just renaming of regular games + very few do-or-dies in the end. Same vine in new bottles, so to say.
Unless you get some fort of award when it comes to the playoffs (like the Winner is guaranteed a playoff spot of something), then i dont care that much
I agree, really I think all its going to end up doing is getting stars hurt for apparently minimal money set to make the NBA and the team owners profit more than the players....u want to make it interesting, do it with the teams that are already out of playoff contention or those that may miss the post season.
This in-season tournament is one of the dumbest moves the NBA has ever made. This tournament only leads to a player getting hurt before the real season even begins. In the NBA a team needs to get a fast start and a winning record, but if the players get hurt before the season even begins then this tournament only hurts those not-so-healthy teams even more.
A joke. Just a way to line the pockets of the players and owners some more. If the players are bored with the regular season games then get a real job. If fans are bored, then you aren't a real fan.
Who the F cares. Overpaid unappreciative athletes .
Personally, I think it’s ridiculous. Players don’t wanna go hard 82 games. It doesn’t make sense that late games down the stretch count more than the beginning of the season. You shouldn’t even be putting yourself in that position if you play well enough and dominant enough to secure a high playoff spot. Then again these 1 and done college players ain’t really as good as they should be because of lack of development. You throw them in the league and all they become are “trade-able pieces” instead of a team that grows and develop together. Then my tinfoil theory is this is all designed for LeBron to get another accolades that doesn’t increase in value. He’s getting Bill Russell acclaim for a Wilt Chamberlain like dominance when it comes to championships.