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The tournament starts Friday 11/3. Seems kind of early to me, barely a week into the season. To me you have it begin after Thanksgiving leading up to the big Christmas day games which really kick off the main part of the season. I understand they have new court layouts for all teams during tournament games. Because regular games will be played on the same time frame as in-season tournament games.
> A. Group Play All 30 teams have been randomly drawn into groups of five within their conference based on won-loss records from the 2022-23 regular season. Beginning Nov. 3 and continuing through Tuesday, Nov. 28, each team will play four designated Group Play games on “Tournament Nights” – one game against each opponent in its group, with two games at home and two on the road. > B. Knockout Rounds
Eight teams will advance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the best standing in Group Play games in each of the six groups and two “wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group). The Knockout Rounds will be single-elimination games in the Quarterfinals (played in NBA team markets on Monday, Dec. 4 and Tuesday, Dec. 5), Semifinals and Championship. The qualifying teams will compete for a prize pool and the new In-Season Tournament trophy, the NBA Cup.
So all these count as regular season games except for the championship game. So if a team keeps winning & makes it to the knockout round quarterfinals & semifinals they're awarded with playing a tougher team that'll count as a regular season game? And they could end up playing the tougher opponent more times than they normally would in a season?
Say the Kings play the Warriors 3x a season. They could both advance to the knockout round & Kings get rewarded for advancing with the chance to play the Warriors a 4th time in one season & that'll count as a regular season game if it's in the knockout round?
A team may want to not advance to the knockout round so they get easier opponents the next 2 games.
This is so pointless & meaningless to me. What do teams actually get out of this?? There's a lot of finagling and juggling around to make it possible, but if Adam Silver really wanted to make this something, he should've put an incentive to actually go out and win, and I've thought of 2 scenario's where I believe team(s) would actually go out and give a full effort even 2 weeks into the season:
Option A: Whoever wins the in-season tournament qualifies for the postseason regardless of conference standing. I mean the whole goal is to win the Larry O'Brien trophy, be the last team standing, so why wouldn't you want to participate in that?? The Pistons as we know aren't going to be very good, but they could give Cade Cunningham and others a chance to play on the playoff stage. They'd get bounced in 4 games probably all blowouts, but it would give them some exposure on the national stage and some playoff experience, and all that would need to happen (since they aren't qualifying for the playoffs based on their league standing) would be to give max effort in this in season tournament. And for those of you asking what happens if the team that wins already has qualified for the playoffs: I thought about rewording that to include automatically qualifying for next seasons playoffs, but that wouldn't be ideal because a team like the Warriors or Bucks would basically shut it down the whole regular season, even more than they already do knowing even if we finish this season 15-67 we are still going to the playoffs anyways, and than you combine that with let's say another team that's in the 15-25 win range wins the following in season tournament and now you have 2 extra playoff teams for that season. I just don't know how you are going to manage to make that work. So that's why even though I think option A is easier to implement, option B is the way to go.
Option B: Whoever wins the in season tournament gets a guaranteed top 5 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, regardless of conference standing, and this is the main thing: The lottery is thrown out!! And the pick is a sliding pick: If a team with one of the 3 worst records at seasons end wins the in season tournament they are guaranteed to have the #1 pick: a team with the 4th through 15th worst records (i.e. the rest of the lottery) are guaranteed to have a top 3 pick, while the rest of the league (playoff teams) will have a top 5 pick. One of the easier ways to win the championship is by getting potential stars, and the best way to do that is to have a high pick. Using my Pistons example again: they win the in season tournament, with the second worst record in the entire league. For the upcoming draft there will be no lottery needed for the Pistons because they will be selecting first overall.
This is so pointless & meaningless to me. What do teams actually get out of this?? There's a lot of finagling and juggling around to make it possible, but if Adam Silver really wanted to make this something, he should've put an incentive to actually go out and win, and I've thought of 2 scenario's where I believe team(s) would actually go out and give a full effort even 2 weeks into the season:
Option A: Whoever wins the in-season tournament qualifies for the postseason regardless of conference standing. I mean the whole goal is to win the Larry O'Brien trophy, be the last team standing, so why wouldn't you want to participate in that?? The Pistons as we know aren't going to be very good, but they could give Cade Cunningham and others a chance to play on the playoff stage. They'd get bounced in 4 games probably all blowouts, but it would give them some exposure on the national stage and some playoff experience, and all that would need to happen (since they aren't qualifying for the playoffs based on their league standing) would be to give max effort in this in season tournament. And for those of you asking what happens if the team that wins already has qualified for the playoffs: I thought about rewording that to include automatically qualifying for next seasons playoffs, but that wouldn't be ideal because a team like the Warriors or Bucks would basically shut it down the whole regular season, even more than they already do knowing even if we finish this season 15-67 we are still going to the playoffs anyways, and than you combine that with let's say another team that's in the 15-25 win range wins the following in season tournament and now you have 2 extra playoff teams for that season. I just don't know how you are going to manage to make that work. So that's why even though I think option A is easier to implement, option B is the way to go.
Option B: Whoever wins the in season tournament gets a guaranteed top 5 pick in the upcoming NBA draft, regardless of conference standing, and this is the main thing: The lottery is thrown out!! And the pick is a sliding pick: If a team with one of the 3 worst records at seasons end wins the in season tournament they are guaranteed to have the #1 pick: a team with the 4th through 15th worst records (i.e. the rest of the lottery) are guaranteed to have a top 3 pick, while the rest of the league (playoff teams) will have a top 5 pick. One of the easier ways to win the championship is by getting potential stars, and the best way to do that is to have a high pick. Using my Pistons example again: they win the in season tournament, with the second worst record in the entire league. For the upcoming draft there will be no lottery needed for the Pistons because they will be selecting first overall.
As a Lakers fan I have no excitement towards this in-season tournament at all. I suppose if they make the final 4 in Vegas it will get my attention. But the final game does not even count for the regular season. A totally pointless game where your players risk injury. If you make the finals better to sit your stars out of it and lose. Of course of both teams did that Adam Silver's head would explode.
I do like your ideas. It might motivate the teams who don't have much of a chance to make the playoffs. And the court colors for this. It would actually look good for regular NBA games. Courts have not really changed much since Naismith put up his baskets back long ago.
I like option B also. My worry is that coaches and the front office and the fans would like it and find it motivating… but players would not. You’re basically playing to bring in a new, young star who will be competing for minutes and attention. If you’re a player, the tournament would be like playing to win your replacement, no? Maybe combine that with a cash prize and the players would feel better about it.
This is so pointless & meaningless to me. What do teams actually get out of this??
Who cares what you think? (I'm saying this from an NBA executive point of view) The teams will comply because they are handsomely compensated for dribbling, dunking, and defense.
This is about globalization and the FIBAnization of the NBA by instituting a FIBA like tournament.
They are also hoping to bring some excitement to these early season games that people don't care much about.
IIRC, the winner gets 500k a player if they win it all. Not much if you're Lebron James. However, if you're the 13th- 15th man on the roster, that's a good chunk of change.
The Pacers game was a blast. I tuned in in the second quarter thinking I'd watch a little bit. Got sucked in & watched the rest of the game. Pacers crowd was electric the entire game. Haliburton was unreal (26/10/13, his first career triple double) & the uptempo Pacers are as fun to watch as anyone right now. Hali is one of my favorite point guards to watch with how smoothly he controls the offense & uptempo pace. Pacers went on a 9-0 run with game tied with 1:30 left.
I think the in season tournament's going to be a success. Players are really in to it.
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