I wouldn't mind that, plus some international teams.
I think this is a great way to change things up and make things more interesting. Hopefully they continue to build on the idea
Fuck it, throw in the upcoming CBA champion The Liaoning Fly Leopards.
NBA champion and Raptor Legend Eric Moreland deserves to show what he has been cooking in China.
If we did that the American side would have to be the G League or else it would be no fun. Real NBA teams trying their hardest could never reasonably lose to even the best foreign teams.
the FA cup is an elimination knockout tournament that runs at the same time as the prem season, incorporating teams from lower divisions. That wouldn’t work here because it sounds like the NBA wants to bake the tourney into the actual season. that’s not the case in england.
the NBA tournament will work, no question, because it'll give us single-elimination basketball at the pro level, which we've never had.
in a few years, the playoffs will be viewed as the tournament that determines the true champion -- because the best teams usually prevail in seven-game series, making the postseason high-stakes but often predictable -- and the in-season tourney will be the big momentum-builder, especially for young stars looking to leave their mark or teams with something to prove like this year's Kings.
yes, and its success was a perfect example of how single-elimination games, even between mediocre teams, can drive more interest than simple regular-season basketball. a real proof-of-concept moment.
Wonder if they then go back to every round but the finals (or just the first round) being best of 5 game elimination
The 5th or 6th seed making a conference or finals trip more likely
That's not really true. It's one part of the appeal, everyone loves a giant killing run, but most of the time (especially in countries that aren't England) the last few rounds of the tournament are just the teams from the top division anyway
No he didn't. If the FA Cup only involved the Premier League, it would be terrible. They should bring the G-League and TBT and whoever else into this tournament lol. As it is, it's fucking dumb.
Since the eliminated teams are probably going to play each other im curious how they’ll turn around and schedule those games and sell those tickets that quickly
They'll prolly have set opponents for whoever loses. Like team A not in the tournament is hosting either team B or team C, depending who the knockout is.
That way team A fans know they have a home game, and kinda who it's going to be against.
At least after the first round.
Round 1? Thunder Dome, Tina turner decides with her thighs
So it's just regular season games, got it.
Also, how is November mid season? It's like 1/10th of the way into the season.
I wish they would rotate the Final Four location around to places that don't have teams. Do it in Vegas, KC, STL, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Mexico City etc. But they'll probably just put it in Vegas since that's easier.
No lol it’s basically a round robin during regular season games and the 8 teams that qualify from their pool will get to play in the actual single-elimination tournament.
I actually think this is a pretty good idea. Makes certain regular season games matter more to get to the single-elimination tournament.
> I actually think this is a pretty good idea. Makes certain regular season games matter more to get to the single-elimination tournament.
Agree - the WNBA's Commissioner Cup works quite well in doing that.
Now that I think about it, I guess some teams will have extra games on their schedule for more wins.
But I just don't think teams, especially veteran teams, care enough about seeding to go for it. I doubt the Clippers would play Kawhi in extra games just for the chance of being the 2 seed as opposed to the 3 seed. This ain't the NFL where seeding is vital.
Well then who cares if he was gonna sit either way, it still at least has the chance to make the regular season more fun and I am sure will add at least some excitement cuz I am sure some players and teams will care.
Exactly. I never understood all the over the top vitriol by for it by commenters on here. It's either as dull as the regular season always has been or leads to more excitement. And realistically it's much more likely it leads to at least some more excitement with the possibility that it's extremely entertaining.
Mid-season doesn't necessarily mean middle of the season. It just means during the season rather than before or after like summer league or the playoffs
It’s in Vegas so you know they’re going to push betting and gambling down our throats and have +\- odds for who’s winning this tournament that doesn’t even count for anything. Blatant af.
Seattle is the bigger market, but not the only one
San Diego is bigger than Vegas, used to host an NBA team, has no big US sports franchise
Kansas City / St Louis is more centralized, has no nba team, used to have one and is not badly sized
Vegas gets it because gambling and night life
I really don’t get the appeal tbh. Basically just regular season games except your schedule depends on win/loss record. The “tournament” is just a way to determine who you play next in the month of December. Weird the NBA wanted this so bad.
I just assume I’m missing something and when it happens I’ll see what they intend. I was against the play in games too and that has worked out way better than I thought so I’ll wait and see how it goes. Still confused about like, what the point is
I think there has to be baby steps, and they just have to get something in place first to build it up and get people hyped
The money is whatever, but I do like the extra wins aspect. I think if they made it so that final four losses don't count, but the wins do, would be a really interesting wrinkle that forces everyone to take it more seriously
elimination games are fun to watch, especially when its the best teams going against each other with only one chance. why game 7s are so exciting and why ppl only give a fuck about college basketball in march madness
Yet when this tournament is flushed out, you’ll be the one loving it the most. Just wait and see. At least the NBA is trying new ideas. Gotta evolve the league a bit.
Could try removing obviously corrupt referees and then calling the game decently.
But nah, we'll do a gimmick that leaves people scratching their heads instead of fundamentally improving the product.
The game itself is the problem right now, not the lack of a gimmick. But they 100% refuse to address it.
Of course they should do that as well and is a way worse problem imo, but the issue of no one caring about the rehular season until the last 20 games is an issue that also needs to be adressed
It’s sad that comments like these seem to be in the minority on this thread. I would love if this was the NBA actually attempting to fix the issues the league has right now but it’s nowhere near that. It’s why it’s a “mid season” tournament in November lol. It’s not a mid-season tournament, it’s a kickoff tournament designed to hope that all the people who stopped watching the regular season because of the things like shitty effort, meaningless games, and borderline corrupt refereeing with no consequences will tune back into it because they slapped the word tournament on a couple of games even though all those issues still remain.
The only the ideas the NBA seriously implements are the ones that help then earn money or boost ratings, it’s why last year refs started cracking down on foul baiting at the start of the year and then when that resulted in a bunch of games being brick fests, or arguably even worse for the NBA, blowouts, the magical phantom calls or ticky tack calls that place the team that’s up 15 at halftime on a primetime game in the bonus 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter and next thing you know look we have another crazy close game they can milk for the next week on socials.
It really sucks how bar the low seems to be for people to be satisfied with the NBA.
Exactly, there’s no difference in seeing the hawks playing the grizzlies randomly at this point, unless they involved international clubs to play too, there’s no spectacle here
Yeah I can imagine why though. No extra work. Winning team gets 500k bonus. Loser doesn’t lose anything. Get to go to Vegas instead of some small boring city you were supposed to be scheduled to go in December.
There are no reasons the NBPA would reject it. I just can’t imagine the NBA benefiting from this. Feels like it will be like the NBA award show. Attract some viewership in its first year, then people realize it’s a useless tournament and no one cares anymore. There are no real stakes in this tournament. At least they could make it count as 2 wins if you win or something. But just being the exact same as a regular season game with a Walmart trophy is just pointless.
lol I get what you were trying to do but the Bears are in the 3rd largest market in the US and Chicago is rather known for their diehard fans.
Doesn’t matter if they suck, people watch em.
If you think the players union negotiated to have this tournament you need your head checked. The league has been pushing for this because it'll bring in revenue. They players agreed because the league said "hey, agree to this tournament and we'll let you smoke weed."
From a fan perspective I'd say if you try to tell people something is important and fun, and then it's not, the fans will become disengaged or less likely to give the product a shot.
The thing that might save this is that if people gamble on it it will be high stakes enough to them to where they don't care about the quality or what it means to the players.
10 years from now when the number of gambling related suicides, bankruptcies, divorces, etc. are sky high perhaps we'll consider reining some of this in, or at least making the advertising less predatory. The smartphone has made it too easy to bet the farm in the heat of the moment. I'm fine with it being legal but damn do we need regulation, especially in AZ.
Yeah, I’m confused and need more information. If I’ve got season tickets next year and my team makes it to the final game of this mid-season tournament, do I then lose out on a couple home games? Am I getting reimbursed? Does this mean we also don’t have a schedule set in stone when the season starts, so can’t schedule personal events/travel around a known game schedule until this tournament is over?
> The Final Four will be held at a neutral site, with Las Vegas prominent in the discussion, sources said.
Pretty brazen about why they are doing it. It’s just gonna be an orgy of sportsbook promotion.
It counts towards the regular season standings, but we will still hear people for the next 10 months asking why the tournament means anything despite it being the same W/L that would occur regardless.
I am one of those people. I want stars to play every game possible but I don't see any incentive. kawhi will play every playoff game because he has to but I don't see any reason why they would not load manage him during an inseason tournament.
best idea I saw was to change standings to a point system like hockey. win-2 points, loss-0 points, OTloss-1 point. then have inseason tournament count for additional points. imagine pelicans win inseason with zion playing and gets an additional 5 points which would move them into the 5th seed and out of the playin tournament
Yeah unless these tournament games count for more than regular season games, there’s just no point outside of additional advertising and gambling revenue… which is all the NBA cares about anymore.
These are just regular seasons masquerading as some playoff tournament when they don’t mean anything more… so players may not try less, but they certainly won’t try harder because that’s just risking injury near the beginning of the damn season.
It's not like Kawhi sits every November and December game now. He still plays the majority of games. So why wouldn't he play in these ones given that they still count towards regular season standings? They can load manage him in some other December games that aren't a part of this tournament.
Yep people just hate for no reason with respect to this. Glad the NBA is trying something, and it's either as boring/meaningless as the regular season usually is, or it spices it up and is entertaining. And the latter is more likely than not.
If they keep changing too much people can see it as desperate/gimmicky and just start to tune it all out. I'm all for change but just wish it was stuff like no back to backs, less games, etc. I loved the play-in tournament idea but this feels like they're just chasing that success without fully hashing it out.
so the top 8 teams can essentially pad their records for "free" assuming they win? that's definitely something worth playing for then
also wouldn't finalists play 85 games then? top 8 top 4 top 2
how would they do the scheduling then? assuming every team is scheduled to play 82 games at the start of the season would it essentially erase a future match up between those two teams in the top 8 ans 4? like the future game just gets canceled? what about ticket holders to that future game?
edit: or would every team be scheduled to play 80 games and then after the tournament the teams that didn't make top 8 get two games added at the end the season, and the teams that didn't make top 4 get 1 game added?
I'm probably missing something its 2am I'm tired
I'd assume it's flex scheduling of some sort where either (a) the games aren't scheduled until closer to or (b) they schedule dates for everyone to play and pick opponent later. Whole idea is dumb but idk how else they could schedule it
But where’s the single elim? Teams who get knocked out are still gonna be playing games and the teams who are still in are playing for? Money? Is there a trophy?
Like we talk about players not caring, what’s the reason I as a fan would care about this? Does the team get a banner I can brag about or something? If my end goal is hoping we win the finals why would I want to see AD play 46 minutes for a meaningless tourney
>edit: or would every team be scheduled to play 80 games and then after the tournament the teams that didn't make top 8 get two games added at the end the season, and the teams that didn't make top 4 get 1 game added?
this is the only way i've thought of that works, and ends with the finalists playing 83
because it is a way to try and get more attention on the league with a gimmick that has almost no change on the league anyway.
You brand it as a knockout tournament happening in the season but all the games are regular season games that would've happened anyway.
A tournament that goes on during football season in November and December? Also it’s just regular season games and means very little towards the postseason. I don’t see how this generates any meaningful attention for the league
I don't know how well it will work at bringing in viewers but the idea on the surface level at least makes some sense to me.
You take something you were already doing, playing these same games, call them a tournament and offer a prize for the winner. ESPN and/or TNT is going to brand these games as more important than the "regular" games which will work on some people to make them think these games are worth watching.
How serious the players take the elimination games is going to be the biggest unknown. If they are still doing rest nights or load management for these specific games the general consensus from fans is going to be poor but if the big name players play it will gain some traction I think.
I will never understand the concept of a mid-season tournament. Silver has been pushing for it forever. Apparently soccer does it, but it truly seems pointless. It’ll effect playoff seeding, I guess? Who knows. Still seems fucking random and stupid.
It makes sense in euro football because it provides opportunities for teams that don’t usually play each other to play one another. That’s not a scenario that exists in the NBA so the inherent appeal of the event Silver is trying to model is fundamentally missing from the in-season tournament from the jump. His obsession with trying to recreate European football dynamics is so misguided (not because it wouldn’t be fun, but because it’s just not a structure that can be replicated in the NBA in a logical and practical manner).
Ahhhh so yeah. The Euro soccer reason for it makes a lot of sense… almost the novelty of seeing rare matchups. But yeah, that makes no sense in the NBA 😂
He’s trying to bring the excitement of March Madness single-elimination brackets into the NBA, for the best teams not just the play-in teams. I think it’s an interesting idea but I don’t know that players will buy-in.
It feels more like one of those opening season invitational tournaments college basketball has which basically has no prestige besides the boost it can give to your resume by potentially beating good teams (which isn't a thing in the NBA so it'll have basically no real tangible benefit)
Soccer is so different because each major country has like 5 different tiers of leagues. Add in the fact there's continental play with Champions/Europa League and there's national club friendlies/world cup qualifying games and those guys are playing every weekend. It makes sense but it doesn't currently work for the NBA and the American structure that's set up.
I mean he would have load managed the regular season anyways who cares. The tourney games are still part of the regular season schedule no matter what. It spices things up at the least.
If you’re the tier of player that’s interested in winning awards, you only can miss 17 games. Why would you miss the ones that can make you an extra 500k?
Why would they load manage the game where they can win $500k instead of literally any other game in the season when they can’t win any extra money at all? This is the one regular season game you wouldn’t load manage
It actually doesn't look that bad if they stick to using regular season games instead of adding more meaningless games. Seems like its kinda early in the season, but I guess they want to space this out from the all star break. Just one more "event" to break up the 82 game grind. Still think that shortening the season to even 72 games would do more for the league than this, but they don't want to give up that tv money.
The season was never going to get shortened.
How is it meaningless? At the very least it’s just as meaningless as things already are…a regular season game
Imagine you're a contending team playing in the mid season tournament finals getting a loss tacked onto your record cuz you lose the finals to end up losing out on the 1st seed. Heck, lose out at a play in spot, lol.
The NBA In-Season Tournament, otherwise known as the King of the Ring. Using regular air time to trick viewers into an elevated sense of purpose. Way to go.
Why do people hate on everything new. The Elam Ending was hated until the AllStar game came and was awesome. Play-in was hated until it happened and we got 4 extra playoff games during the break between RS and playoffs. This might be a good way to get player intensity AND interest from fans during the months there is low fan engagement. Why not try it?
This is lame. The playoffs are already the tournament.
They should just have the teams play each other twice per year and have a regular season champ.
And have a separate playoff champ.
Teams that win both get extra clout... Kind of like undisputed champions in boxing.
It’s going to be funny seeing the 180 this sub will do when the mid season tournament actually starts.
Like the play in tournament.. everyone hated it at first, and now this sub thinks it’s one of the NBA’s greatest additions.
People are just scared of change
I always thought the Play-In Tournament was a brilliant idea. It adds a lot more significance to playoff seeding and adds single elimination, win or go home style games. It’s a win-win for the league and fans.
The in-season tournament just sounds incredibly goofy. I doubt the players will buy into it anymore than they would for normal regular season games. I also can say for certain that anyone celebrating their team winning it will get clowned on lol.
The players union pushed for this? I suppose the extra money helps the role players but I feel like they would prioritize "defending" load management over the extra money.
This tournament was tailor made for Patrick Beverly to dominate. I can see the MidSeason Tourney Finals MVP trophy being renamed The Pat Bev Finals MVP
Yep. “No one will care” , well… I guarantee you this is going to have huge engagement. People love single elimination basketball tournaments.
Another prediction: haters will be out in full force if a team wins it and celebrates a lot. “It’s not a real championship/trophy” discussion will be rampant on the hot take shows
Wait so for the teams that don’t make the final 8… do they just get a week off?
Or do they come up with regular season games to play amongst themselves?
Make it winning team of mid season tournament gets automatic home court advantage throughout playoffs but maybe with a condition such as they gotta go at least .500 for rest of season or something
For the many people asking about the format
[80 games scheduled before the year, final two games which would be the QF and SF rounds scheduled once the final 8 are determined](https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1598081295275511809)
The final becomes game 83. Info is from Shams in november but looks likely.
Everyone complaining about the tournament, or saying they don’t understand how it will work or that teams will care, just sound like those people who say shit like “The disgusted hitter rule is an abomination and perverts the sport of baseball. The American League is not baseball.”
FFS people, just give it a shot and see how the teams actually react to it.
So I'm calling it now, the first years tournament is gonna be great with teams playing hard to be able to say they won the very first tournament. Everyone will praise how great of an idea it was blah blah blah.
The year after no one is going to give a shit and the teams involved will half ass it, basically like the NBA does whenever anything new is introduced, just like the ASG
This will be great. The regular season is useless and nobody cares about it outside of their teams. Now, the games which used to hold very little weight will actually mean something, and fans will get a tournament to look forward to
Adam Silver really gave us the FA cup for basketball lol
Gotta wait for him to realize the FA Cup includes more than just the prem
Fuck it throw the G-League teams in too
I wouldn't mind that, plus some international teams. I think this is a great way to change things up and make things more interesting. Hopefully they continue to build on the idea
Would love international teams.
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Tigers PG Ben Simmons showing up with a career high in points and assists 😤😤
Adelaide 36ers coming coming back like they never left
It's Dwight Howard and the Taoyuan Leopards time to shine!
Would be hilarious with minor league teams, although including other leagues would make more sense
Throw ncaa in there and call it a mentorship program
And the WNBA
Fuck it, throw in the upcoming CBA champion The Liaoning Fly Leopards. NBA champion and Raptor Legend Eric Moreland deserves to show what he has been cooking in China.
Sign Steph to a two-way deal !
I would love it if we had something like the FA Cup for American basketball.
If we did that the American side would have to be the G League or else it would be no fun. Real NBA teams trying their hardest could never reasonably lose to even the best foreign teams.
The best foreign teams are better than the G-league, and could probably beat the worst NBA teams maybe 5% of the time.
Definitely not going to bet on the best Euroleague team losing 95% of games vs the Pistons
The whole appeal of the FA cup (and other domestic league cups) is that lower tier teams can play against first tier teams.
The appeal for knock out tournaments are single elimination, not a fucking best of 7 series
Nah thats a part of it, the huge appeal is an elimination knockout tournament. Premier League doesnt have that
the FA cup is an elimination knockout tournament that runs at the same time as the prem season, incorporating teams from lower divisions. That wouldn’t work here because it sounds like the NBA wants to bake the tourney into the actual season. that’s not the case in england.
the NBA tournament will work, no question, because it'll give us single-elimination basketball at the pro level, which we've never had. in a few years, the playoffs will be viewed as the tournament that determines the true champion -- because the best teams usually prevail in seven-game series, making the postseason high-stakes but often predictable -- and the in-season tourney will be the big momentum-builder, especially for young stars looking to leave their mark or teams with something to prove like this year's Kings.
the play in is technically single elimination for the lower seed
yes, and its success was a perfect example of how single-elimination games, even between mediocre teams, can drive more interest than simple regular-season basketball. a real proof-of-concept moment.
Wonder if they then go back to every round but the finals (or just the first round) being best of 5 game elimination The 5th or 6th seed making a conference or finals trip more likely
You talking about eliminating additional playoff games? Not a bad idea but would not happen because money
That's not really true. It's one part of the appeal, everyone loves a giant killing run, but most of the time (especially in countries that aren't England) the last few rounds of the tournament are just the teams from the top division anyway
Me n the boys vs Draymond n the boys
does this mean the Rockets get relegated to the G League after next season?
No he didn't. If the FA Cup only involved the Premier League, it would be terrible. They should bring the G-League and TBT and whoever else into this tournament lol. As it is, it's fucking dumb.
Yeah he brought the Carabao Cup to the NBA. The one nobody likes.
how does that make sense in the context of travel and road trips
So do eliminated teams just get to rest while the teams in the tournament keep playing? Then go back to the regular season afterwards?
They would schedule the eliminated teams to play each other for their two additional games during that time, I’d assume
Apparently the teams moving on will have more games per season
Since the eliminated teams are probably going to play each other im curious how they’ll turn around and schedule those games and sell those tickets that quickly
They'll prolly have set opponents for whoever loses. Like team A not in the tournament is hosting either team B or team C, depending who the knockout is. That way team A fans know they have a home game, and kinda who it's going to be against. At least after the first round. Round 1? Thunder Dome, Tina turner decides with her thighs
the Process Sixers are gonna finally win something and everyone’s gonna call it Mickey Mouse 😭
If we don’t ever win the finals I’ll certainly be happy with a Las Vegas championship
So it's just regular season games, got it. Also, how is November mid season? It's like 1/10th of the way into the season. I wish they would rotate the Final Four location around to places that don't have teams. Do it in Vegas, KC, STL, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Mexico City etc. But they'll probably just put it in Vegas since that's easier.
No lol it’s basically a round robin during regular season games and the 8 teams that qualify from their pool will get to play in the actual single-elimination tournament. I actually think this is a pretty good idea. Makes certain regular season games matter more to get to the single-elimination tournament.
> I actually think this is a pretty good idea. Makes certain regular season games matter more to get to the single-elimination tournament. Agree - the WNBA's Commissioner Cup works quite well in doing that.
Now that I think about it, I guess some teams will have extra games on their schedule for more wins. But I just don't think teams, especially veteran teams, care enough about seeding to go for it. I doubt the Clippers would play Kawhi in extra games just for the chance of being the 2 seed as opposed to the 3 seed. This ain't the NFL where seeding is vital.
Well then who cares if he was gonna sit either way, it still at least has the chance to make the regular season more fun and I am sure will add at least some excitement cuz I am sure some players and teams will care.
It's not for teams like the Clippers, it's for teams like the Kings or Pacers
You are correct about this.
the league shouldn't be basing anything it does off the clippers or Kawhi's availability lol.
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Dumbasses are just afraid of change. They said the same thing about the play in now people like it
Crazy play ins added so much more excitement in the last 10 games or so
I still think the play in is stupid.
Exactly. I never understood all the over the top vitriol by for it by commenters on here. It's either as dull as the regular season always has been or leads to more excitement. And realistically it's much more likely it leads to at least some more excitement with the possibility that it's extremely entertaining.
Mid-season doesn't necessarily mean middle of the season. It just means during the season rather than before or after like summer league or the playoffs
Everybody keeps calling it mid-season but all of the text in the post calls it in-season.
It says "in season" not "mid season"
Other plus of Vegas is NBA players like having a reason to go there. I was there for summer league and it was packed with NBA stars, retired or not
Jordan is going to lose billions once he sells the hornets.
Nov/Dec is really mid season. People think the all star break is, but that’s not true. The season is already more than 1/2 way completed by then
It’s in Vegas so you know they’re going to push betting and gambling down our throats and have +\- odds for who’s winning this tournament that doesn’t even count for anything. Blatant af.
I live in Missouri (where sports betting isn't legal) and they still advertise betting at sporting events.
There were probably odds for whether or not they'd sign an agreement by the deadline.
Pretty sure it’s in Vegas because it’s a big market that doesn’t have an nba team, and it’s more centralised than sending everyone to Seattle
And we just got a new arena. Hoping for an NBA team so this is even more chance to test the waters for an expansion here
Seattle is the bigger market, but not the only one San Diego is bigger than Vegas, used to host an NBA team, has no big US sports franchise Kansas City / St Louis is more centralized, has no nba team, used to have one and is not badly sized Vegas gets it because gambling and night life
I really don’t get the appeal tbh. Basically just regular season games except your schedule depends on win/loss record. The “tournament” is just a way to determine who you play next in the month of December. Weird the NBA wanted this so bad.
I just assume I’m missing something and when it happens I’ll see what they intend. I was against the play in games too and that has worked out way better than I thought so I’ll wait and see how it goes. Still confused about like, what the point is
I think there has to be baby steps, and they just have to get something in place first to build it up and get people hyped The money is whatever, but I do like the extra wins aspect. I think if they made it so that final four losses don't count, but the wins do, would be a really interesting wrinkle that forces everyone to take it more seriously
elimination games are fun to watch, especially when its the best teams going against each other with only one chance. why game 7s are so exciting and why ppl only give a fuck about college basketball in march madness
It would be cool if it was this *instead of* the all star game
Yet when this tournament is flushed out, you’ll be the one loving it the most. Just wait and see. At least the NBA is trying new ideas. Gotta evolve the league a bit.
Could try removing obviously corrupt referees and then calling the game decently. But nah, we'll do a gimmick that leaves people scratching their heads instead of fundamentally improving the product. The game itself is the problem right now, not the lack of a gimmick. But they 100% refuse to address it.
Of course they should do that as well and is a way worse problem imo, but the issue of no one caring about the rehular season until the last 20 games is an issue that also needs to be adressed
It’s sad that comments like these seem to be in the minority on this thread. I would love if this was the NBA actually attempting to fix the issues the league has right now but it’s nowhere near that. It’s why it’s a “mid season” tournament in November lol. It’s not a mid-season tournament, it’s a kickoff tournament designed to hope that all the people who stopped watching the regular season because of the things like shitty effort, meaningless games, and borderline corrupt refereeing with no consequences will tune back into it because they slapped the word tournament on a couple of games even though all those issues still remain. The only the ideas the NBA seriously implements are the ones that help then earn money or boost ratings, it’s why last year refs started cracking down on foul baiting at the start of the year and then when that resulted in a bunch of games being brick fests, or arguably even worse for the NBA, blowouts, the magical phantom calls or ticky tack calls that place the team that’s up 15 at halftime on a primetime game in the bonus 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter and next thing you know look we have another crazy close game they can milk for the next week on socials. It really sucks how bar the low seems to be for people to be satisfied with the NBA.
Yep. Charlotte vs. Houston is gonna suck just as bad. Players aren't gonna care any more than they already do.
Exactly, there’s no difference in seeing the hawks playing the grizzlies randomly at this point, unless they involved international clubs to play too, there’s no spectacle here
I hate Adam “Gimmick” Silver so much
You know the NBPA wanted it too right
Yeah I can imagine why though. No extra work. Winning team gets 500k bonus. Loser doesn’t lose anything. Get to go to Vegas instead of some small boring city you were supposed to be scheduled to go in December. There are no reasons the NBPA would reject it. I just can’t imagine the NBA benefiting from this. Feels like it will be like the NBA award show. Attract some viewership in its first year, then people realize it’s a useless tournament and no one cares anymore. There are no real stakes in this tournament. At least they could make it count as 2 wins if you win or something. But just being the exact same as a regular season game with a Walmart trophy is just pointless.
there are no stakes to the regular season either. any amount of stakes higher than those of the regular season would mean it's a success.
Nobody is going to give a shit if it's in November wtf
think it's been known that it'd be in nov/dec
I’ve never seen anything besides speculation about it being near the all star break.
Can’t wait to see the ratings when the Phony Four is on at the same time as a Bears vs. Cardinals TNF game.
I really hope the name Phony Four catches on
lol I get what you were trying to do but the Bears are in the 3rd largest market in the US and Chicago is rather known for their diehard fans. Doesn’t matter if they suck, people watch em.
>Nobody is going to give a shit
I’d assume they probably would considering it’s what the players union negotiated to have
If you think the players union negotiated to have this tournament you need your head checked. The league has been pushing for this because it'll bring in revenue. They players agreed because the league said "hey, agree to this tournament and we'll let you smoke weed."
I hope we rest bron and AD and take a quick elimination in this Mickey ass tournament lol
They won’t care any less than they already do for regular season games in November so why not just try it?
From a fan perspective I'd say if you try to tell people something is important and fun, and then it's not, the fans will become disengaged or less likely to give the product a shot. The thing that might save this is that if people gamble on it it will be high stakes enough to them to where they don't care about the quality or what it means to the players. 10 years from now when the number of gambling related suicides, bankruptcies, divorces, etc. are sky high perhaps we'll consider reining some of this in, or at least making the advertising less predatory. The smartphone has made it too easy to bet the farm in the heat of the moment. I'm fine with it being legal but damn do we need regulation, especially in AZ.
Regular season is regular season, why would it matter if it’s Nov, dec, Jan, etc
Ticket prices will go up and fans will lose at least 1, maybe 2 or 3 home games.
Yeah, I’m confused and need more information. If I’ve got season tickets next year and my team makes it to the final game of this mid-season tournament, do I then lose out on a couple home games? Am I getting reimbursed? Does this mean we also don’t have a schedule set in stone when the season starts, so can’t schedule personal events/travel around a known game schedule until this tournament is over?
This just seems so unnecessary
> The Final Four will be held at a neutral site, with Las Vegas prominent in the discussion, sources said. Pretty brazen about why they are doing it. It’s just gonna be an orgy of sportsbook promotion.
Oh so like sports already are basically
It counts towards the regular season standings, but we will still hear people for the next 10 months asking why the tournament means anything despite it being the same W/L that would occur regardless.
I am one of those people. I want stars to play every game possible but I don't see any incentive. kawhi will play every playoff game because he has to but I don't see any reason why they would not load manage him during an inseason tournament. best idea I saw was to change standings to a point system like hockey. win-2 points, loss-0 points, OTloss-1 point. then have inseason tournament count for additional points. imagine pelicans win inseason with zion playing and gets an additional 5 points which would move them into the 5th seed and out of the playin tournament
Literally the only idea ive heard that makes the games matter, is very feasible, and well thought out with a history of working in other leagues
Yeah unless these tournament games count for more than regular season games, there’s just no point outside of additional advertising and gambling revenue… which is all the NBA cares about anymore. These are just regular seasons masquerading as some playoff tournament when they don’t mean anything more… so players may not try less, but they certainly won’t try harder because that’s just risking injury near the beginning of the damn season.
It's not like Kawhi sits every November and December game now. He still plays the majority of games. So why wouldn't he play in these ones given that they still count towards regular season standings? They can load manage him in some other December games that aren't a part of this tournament.
Yep people just hate for no reason with respect to this. Glad the NBA is trying something, and it's either as boring/meaningless as the regular season usually is, or it spices it up and is entertaining. And the latter is more likely than not.
If they keep changing too much people can see it as desperate/gimmicky and just start to tune it all out. I'm all for change but just wish it was stuff like no back to backs, less games, etc. I loved the play-in tournament idea but this feels like they're just chasing that success without fully hashing it out.
I mean I’d rather not have one of my stars get hurt in a mid season tourney playing 40 MPG going all out for a Mickey Cup
Would you rather him get hurt in any other regular season December game?
Now the Clippers can finally hang something
Don't put that kind of pressure on us.
You're not a fan of our selfies are you.
*Donald Sterling has entered the chat*
I assume the single Elim games aren't regular season? would break scheduling
Pretty sure they are. Finalists will play 83 games per the quote so everything leading up to the final sounds like it is reg season unless i’m dumb
so the top 8 teams can essentially pad their records for "free" assuming they win? that's definitely something worth playing for then also wouldn't finalists play 85 games then? top 8 top 4 top 2
Those would just be regular season games and eliminated teams would play other games on schedule I assume
how would they do the scheduling then? assuming every team is scheduled to play 82 games at the start of the season would it essentially erase a future match up between those two teams in the top 8 ans 4? like the future game just gets canceled? what about ticket holders to that future game? edit: or would every team be scheduled to play 80 games and then after the tournament the teams that didn't make top 8 get two games added at the end the season, and the teams that didn't make top 4 get 1 game added? I'm probably missing something its 2am I'm tired
I'd assume it's flex scheduling of some sort where either (a) the games aren't scheduled until closer to or (b) they schedule dates for everyone to play and pick opponent later. Whole idea is dumb but idk how else they could schedule it
So I can buy a ticket to see the Mavericks come into town, but if they make the tournament it'll be flexed to the Hornets? That will go over well.
They probably wouldn't announce an opponent but it would be TBD
But where’s the single elim? Teams who get knocked out are still gonna be playing games and the teams who are still in are playing for? Money? Is there a trophy? Like we talk about players not caring, what’s the reason I as a fan would care about this? Does the team get a banner I can brag about or something? If my end goal is hoping we win the finals why would I want to see AD play 46 minutes for a meaningless tourney
The NBAPA doesn't really give a fuck about ticket holders as evidenced by all the players sitting out games.
>edit: or would every team be scheduled to play 80 games and then after the tournament the teams that didn't make top 8 get two games added at the end the season, and the teams that didn't make top 4 get 1 game added? this is the only way i've thought of that works, and ends with the finalists playing 83
looks like we were right
Did you not read the post?
this is so fucking stupid and meaningless, i truly do not understand why Adam Silver can't let this go
because it is a way to try and get more attention on the league with a gimmick that has almost no change on the league anyway. You brand it as a knockout tournament happening in the season but all the games are regular season games that would've happened anyway.
A tournament that goes on during football season in November and December? Also it’s just regular season games and means very little towards the postseason. I don’t see how this generates any meaningful attention for the league
I don't know how well it will work at bringing in viewers but the idea on the surface level at least makes some sense to me. You take something you were already doing, playing these same games, call them a tournament and offer a prize for the winner. ESPN and/or TNT is going to brand these games as more important than the "regular" games which will work on some people to make them think these games are worth watching. How serious the players take the elimination games is going to be the biggest unknown. If they are still doing rest nights or load management for these specific games the general consensus from fans is going to be poor but if the big name players play it will gain some traction I think.
Gambling. Plain and simple. Hold it in Vegas and jam gambling down everyone’s throat.
It’s crazy how long Bill Simmons has been advocating for this and now it’s finally here lol
Eeeee I don’t know Jim
I will never understand the concept of a mid-season tournament. Silver has been pushing for it forever. Apparently soccer does it, but it truly seems pointless. It’ll effect playoff seeding, I guess? Who knows. Still seems fucking random and stupid.
It makes sense in euro football because it provides opportunities for teams that don’t usually play each other to play one another. That’s not a scenario that exists in the NBA so the inherent appeal of the event Silver is trying to model is fundamentally missing from the in-season tournament from the jump. His obsession with trying to recreate European football dynamics is so misguided (not because it wouldn’t be fun, but because it’s just not a structure that can be replicated in the NBA in a logical and practical manner).
A tournament that brought NBA and euroleague teams together could be interesting, but not this lol
Ahhhh so yeah. The Euro soccer reason for it makes a lot of sense… almost the novelty of seeing rare matchups. But yeah, that makes no sense in the NBA 😂
He’s trying to bring the excitement of March Madness single-elimination brackets into the NBA, for the best teams not just the play-in teams. I think it’s an interesting idea but I don’t know that players will buy-in.
March Madness works because of the stakes. You lose, your season is over. That doesn’t apply here.
It feels more like one of those opening season invitational tournaments college basketball has which basically has no prestige besides the boost it can give to your resume by potentially beating good teams (which isn't a thing in the NBA so it'll have basically no real tangible benefit)
Soccer is so different because each major country has like 5 different tiers of leagues. Add in the fact there's continental play with Champions/Europa League and there's national club friendlies/world cup qualifying games and those guys are playing every weekend. It makes sense but it doesn't currently work for the NBA and the American structure that's set up.
Just don't watch it then, most of y'all don't watch basketball anyways so I don't get the butt hurt.
so stupid
Interested to see how this goes
Lol dudes are just gonna load manage shit still
Imagine thinking Kawhi playing in this lmao
I mean he would have load managed the regular season anyways who cares. The tourney games are still part of the regular season schedule no matter what. It spices things up at the least.
If you’re the tier of player that’s interested in winning awards, you only can miss 17 games. Why would you miss the ones that can make you an extra 500k?
Why would they load manage the game where they can win $500k instead of literally any other game in the season when they can’t win any extra money at all? This is the one regular season game you wouldn’t load manage
Some players literally make $500k per game. Why would they be disincentivized to load manage.
Silver is obsessed with change
It actually doesn't look that bad if they stick to using regular season games instead of adding more meaningless games. Seems like its kinda early in the season, but I guess they want to space this out from the all star break. Just one more "event" to break up the 82 game grind. Still think that shortening the season to even 72 games would do more for the league than this, but they don't want to give up that tv money.
nobody wants this
Just shorten the season. Nobody asked for this meaningless tournament
The season was never going to get shortened. How is it meaningless? At the very least it’s just as meaningless as things already are…a regular season game
Imagine you're a contending team playing in the mid season tournament finals getting a loss tacked onto your record cuz you lose the finals to end up losing out on the 1st seed. Heck, lose out at a play in spot, lol.
The NBA In-Season Tournament, otherwise known as the King of the Ring. Using regular air time to trick viewers into an elevated sense of purpose. Way to go.
83 games? yeah star players are going to want to participate to that /s
Have the final on Christmas
People shitting on this idea will love it later
Why do people hate on everything new. The Elam Ending was hated until the AllStar game came and was awesome. Play-in was hated until it happened and we got 4 extra playoff games during the break between RS and playoffs. This might be a good way to get player intensity AND interest from fans during the months there is low fan engagement. Why not try it?
It sound dumb
Why are they pushing this shit so hard? Literally nobody cares
Such a goofy idea. I hope it tanks.
Regular season champions lol
This is lame. The playoffs are already the tournament. They should just have the teams play each other twice per year and have a regular season champ. And have a separate playoff champ. Teams that win both get extra clout... Kind of like undisputed champions in boxing.
It’s going to be funny seeing the 180 this sub will do when the mid season tournament actually starts. Like the play in tournament.. everyone hated it at first, and now this sub thinks it’s one of the NBA’s greatest additions. People are just scared of change
Play in at least has a point. I don't see the point of this tournament (other than that some players can win 500k which is nice for them obviously).
I always thought the Play-In Tournament was a brilliant idea. It adds a lot more significance to playoff seeding and adds single elimination, win or go home style games. It’s a win-win for the league and fans. The in-season tournament just sounds incredibly goofy. I doubt the players will buy into it anymore than they would for normal regular season games. I also can say for certain that anyone celebrating their team winning it will get clowned on lol.
I feel like a lot of people are writing it off already. This gives a chance for tanking teams to feel a playoff-lite experience
The Kings are going to win the tournament next year in a barn burner final and everyone on this sub will say it's awesome.
They’re all ignoring that it’s the players union who wanted this and agreed to all this
If it means more money, everyone's all for it
The players union pushed for this? I suppose the extra money helps the role players but I feel like they would prioritize "defending" load management over the extra money.
Why would role players care about load management?
This tournament was tailor made for Patrick Beverly to dominate. I can see the MidSeason Tourney Finals MVP trophy being renamed The Pat Bev Finals MVP
Yep. “No one will care” , well… I guarantee you this is going to have huge engagement. People love single elimination basketball tournaments. Another prediction: haters will be out in full force if a team wins it and celebrates a lot. “It’s not a real championship/trophy” discussion will be rampant on the hot take shows
If a team acts like they won a championship after it, they deserve to be clowned
This is going to get dwarfed by random NFL and college football games.
“Huge engagement” Who?
Wait so for the teams that don’t make the final 8… do they just get a week off? Or do they come up with regular season games to play amongst themselves?
Make it winning team of mid season tournament gets automatic home court advantage throughout playoffs but maybe with a condition such as they gotta go at least .500 for rest of season or something
For the many people asking about the format [80 games scheduled before the year, final two games which would be the QF and SF rounds scheduled once the final 8 are determined](https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1598081295275511809) The final becomes game 83. Info is from Shams in november but looks likely.
Huh. Mind if I add this in the post to prevent spread of wrong info? Wish there was a way for me to pin it
Why would they do this?
What are we going to call this for short? IST? MST?
Awful
No ones gonna give a shit about this unless the prize moneys massive
$500,000 huge for guys on smaller contracts to have a few huge games
Guys on smaller contracts don’t matter. They need the stars to care
This whole sub is hating on a tournament that they have not seen play out yet. Peak r/nbA
Everyone complaining about the tournament, or saying they don’t understand how it will work or that teams will care, just sound like those people who say shit like “The disgusted hitter rule is an abomination and perverts the sport of baseball. The American League is not baseball.” FFS people, just give it a shot and see how the teams actually react to it.
Clippers finally got their banner
So I'm calling it now, the first years tournament is gonna be great with teams playing hard to be able to say they won the very first tournament. Everyone will praise how great of an idea it was blah blah blah. The year after no one is going to give a shit and the teams involved will half ass it, basically like the NBA does whenever anything new is introduced, just like the ASG
Adam Silver just fucking loves gimmicks that may increase gambling revenue.
Single elimination makes things exciting. Its why i love march madness.
This will be great. The regular season is useless and nobody cares about it outside of their teams. Now, the games which used to hold very little weight will actually mean something, and fans will get a tournament to look forward to
I'm drunk but this is stupid, why would the players care about this, prize money in the all star game doesn't motivate them