This NBA In-Season Tournament sounds cool because otherwise, it’d be a complicated, joyless mess of a thing to explain. Richard Jefferson does a pretty fine job breaking it all down above good lord for that since It would spare me some time if you could just watch that video. Or read the entire breakdown on NBA Dot Com. but can’t help not writing some stuff about it such as my opinion about the whole thing and its key points so let’s get this started, shall we?
The first thing to begin with, I will admit that it does work in creating a lot of interest around the world and adding some spice to the too-long regular season. Seriously, guys are striving to only play about 65 games as is.
The tournament will not add any extra games on top of the typical 82, save for the championship round. The most confusing thing about this format is the Group Play draw which was inspired by the European model it seems where each group has 5 or 4 teams.
As the groups’ format was revealed yesterday it will be for each conference in the inaugural tournament:
That tweet could have been composed much more simply but hey, the info is there so knock yourself out. Do you know what’s really awesome? The point score difference is the second tiebreaker in the Group portion behind the head-to-head record just like in the Euroleague so I guess that could add to the quality of the basketball product. Not a big fan of that but let’s see how that works.
From the Group Play stage, where each team plays four games (two home, two road), eight finalists emerge who make it through to the Knockout stage. Then, it’s a single-elimination, win-or-go-home situation, a la March Madness.
With the regular season starting in mid/late October-ish, this tournament is tipping off quite early in the proceedings. Thank goodness. Teams who’d otherwise be locked in on tanking have an incentive to play hard almost right out of the gates.
Visual aids for the Knockout/Championship rounds. I don’t usually capitalize words like these but the NBA is doing it so I figure I’ll follow suit.
And be sure of the way they created those interesting matchups just by drawing the groups randomly and it feels like the best groups are West A and C, along with East A. Having legit contenders like Memphis, Phoenix and the Lakers in one group is awesome. We get to see the Grizz sort through early chaos sans Ja Morant, whether the Lakers can carry over their momentum from a surprise playoff run, and how Bradley Beal looks early on for the Suns. West C has resurgent Sacramento, Golden State clinging to its dynasty, the ever-turbulent Timberwolves, OKC on the rise, and Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs. LIT.
PS, had some strong words for Wemby’s awful Summer League debut. Was I being serious about it or not? Who’s to say?
As for the East A group, all those teams feel like they’re at huge crossroads. What will the Sixers look like once James Harden is presumably traded? Are the Cavs kinda fucked as they’re currently constructed? The Hawks seem to be on the perpetual precipice of implosion. Indiana might be a low-key frisky squad this coming season with a good young core in place. For Detroit, maybe all those lottery picks will finally pay off. Maybe not. They paid Monty Williams a lot of money to try to make all that shit work.
My only issue with this NBA In-Season Tournament is that it isn’t longer. They talk about 6 games out of 82 since the championship does not count regarding the total. A great start to be sure, but I would either double the length of the tournament, make the knockout stage best-of-three series, or hold a second in-season tournament starting in late January or so. You could run that right into the All-Star break, or even put it a little later so that those festivities create a sort of pause.
Still got some question marks on how it’s gonna incorporate with the regular season I guess we will wait and see.
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