This year, the NBA introduced an in-season basketball tournament, which has never been done before in the league. The regular season is long, and as a result, each game doesn’t matter that much. Players can afford to take off days here and there, resting for the playoffs to have an advantage over the players who do play. This strategy famously worked for Kawhi Leonard, who missed 22 regular season games in 2018-2019 and was fresh enough to lead his Raptors to the Finals.
Other players have followed suit, and suddenly, there’s a load-management crisis in the NBA. While the games matter less for the players, the same is true for the fans. Except for big games, the incentive to care about the season is fairly limited. In college, there are around 30 contests, and each one really makes a difference, which gets viewers into the habit of watching every game.
Sports like soccer are closer to the 30 game seasons, but they have a solution: a handful of different tournaments or “side quests” to keep things interesting when the normal league play is getting monotonous. In England, there’s the FA Cup, which gives every club in England, ranging from semi-pro to the Premier League, the chance to compete for one trophy.
The NBA tried to recreate this with the in-season tournament, but they fell short. One thing that’s impossible to replicate is the hundreds of years of history involved, so they’ll get a pass on that. However, the implications of the competition are limited. The first reward is a new trophy that is virtually meaningless. The next is a $500,000 check to each player on the winning team, which ultimately ends up becoming a rounding error in the bank accounts of any of the difference-making players.
Because of this, it falls short. The most notable thing about the games played on Tuesdays and Fridays is that they are hosted on bizarrely colored courts that often make it hard to watch. And the games count towards the regular season, which is also a bit peculiar. Players are confused, too, which is by far the worst part.
“I’m not even going to lie, I don’t even know what’s going on,” said Bones Hyland from the Clippers of the tournament.
If the players can’t take it seriously – or understand it – then why should the fans? There needs to be a change to add to the drama. Here are a few routes the NBA could take:
ROUTE 1: ADD PLAYOFF IMPLICATIONS
The fact of the matter is that the in-season tournament will never be taken as seriously as the NBA Playoffs. Taking advantage of that, the winner of the cup could get an automatic bid to the playoffs, thus getting to bypass all the play-in games and the grind of the end of the season. That would motivate players to try their best in a way that the current one doesn’t.
It’s important to add some ground rules so teams don’t fully take their foot off the gas, though. With the championship on December 7, that gives a lot of time for teams between then and the April 15 playoff tipoff. The winning team would need to maintain a certain winning percentage to still qualify for the playoffs. I’d propose something between .400 and .450, but as long as the team needs to continue trying in some regard, then it works. The goal is to get the right balance between making the in-season tournament important and also not completely devaluing the rest of the regular season more than it already is.
ROUTE 2: MAKE IT A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
The NBA Finals winner is called the “World Champions,” despite just playing teams in North America. While I won’t get into whether being a world champion in this situation is a legitimate claim, it would be fun to give some other teams a chance.
The FA Cup has 729 teams, so there’s not much of an upward limit of squads that can compete here. But for simplicity’s sake, let’s have the top 20 NBA teams – those who made the postseason (play-in or better) the previous season – qualify for the in-season tournament. Then the EuroLeague, which includes the top 16 teams in Europe, can join too. Since that represents all of Europe, we’ll take all 16 squads.
Australia’s NBL has been rising lately, so why not also add all 10 of their teams? And while it’s often made fun of by NBA fans in respect to underperforming players, the Chinese Basketball League also has a lot to offer. They have 20 teams, 12 of which make the playoffs. Those 12 teams can join the tournament since it’s probably not worth letting a losing team compete in this worldwide event.
Then, since lower-level teams in Europe get to play, let’s add the top four G-League teams from the previous season. To prevent NBA teams from taking all of their subsidiaries’ resources for the tournament, NBA teams can only protect 10 of their players, and their affiliates can choose from the remaining.
Lastly, to round out the 64-team field, the top two college basketball teams from the previous year can compete. There are always hypothetical questions about how well the best college teams will fare against professionals. Why not give it a shot? Maybe they and the G-League teams will be eliminated quickly, but it’s not like the English Level 9 clubs are doing great. At worst, there’s an early exit; at best, it could turn into some of the biggest Cinderella stories in all sports.
This will create a whole, worldwide tournament. It’ll add different faces and will make it a global event. This route – or the other route – will make the tournament much better and incentivize actual effort from NBA teams, the entire purpose of the tournament from its conception.