NBA Considering In-Season Tournament, Re-Seeding Conference Finals, And 7th-10 Seed Play-In Round

[DaBadGuy7]

Gotta imagine NHL is monitoring how the NBA does this if it happens.

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[KevFu]

Expanding the playoffs is dumb.

The in-season tourney could be cool, but, uh, 30 team league.

Just add Seattle and Montreal for 32-teams and then you have a perfectly formatted 5-round tourney.
Play a consolation bracket so everyone has 5 games in the tourney, and you're set.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Expanding the playoffs is dumb.

The in-season tourney could be cool, but, uh, 30 team league.

Just add Seattle and Montreal for 32-teams and then you have a perfectly formatted 5-round tourney.
Play a consolation bracket so everyone has 5 games in the tourney, and you're set.

They're not doing a bracket tourney.

For the in-season tournament, the NBA is focused on 30-team participation that begins with a divisional group stage of scheduled regular-season games.
Those pre-knockout-round games would be part of the regular-season schedule. Six divisional winners -- based on home and road records in the group stage -- and the two teams with the next-best records would advance to a single-elimination knockout round, league sources said.

I don't like that they want to have this in December. The February sports calendar is such a wasteland, and I figured this would give me a reason to pay attention to the NBA then (as I currently really only care from the Conference Finals on).

 

[Centrum Hockey]

Expanding the playoffs is dumb.

The in-season tourney could be cool, but, uh, 30 team league.

Just add Seattle and Montreal for 32-teams and then you have a perfectly formatted 5-round tourney.
Play a consolation bracket so everyone has 5 games in the tourney, and you're set.

It would Be smart to try another major Canadian city again after growing the game In the country with the Raptors. I dont ’t think the NBA owners want to expand though unless they ever really need the revenue from the expansion fee.

 

[KevFu]

Any way you slice it, 32 is a better format than 30 because 32 is divisible by 4, the number you need for semis.


Seattle and Montreal make way too much sense for the NBA. They could do four divisions of four per conference, 4 vs div, 3 vs conf, 2 vs other conf (80 games). Or two divisions of 8 per conference and do 4 vs division, 2 vs everyone else for 76 games.

TOR, MON, BOS, CLE || DET, IND, CHI, MIL
NYK, BRK, PHI, WAS || CHA, ATL, ORL, MIA
MIN, OKC, NO, MEM || PHX, HOU, DAL, SA
SEA, PORT, DEN, UTAH || LAL, LAC, SAC, GSW

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Any way you slice it, 32 is a better format than 30 because 32 is divisible by 4, the number you need for semis.

What does that matter? There's 6 divisions currently. Division winners make the knockout phase, along with the two 2nd place teams. 32 being divisible by 4 doesn't factor into this format because there's a group stage, they're not doing a straight knockout tournament.

 

[PCSPounder]

They're not doing a bracket tourney.


I don't like that they want to have this in December. The February sports calendar is such a wasteland, and I figured this would give me a reason to pay attention to the NBA then (as I currently really only care from the Conference Finals on).

Detracting from the ASG is their motivation... not so much the game itself, but the break for the other players. If the players don’t buy in, then the concept will stink.

It’s not like early December has MIDWEEK must-see TV. This tournament, if smartly run, can “find the gaps.” This is about strengthening NBA weaknesses, and addressing December does more than addressing February.

Not so sure I like the round robin preliminaries, though.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Not so sure I like the round robin preliminaries, though.

Yeah, feels like they're just regular season games. Guess that puts more meaning into these early season games. I'm assuming they're still count towards the regular season standings, but haven't seen anything that says one way or the other.

 

[Gnashville]

Gimmicks designed to hide the terrible product on the court that 3/4 of the league is.

 

[ottawa]

I always thought they should go the EPL route and scrap the playoffs, shorten the season to 64 games (2x each team) and the top point getter wins the season.

With the shortened season, have a tournament or two compromising of ~20 games during the season.

 

[gstommylee]

I always thought they should go the EPL route and scrap the playoffs, shorten the season to 64 games (2x each team) and the top point getter wins the season.

With the shortened season, have a tournament or two compromising of ~20 games during the season.

There is no way that is ever going to be acceptable in any sport in the US.

 

[jkrdevil]

I always thought they should go the EPL route and scrap the playoffs, shorten the season to 64 games (2x each team) and the top point getter wins the season.

With the shortened season, have a tournament or two compromising of ~20 games during the season.

And you also sap any interest in the season as there is nothing for a majority of teams to play for for 75% of the season.

I mean the Premier League doesn’t even really work like that. Champions League basically akin to a North American Playoff system, not only with a knockout system to culminate in a big final, but allowing teams down the table to qualify creating wider interest in the domestic leagues. The Premier League/La Liga/Budesliga are more like a North American conference while UEFA is the NHL, NBA, NFL equivalent.

 

[Deleted member 93465]

Get the G-League teams involved.

Use the competition to change rules by moving the game away from the three-point shootout contest. Bring back hand-checking, zone defense, protecting rim.

Silver has said he can see something akin to what happens in soccer. I don't know if that means playing for 4-5 different competitions during the season like Euro teams can do, but it would allow them to reduce schedule in regular season while keeping the same amount of games.....and giving top players an option to rest outside the regular season....and fans an opportunity to see team compete for another trophy.

Nothing wrong with having less valuable and important competitions run concurrently with the NBA season. As soccer shows, multiple trophies every season add to overall interest, they don't detract from it.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

And you also sap any interest in the season as there is nothing for a majority of teams to play for for 75% of the season.

I mean the Premier League doesn’t even really work like that. Champions League basically akin to a North American Playoff system, not only with a knockout system to culminate in a big final, but allowing teams down the table to qualify creating wider interest in the domestic leagues. The Premier League/La Liga/Budesliga are more like a North American conference while UEFA is the NHL, NBA, NFL equivalent.

In a business sense, that isn't even close to being the case.

 

[Voight]

Because their schedule isn't already condensed enough?

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

Get the G-League teams involved.

Use the competition to change rules by moving the game away from the three-point shootout contest. Bring back hand-checking, zone defense, protecting rim.

Silver has said he can see something akin to what happens in soccer. I don't know if that means playing for 4-5 different competitions during the season like Euro teams can do, but it would allow them to reduce schedule in regular season while keeping the same amount of games.....and giving top players an option to rest outside the regular season....and fans an opportunity to see team compete for another trophy.

Nothing wrong with having less valuable and important competitions run concurrently with the NBA season. As soccer shows, multiple trophies every season add to overall interest, they don't detract from it.

G-league already has their Showcase in December that's being discussed here, though, it's been to different cities (Raptors 905 HAD it one year as I recall) and is already similiar to what the Summer League was in Vegas this past year instead of half the teams in Vegas, the other in Utah

 

[ottawa]

There is no way that is ever going to be acceptable in any sport in the US.

What about the MLS?

 

[cutchemist42]

Gotta imagine NHL is monitoring how the NBA does this if it happens.

I dont think this applies as much to the NHL. While I think the NHL season is a tad long, the NBA has the worst and most useless regular season out of any sport.

They need to do something about it a lot more than the other sports.

NBA also a pretty useless postseason until the conference finals too so expanding it sounds so dumb to me.

 

[KevFu]

What does that matter? There's 6 divisions currently. Division winners make the knockout phase, along with the two 2nd place teams. 32 being divisible by 4 doesn't factor into this format because there's a group stage, they're not doing a straight knockout tournament.

Because the "best 2nd place" thing is pretty arbitrary. 32 teams gives you eight division winners, then a knockout and nobody complaining about tiebreakers.

 

[KevFu]

What about the MLS?

Playoffs are good for TV. MLS regular season games average like 200,000 viewers, and the MLS Cup Final averaged 2 million.

NBA Regular season: 3.8 ABC, 1.7 TNT, 1.6 ESPN
NBA Finals: 31 million.

It's basically 10 to 1.

 

[NCRanger]

I dont think this applies as much to the NHL. While I think the NHL season is a tad long, the NBA has the worst and most useless regular season out of any sport.

They need to do something about it a lot more than the other sports.

NBA also a pretty useless postseason until the conference finals too so expanding it sounds so dumb to me.

The problem is that the NBA might have a total of 8 good teams, 2 or 3 that are elite, and you know that those teams are going deep in the playoffs in November. That's what makes the regular season so pointless.

To me, the NBA is less of a sport, and more about "entertainment". It's the one major league I don't follow at all, even though I do follow college basketball and enjoy the sport.

These proposals wouldn't move my needle at all into caring one way or the other about the NBA.