OT: NBA Commish Contemplating Shorter Season, Shorter Games And Adopting European Tournament Format

[tony d]

Fewer games in all the major sports league sans the NFL is a great idea. You can do 70 games in the NBA and still get a game vs. each other team once a year.

 

[varsaku]

My suggestion would be to add a Domestic Cup (similar to FA Cup) and Champions League type tournament to compensate for decreased number of regular season games. These new added games will be of greater interest to fans to replace many regular season games that have lost viewer’s interest.

If they do expand to 32 teams, they could do something like this:

Regular Season (Balanced Schedule)
31 Home and 31 Away = 61 Games (4 Divisions of 8 Teams each)
Top 2 teams in each division qualify for Champions League the following season.
Top 4 teams in each division qualify for playoffs.

Domestic Cup
Any team can enter into the Tournament (amateurs, maybe college and G League). They can charge an entrance fee. Single game knockout format similar to FA Cup. Teams join tournament based on their level. NBA teams joins last by playing the remaining 32 teams in the round of 64.

Champions League (2 Groups of 4 Teams each)
Random draw for group placement
Group Stage: 1 Home and 1 Away against each team in group = 6 Games
Top 2 teams in each group advances.
Knockout Stage: 1 Game Knockout (Cross over format like 1st seed in Group A vs 2nd seed in Group B)

Playoffs (Normal Format)

 

[joelef]

don't you need different levels and thusands of teams to this ? I men can see baseball and hockey doing this because of there minor leagues but the NBA?

 

[cutchemist42]

I think I'd only be interested in the cup format if it was opened up to lesser teams to rise up to face the NBA teams or if it featured alternate rules like the Elam ending.

 

[Rigafan]

Are cup competitions even a thing in European basketball?

No. You play in your National League and if you are good enough you then qualify to play in one of the Euro League Tournaments.

Adding anything 'cup' like league cup or whatever is just an excuse to give lesser teams a chance to 'win' something and is totally pointless.

NA, as mentioned, as the Season then Playoffs - which is the same as the Euro way so what do they want? NBA Season + NBA Cup + NBA Playoffs?