Woj: NBA wants to restart conversations on a mid-season tournament

[lambchop]

Injury risk is too high. It should only include bench players and g league affiliate players, plus random legends, like julius erving or shaq would be allowed to participate and then include Instagram ballers etc. Then I think it would make sense.

[wegotthabeet]

Winner gets into second round of the playoffs.

This. The stakes need to be really high for it to work.

If the NBA realigned to create three conferences instead of two then a 4th team via a mid season tournament could land the 4th spot in the Final Four. Something like that would make it interesting.

East - Chicago
Central - Milwaukee
West - Phoenix
Mid Season - Brooklyn

You telling me guys like Durant, Curry or Lebron wouldn't go all out to win an automatic birth in the Final Four?

[WargamesX]

I don’t like it for the injury issue. A good player gets injured doing this and what’s the point?

[Dan33185]

I hope they do it, just so they can finally see how disinterested fans are in it and how low ratings are for it. Then we can finally be done hearing about this ridiculous idea.

[SK21209]

IMO a midseason tournament is the wrong solution to the real problem the NBA has, which is that it’s night-to-night product is a little lacking at the moment. There’s a lot of talent in the league right now and maybe this is just me romanticizing past eras, but I just don’t find the NBA as compelling as I used to (and it’s not just because the Lakers suck, I felt this way even before the COVID disruption). I used to be stoked for the Thursday night prime time games every week and had League Pass for years but I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty rarely watch non-Laker games. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I know many other fans don’t feel the same, but there’s just something a little off with the NBA to me and I think the league senses it too.

[HumbleRen]

IMO a midseason tournament is the wrong solution to the real problem the NBA has, which is that it’s night-to-night product is a little lacking at the moment. There’s a lot of talent in the league right now and maybe this is just me romanticizing past eras, but I just don’t find the NBA as compelling as I used to (and it’s not just because the Lakers suck, I felt this way even before the COVID disruption). I used to be stoked for the Thursday night prime time games every week and had League Pass for years but I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty rarely watch non-Laker games. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I know many other fans don’t feel the same, but there’s just something a little off with the NBA to me and I think the league senses it too.

It's become too star driven. Your league is going to be in a bad place in terms of game to game interest when fans are more attached to players then they are to the team itself.

[Sgt Major]

This thing makes no sense when there's no lower leagues. The joy with the cups is that there's many rounds and in each of them surprises happen, with heavily favored teams being knocked out.

The NBA is a closed league, there's no relegation and there's no lower leagues, so playing a cup tournament in such an environment is completely pointless.

[Dan33185]

IMO a midseason tournament is the wrong solution to the real problem the NBA has, which is that it’s night-to-night product is a little lacking at the moment. There’s a lot of talent in the league right now and maybe this is just me romanticizing past eras, but I just don’t find the NBA as compelling as I used to (and it’s not just because the Lakers suck, I felt this way even before the COVID disruption). I used to be stoked for the Thursday night prime time games every week and had League Pass for years but I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty rarely watch non-Laker games. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I know many other fans don’t feel the same, but there’s just something a little off with the NBA to me and I think the league senses it too.

You're not alone, Thursday nights during the winter used to be my favorite night of the week because I knew we were going to get a couple good games more often than not. I find myself tuning in still, but after 10-15 minutes I start clicking around because I've just lost interest. I'll still check back, but I don't watch from beginning to end like I used to. For me, the issues are way too much whining about every foul call, the "superstar" foul calls, and dependence on the three point shot. I went to a Wolves game last week where they were shooting something like 18% at one point and just kept chucking them up. There just needs to be a better balance than there is now, watching teams trade 3 point shots gets old fast.

[TheLand13]

I'm against it. MJ, Shaq and Kobe never got to play in this tournament, and in the future lack of these tournament MVP's might hurt them on paper when comparing them to current or future greats. Don't create award or trophy's for things MJ didnt have a chance to compete for.

I agree.

We should never innovate anything to please those unable to add any level of nuance to the pointless exercise of comparing players from different eras.

What's the point of innovating just for innovation's sake though? This idea is the equivalent of Homer designing his own car.

You leave homer out of this. That design was awesome!

[Prestige]

Many people here are the type to have argued against the lightbulb because candlelight had always done the job well. It’s always a good thing to try to explore and improve your product. I’m glad Silver and the league are trying to be innovative. This sounds like it could bring some excitement to an otherwise boring regular season.

[Nate505]

IMO a midseason tournament is the wrong solution to the real problem the NBA has, which is that it’s night-to-night product is a little lacking at the moment. There’s a lot of talent in the league right now and maybe this is just me romanticizing past eras, but I just don’t find the NBA as compelling as I used to (and it’s not just because the Lakers suck, I felt this way even before the COVID disruption). I used to be stoked for the Thursday night prime time games every week and had League Pass for years but I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty rarely watch non-Laker games. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I know many other fans don’t feel the same, but there’s just something a little off with the NBA to me and I think the league senses it too.

Agreed. 20 years ago I'd call myself an NBA fan. Now I'm just a Jazz fan, at least until the playoffs. Even then I don't watch every first round game like I used to (or used to try to). The "watch every game" thing doesn't usually come into play now until the Conference Finals.

[Young Stapler]

I'm actually warming up slightly to the idea of a mid season tournament. Take the best 8 teams during the season up to a certain point and they all can play in the same city and arena(2 arenas for NYC and LA) in a knockout style tournament. Lets say, for example, this tournament is taking place during all star week with the final game set for Sunday. If the season is shorter this could work. Cities will bid to host the tournament like the all star game and the economic benefits could be huge. I think it is good to at least discuss all of this and obviously things could change or be adjusted.

[GreatWhiteStiff]

It might be nice to see lebron play an nba tournament next year, if they could make it happen. For old times sake.

[Ugalde]

maybe if they could make it meaningful to the season? otherwise what’s the point?

[Dominator83]

IMO a midseason tournament is the wrong solution to the real problem the NBA has, which is that it’s night-to-night product is a little lacking at the moment. There’s a lot of talent in the league right now and maybe this is just me romanticizing past eras, but I just don’t find the NBA as compelling as I used to (and it’s not just because the Lakers suck, I felt this way even before the COVID disruption). I used to be stoked for the Thursday night prime time games every week and had League Pass for years but I’ve gotten to the point now where I pretty rarely watch non-Laker games. I can’t quite put my finger on it, and I know many other fans don’t feel the same, but there’s just something a little off with the NBA to me and I think the league senses it too.

Yea I used to be a league pass guy myself. Now I almost never watch games outside of the Bulls until the playoffs.

[WuTang_CMB]

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