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

Pacers_Freak · Post #81 » by **Pacers_Freak** » Mon May 24, 2021 3:40 pm

I'm all for trying new things. This does not interest me at all. Hope it works for them. Not really sure what the draw is going to be though. TBH I think Silver and crew see that the summer league has success with this format and that it would translate well to the NBA. Problem is the summer league literally has zero competition for viewers when it is played. Mid-season NBA tourney would have plenty of competition whenever they decide to have it.

Patches Perry · Post #82 » by **Patches Perry** » Mon May 24, 2021 4:03 pm

How about instead of mid-season tournaments, we do three shorter seasons + playoffs per year?

1st season - 20 games regular season, 4 teams make playoffs each conference, 5 game series each round
2nd season - 20 game regular season, 8 teams make playoff each conference, 5 game series each round
3rd season - 20 game regular season, 6 teams make playoffs, 2 winners of priors season get auto bid, 7 game series each round

1st season has a 4 point shot
2nd season is played outdoors, you can bring your dogs
3rd season is standard traditional type season

Ambrose · Post #83 » by **Ambrose** » Mon May 24, 2021 4:09 pm

It's a terrible idea and needs to be dropped.

Michael Bradley · Post #84 » by **Michael Bradley** » Mon May 24, 2021 4:34 pm

worldjbfree wrote:For clarity, why are people saying the play-in was a success? Most of the games were lame blowouts, so I'm guessing ratings were good?

The Curry/LeBron game did really well in the ratings, but I don't think that impacts their decision to do it. The most valuable sports content is playoff content. The play-in is essentially another round of the playoffs, which networks will pay money for. That's the incentive here, to increase their TV money on their next deal. MLB just signed a deal with ESPN where ESPN gets the rights to an expanded playoff format that doesn't even exist yet. That's how sports leagues are operating now. Silver is trying to add as much original programming as possible.

celtics543 · Post #85 » by **celtics543** » Mon May 24, 2021 4:35 pm

Offer a monetary reward for the players and whichever team wins gets an extra ping pong ball lottery. If a lottery team wins they up their chances. If a team like Utah wins they get one ping pong ball for a chance at the first pick.

Hangtime84 · Post #86 » by **Hangtime84** » Mon May 24, 2021 4:53 pm

Did not know how the play in tourny would look. I was surprised and happy about it's success.

In season tourney doesn't seem like it would be enjoyable.

I might watch a team of super team of non-two way contract G-leaguers form some super team to compete against NBA squads each year.

JLiv · Post #87 » by **JLiv** » Mon May 24, 2021 5:10 pm

There would have to be a prize, something that makes good and bad teams want to win

dhsilv2 · Post #88 » by **dhsilv2** » Mon May 24, 2021 5:37 pm

HeartBreakKid wrote:
clyde21 wrote:
HeartBreakKid wrote:
If it was so easy to fix the RS then they would fix the RS.

What are your ways to fix it?

The only way to make an RS interesting that long without cutting games (which technically happened already) is to make the NBA champion the team with the best record similar to European style.

Unless the NBA gets rid of the draft (which is way more radical) there is pretty much no other way to make the RS competitive.

a lot of things will directly/indirectly make the RS healthier

- remove max contracts
- put in hard cap
- lower # of RS games to 60
- remove back-to-backs completely
- add a roster spot
- remove conferences/divisions
- drop the # of teams that make the POs to 14, give byes to top 2 seeds
- flatten lotto odds 1-16
- anti tanking policies (like not allowing teams to have 2 top 3 picks in a row for example)
- fix officiating
- allow defenses to actually defend again

etc., etc....all of these will improve the RS/overall product considerably instead of throwing in gimmicks like 'mid season tournament' whatever the hell that even means.

The problem with the RS is that the PS matters a lot more, and the better teams do not take it that seriously. So a lot of those things you suggested wouldn't make the RS healthier in any capacity, those just sound like things you want to make the NBA better in general.

For instance, defensive rules...that has nothing to do with the RS still. Teams still coast regardless if you can be physical or not. You might like the product more because the rules are different, but that isn't relevant to the core problem of what makes the RS "boring". The play-in tournament has a specific use and different goal, that is totally different from say, removing max contracts.

For instance, I agree that there shouldn't be conferences or divisions.....but that also has nothing to do with making the RS "better". It might make the on court product better overall, but again, how does that change that the RS is still a glorified pre season?

The things you mentioned that would help the RS

1) not winning the top pick twice in a row. Though teams would still tank in a pretty similar fashion none the less. I think it's a good idea, but I think tanking is not as big of a problem as good teams just not caring much about the RS (because if they don't care, why should anyone else?)

2) Lowering the number of RS games. They've already had to lower it by 10 games this season and it didn't really matter. Lowering RS games does make them more important, but it's unrealistic so it's not even worth mentioning. I mean you're talking 100 of millions of dollars of revenue lost, probably more to go from 82 games to 60.

3) Giving byes. This does fix the problem that the top teams don't give a rats ass about the RS, but at the same time, if you think people are complaining about play-in games, people would certainly complain that they don't get to watch a series from the top seeds. Even though 1 vs 8 seed is boring, people do want to see superstars (usually on the 1 seed) play.

on 2 - it seemed to work pretty well. All this talk about teams playing harder down the stretch, that was mostly in the west where the 8 seed was decided on the last day. Having less games worked, HOWEVER this season was rushed like hell and it lead to way too many back to backs and with that more injuries and players missing games. And the problem again is that too many teams are making the playoffs. Once we get the games down, we can cut teams making it, making it more important for players to play and not take games off.

Celts17Pride · Post #89 » by **Celts17Pride** » Mon May 24, 2021 5:40 pm

NBA trying to become a carnival. Next thing you know they will have moles popping up out of the floor. Anything for money. NBA is a joke.

clyde21 · Post #90 » by **clyde21** » Mon May 24, 2021 5:49 pm

dhsilv2 wrote:
HeartBreakKid wrote:
clyde21 wrote:
a lot of things will directly/indirectly make the RS healthier

- remove max contracts
- put in hard cap
- lower # of RS games to 60
- remove back-to-backs completely
- add a roster spot
- remove conferences/divisions
- drop the # of teams that make the POs to 14, give byes to top 2 seeds
- flatten lotto odds 1-16
- anti tanking policies (like not allowing teams to have 2 top 3 picks in a row for example)
- fix officiating
- allow defenses to actually defend again

etc., etc....all of these will improve the RS/overall product considerably instead of throwing in gimmicks like 'mid season tournament' whatever the hell that even means.

The problem with the RS is that the PS matters a lot more, and the better teams do not take it that seriously. So a lot of those things you suggested wouldn't make the RS healthier in any capacity, those just sound like things you want to make the NBA better in general.

For instance, defensive rules...that has nothing to do with the RS still. Teams still coast regardless if you can be physical or not. You might like the product more because the rules are different, but that isn't relevant to the core problem of what makes the RS "boring". The play-in tournament has a specific use and different goal, that is totally different from say, removing max contracts.

For instance, I agree that there shouldn't be conferences or divisions.....but that also has nothing to do with making the RS "better". It might make the on court product better overall, but again, how does that change that the RS is still a glorified pre season?

The things you mentioned that would help the RS

1) not winning the top pick twice in a row. Though teams would still tank in a pretty similar fashion none the less. I think it's a good idea, but I think tanking is not as big of a problem as good teams just not caring much about the RS (because if they don't care, why should anyone else?)

2) Lowering the number of RS games. They've already had to lower it by 10 games this season and it didn't really matter. Lowering RS games does make them more important, but it's unrealistic so it's not even worth mentioning. I mean you're talking 100 of millions of dollars of revenue lost, probably more to go from 82 games to 60.

3) Giving byes. This does fix the problem that the top teams don't give a rats ass about the RS, but at the same time, if you think people are complaining about play-in games, people would certainly complain that they don't get to watch a series from the top seeds. Even though 1 vs 8 seed is boring, people do want to see superstars (usually on the 1 seed) play.

on 2 - it seemed to work pretty well. All this talk about teams playing harder down the stretch, that was mostly in the west were the 8 seed was decided on the last day. Having less games worked, HOWEVER this season was rushed like hell and it lead to way too many back to backs and with that more injuries and players missing games. And the problem again is that too many teams are making the playoffs. Once we get the games down, we can cut teams making it, making it more important for players to play and not take games off.

exactly...you can't cut the games AND place more teams in the playoffs...that won't do anything really...you need to cut the games AND cut the # of teams that make the playoffs...this is the only thing that will make winning RS games more important (plus some of the other changes I outlined previously).

AbeVigodaLive · Post #91 » by **AbeVigodaLive** » Mon May 24, 2021 5:55 pm

RunOKC wrote:How about a beginning of the season tournament too?!

YES!

But the symmetry would be all off with 3 tournaments. I think they'd need to add a 4th one to make it more pleasing. Besides claiming 1/3 of a champion seems weird. Now, a quarter-champion, that has a nice ring to it and looks good on a banner in the rafters.

Plus, imagine the branding opportunities for sponsorships with all these tournaments!

The Poulan-Weedeater Early-Midseason Tournament at the Golden 1 Center is an NBA fan's wet dream.

darmani · Post #92 » by **darmani** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:09 pm

Read on Twitter

Ugly0598 · Post #93 » by **Ugly0598** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:12 pm

Winsome Gerbil · Post #94 » by **Winsome Gerbil** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:14 pm

Can we just fire that bald headed little geek before he screws up the game any more?

Rodwilliams · Post #95 » by **Rodwilliams** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 5:11 pm

Adam Silver is going to ruin the league.

ADMVP · Post #96 » by **ADMVP** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 5:13 pm

I wish he would get rid of the play-in.

Sent from my SM-N960U1 using Tapatalk

warriorschamps · Post #97 » by **warriorschamps** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 5:15 pm

darmani wrote:

Read on Twitter

Terrible idea. The game is fine. Leave it alone. These one off to try to drive up ratings aren't long term solutions for any rating decline the NBA maybe facing.

Popularity has to be organic. So if Silver want the NBA to be more popular he need more popular players and teams.

Johnny Bball · Post #98 » by **Johnny Bball** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 5:15 pm

Then just start putting in two seasons a year and two championships a year. Because a tournament for tournaments sake is stupid.

miamiheat319 · Post #99 » by **miamiheat319** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 5:16 pm

Adam Silver needs to be introduced to the phrase "if it ain't broke don't fix it"

warriorschamps · Post #100 » by **warriorschamps** » Sat Dec 25, 2021 5:26 pm

warriorschamps wrote:
darmani wrote:

Read on Twitter

Terrible idea. The game is fine. Leave it alone. These one off to try to drive up ratings aren't long term solutions for any rating decline the NBA maybe facing. Once the novelty have worn off you've ruined your product for no reason.

Popularity has to be organic. So if Silver want the NBA to be more popular he need more popular players and teams.