There is no other way to describe the first-ever NBA In-Season Tournament other than successful. Many doubted Adam Silver and the league when they began formulating what this tournament would look like, but everything NBA fans thought was wrong.
Competition around the league has increased as a result of the in-season tournament. Superstar talents have bought into the idea of fighting for something at the beginning of the year, and attendance numbers for the month of November were at an all-time high.
Seems like fans do care about the NBA In-Season Tournament after all.
The Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James, have captured the very first NBA Cup, which is a little poetic. The success LeBron has found in his career and the fact that the Lakers are one of the most historic sports franchises in the world makes their in-season success exactly what the NBA wanted. Everything about this tournament worked out in the league's favor, which means this event at the start of the season is here to stay.
With this said, that doesn't necessarily mean the league won't consider making some changes.
Many players have questioned the schedule in which these in-season tournament games take place and a lot has been made regarding the point differential being the tiebreaker during the group stages. Also, having the Final Four of the in-season tournament hosted by Las Vegas was a strategic move by the NBA, not one that is necessarily set in stone.
It seems destined that Vegas will be getting an NBA franchise when the league expands in a matter of years, so hyping up the league with this in-season tournament there was a brilliant move by Silver and the league office.
The NBA is constantly making changes. While the in-season tournament was a success, there are always tweaks, adjustments, and new ideas that can be implemented. Looking ahead to the 2024 NBA In-Season Tournament there are quite a few minor changes that the league should consider.
Change #1: The tournament games should be its own set schedule
Group stage games of the NBA In-Season Tournament were played every Tuesday and Friday during the month of November this season.
That makes sense, right? It's easy for die-hard fans and those of us who cover the league on a daily basis to comprehend, but what's the point of having regular season games mixed between these games where the league wants teams to play harder?
What's even crazier than regular games being mixed between the in-season tournament games is the fact that there were numerous instances of teams having to play on back-to-back nights. This just makes no sense. If anyone is going to have to play a back-to-back, both of these games should be in-season tournament games and all 30 teams in the league should have the same amount of back-to-backs. At the same time, why even do this in the first place?
There is a very easy solution to fixing the schedule for the NBA In-Season Tournament and it eliminated having to play regular, non-tournament games in-between the ones the league wants us to pay attention to.
The solution: Play all of the group stage games over the course of one or two weeks.
Don't just limit the tournament games to Tuesdays and Fridays in November, play them over the final two weeks of the month with the championship game being on Nov. 30, or whatever the final weekend is. Spreading these games out creates confusion amongst the fans given that nobody knows which games are and aren't tournament games, plus the league has to deal with star players being injured in non-tournament games.
Perhaps the league could even adopt a tournament style similar to that of the NCAA Tournament where a certain amount of teams play in one region over the course of a week. Take East Group A for example from this year's NBA In-Season Tournament.
The Philadelphia 76ers were the team with the best record from a season ago, so maybe they play host for the entire group. Again, this is just a suggestion and is a side note from the idea of changing the schedule entirely.
It just makes way too much sense for the league to condense everything down into a week or two instead of drawing the in-season tournament out over the course of the whole month. There is no need to have regular, normal games thrown in the schedule between these in-season tournament games, so let's just eliminate that for 2024 and beyond.
Change #2: Style of group stage
There are a total of 30 teams in the NBA, 15 in each conference. As a result, the league kept things simple and had three groups of five teams in both the Eastern and Western Conference for the in-season tournament.
To make things fair, each group was formulated based on the records of all 30 teams during the 2022-23 season. Basically, the NBA did not want to have one group with five championship contending teams and one group with five teams that are all rebuilding.
As long as there are 30 teams, the league should keep this five-team, six-group layout because it simply makes sense. However, league expansion is inevitable and Adam Silver has said so on multiple occasions. What happens when the NBA adds two new teams, presumably in Seattle and Las Vegas?
Expansion is not going to happen for a few years, but the in-season tournament would likely feature four groups of four teams in each conference when it does. This means that either more teams would advance out of the group stage, or only the four group winners advance to the knockout rounds.
Aside from the hypotheticals and talking about league expansion impacting changes that will be made to the NBA In-Season Tournament, there could also be changes made to the style of these groups. Instead of having the groups be designed based on record from the previous year, perhaps the league just keeps these teams bundled up how they are with the divisions they are currently in.
Yes, for those who did not know, the NBA still has divisions even though they mean absolutely nothing other than some secondary tiebreakers. By having each of the tournament groups represent the six divisions in the NBA, we would get to see rivalries such as the Los Angeles Clippers vs. Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers vs. New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors vs. Sacramento Kings, and Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat during the group stage of the in-season tournament.
These are always the games that generate the most interest and viewership for the NBA, which is why it is something to consider.
Change #3: Tweak the tiebreaker and point differential rules
Everyone has had something to say about the tiebreaker and point differential rules for the NBA In-Season Tournament. Some players seem unbothered by it, as that's just the nature of the tournament, but others have been very vocal about how certain teams running up the score has ruined the integrity of the game.
“It was interesting. I don't really like it,” New York Knicks swingman Josh Hart said after his team advanced to the knockout stage of this year's tournament due to the point differential tiebreaker, via ESPN. “We were focused, at first, just about winning. The last couple of minutes it feels weird. At a certain point, you just start chasing points, doing all that. So it kind of messes with the integrity of the game a little bit.”
The one moment during the in-season tournament that sparked a lot of questions regarding this point differential tiebreaker was when the Boston Celtics took on the Chicago Bulls. In their final group stage game and needing to win by a certain amount of points to win the group, the Celtics found themselves up nearly 30 points in the fourth quarter. This is when Boston began fouling Bulls center Andre Drummond on purpose, sending him to the free-throw line for two shots knowing that he has shot 47.7 percent from the charity stripe for his career.
At first, Bulls head coach Billy Donovan and the team thought the Celtics were just joking around, but Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla and his stone-cold expression said otherwise. Mazzulla and Donovan had a conversation at mid-court, presumably about sportsmanship and the integrity of the game, and the contest continued when the Bulls took Drummond out of the game. Boston ended up winning by 27 points and won East Group C over the Orlando Magic due to their point differential being five points better than Orlando's.
“That's just not how the game is supposed to be played,” Celtics star Jaylen Brown said after this group stage game. “One, you got to respect your opponents and two, weird setup. We understand the rules, but if I was [on] the other team, I would be upset as well if we were doing Hack-A-Drummond in the middle of the fourth quarter.”
Look, I have no problem with any team running up the score and leaving their starters out there on the court in the fourth quarter in order to try and achieve a better score. Quote honestly, if you are better than the other team in any sport, you should have every right to score as much as you want and assert your dominance. Sportsmanship really doesn't matter in the NBA, as everyone's only goal is to win.
Teams win by 40-plus points all the time during the regular season, so why should we take exception to teams doing so during the in-season tournament?
The point differential tiebreaker does not need to change, but teams exploiting this rule needs to stop. We can't have the “Hack-a-Drummond” stuff happening in a middle of a game. How the league goes about changing this is a whole separate conversation. The only way to truly outlaw the strategy is by making any “hack-a-player” foul an intentional take foul, resulting in not one, but two shots at the free-throw line and possession of the ball.
Maybe instead of making the point differential the second tiebreaker behind head to head record in group play, we make the second tiebreaker either away or home record in the group stage. After all, it tends to be harder to win on the road than at home, so that should count for something.
Change #4: Just please fix the courts…
This one is very self-explanatory and quite honestly, there aren't many who would argue this one. The NBA In-Season Tournament is great. The jersey the teams are wearing… some of them are fine. The courts however, these need to go for several reasons.
The Indiana Pacers' blue and yellow court gives me a headache, the Boston Celtics aren't playing on a parquet floor like they always do, and the New Orleans Pelicans court is just flat-out bad. Why is their court like a purplish-blue with neon green when their colors are dark blue, red, and gold?
Then there's the Denver Nuggets with “5280” slapped right on the middle of the court. We get it, you play high up in the mountains, but how is a four digit number supposed to instill fear in your opponents?
The solid and bright colors are just a little bit too much when watching some of these games, which is why the league should go back to the drawing board and come up with a new concept on how these courts should look. Hey, at least they put the NBA Cup on these courts, giving us all hope that the NBA brings back the famed NBA Finals courts with the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.
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