I'm responding to that definition for what "a mini NFL playoffs" means. You want just knock-out rounds. You're acting like the NFL post-season comes out of nowhere. Any tournament needs to set a bracket up somehow. The NFL does it with a regular season. FIBA tourneys do it with group play. The NFL playoffs is not independent from the regular season that establishes it. The IST is very different from the actual NBA playoffs because it is single-elimination. It's not meaningfully different from the NFL season, because both need to be set up. Are there ways to set a bracket without playing games? Yes, if it's completely random. But the NFL playoffs are not random. There's a lot of strategy built into the format, from seeding, to home field to byes. An NFL playoffs that was randomly generated wouldn't be as compelling. The same is true for a once-a-year IST. Single-elimination knockout rounds allows for teams to get hot at the right time, but the group play allows some quality control. As I said, it would be better if the IST were a completely self-contained event where group play happens quickly and with no games played in between. But I haven't seen a better way of organizing the tournament structure.
unless they rethink the prize so that it has some kind of real implication on the season, such as the winner getting a guaranteed playoff spot or maybe guaranteed homecourt in their conferences playoffs etc, then maybe i'd care about the end result. the IST has led to slightly better basketball so it's a win in that regard but that's basically what i keep hearing - the product is better but no one cares who wins or the outcome of the tournament
2 for 1 chalupas for the winning fanbase.
I've watched a ton of the IST games, and think they've been great. I think it'd be to cool to add one more reward-- an extra draft pick at the end of the first round for the eventual winners. This way, winning the tournament has real ramifications down the road, beyond the present. As it is, it's good for bragging rights, but other than that it doesn't have too much cred... like, no one's going to say an In Season championship is equivalent to half a regular championship or anything like that. But if winning the IST gets you an additional draft pick and that pick actually becomes a useful player, that could be a subtle enough variance that puts a team over the top in terms of winning a real championship.
On the bright side, this team desperately needs the available practice time.
On the other hand, the team probably isn't practicing hard/preparing properly anyway, so time off likely won't matter.
it makes things more exciting / interesting tbh.
teams have more to play for / play harder. that's not even a subjective opinion.
it also means more games = more money. That's exactly why these things were added to soccer.
great comparison
only pb is that 99% of soccer fans and players hate the absurd scheduling and number of diff compe ions…
Hey, let's reward the NBA champs with a couple of extra draft picks and just turn the league back into the 1960s version where the Celtics just bought up everyone else's talent so they could win every year!
All I can think of. Well, Timmy’s potential comments after a year of winning the IBS but losing in the 3rd+ round of the playoffs.
Last edited by taps; 12-07-2023 at 09:32 AM.
No one in this country cares about the NBA until football season ends. , most don't care about the regular season at all. This tournament was an attempt to draw interest in the NBA in November/December. Based on the crowds and the player effort in these games, they do seem to care. I've enjoyed the tournament mostly because my team has made a deep run all the way to the semifinals. I probably wouldn't have paid much attention otherwise. European soccer has several cups with a similar format in the middle of their regular seasons. I guess the NBA wants a more global approach.
I'd like to see the league change the prize so the people of any given city has a real reason to root for the local team. Like have each team partner with a local food bank.
If they were to expand to 32 teams (which would be great) and changed the IST to have 10 games for each team. That would be 160 games with a winner and loser for each game. Give $5k to the loser's food bank and $10k for the winner's food bank for every game. Even the worst team's city food bank would get $50k right before Christmas. That's a total of $2.4mil. Give the overall winning team's food bank $1mil and the runner up's food bank $600k. That would bring the total to $4mil.
That is pocket change for the NBA. It would genuinely make a significant change in the cities. And a charity like that is completely non-controversial and non-political. It would really make everyone happy.
Pretty big difference between one pick at #31 and a "couple of extra draft picks."
It's exactly the same thing, just to a different degree. Both are absurd.
With the way they're trying to integrate the IST with City Edition jerseys, that actually seems like a really good idea. In fact, I feel like I haven't seen much in the way of NBA Cares stuff in a while. It kinda seems like an obvious way to earn goodwill. Combine it with donation drives and sponsored donations, and it seems like a winner to me.
Yeah, the NBA badly needs a comp pick system. I don't like it as a reward for the IST, as players aren't going to play hard for the prize of a player who could replace them. But complaining about second-round picks feels ridiculous. We're at the point where the league should be considering adding back a third round. Getting more picks in circulation just make sense.
Give me some Whataburger coupons and you've piqued my interest
The tournament itself is a joke in my opinion.
The only real reward is the cash prize...which is great for the end of the bench guys but probably doesn't matter to the starts on $200M contracts and additional sponsorships and actually win the games.
Do you think any of these guys are going to go about bragging about "Hey, we won the NBA Cup!" when they still have two-thirds of a season left to play?
But, it does seem to be drumming up interest in the NBA in a time when it's usually dead because everyone is watching football and busy with the holidays, so...I expect it will continue and grow.
Please just get rid of the god-awful courts.
Seems like a gimmick that I don’t get the hang of. I am still just watching games I would have watched anyways. I suppose that if I was rooting for some team with a chance maybe I’d care more, but as it is it just feels like some gimmick that I don’t care about. An NCAA match madness type thing maybe would have some additional excitement but to be frank I don’t think so. What’s the point of it? Only the pursuit of an NBA championship matters.
It's to generate interest during football season. Even if the Spurs were in it, winning it would not matter to me. It's absolutely meaningless. I'd watch because the Spurs were playing, just like any other game.
The TV contract is very important to the NBA. The IST gives the TV people something special to promote, and to talk about. The TV people like that much better than trying to promote only the typical regular season games.
Also merchandise sales. Also higher attendance for teams in the tournament.
The NBA doesn’t care if you want it. They care if the TV networks, merchandise sellers, and ticket sellers want it. Oh yeah, and the gambling industry.
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