We’ve heard about the plans to shake up the regular season in the near future by adding an all-new NBA In-Season Tournament, and those plans could be getting closer to being set in stone. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the NBA is working toward finalizing their In-Season Tournament plans, and we could see them in play as soon as the 2023-24 basketball season.
Charania notes the tournament will go through November, with eight teams advancing to a single-elimination final taking place in December. Meanwhile, the other 22 teams that do not advance will continue on with their normally-scheduled regular season.
In fact, each game included in the In-Season Tournament will be part of the teams’ typical 82-game regular season schedule. However, the two teams who make it to the final round will be playing one extra game.
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NBA In-Season Tournament aimed at spiking regular season interest
As mentioned, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA Players Association are still working toward finalizing the details of the In-Season Tournament, so we don’t have a ton to go off.
One of the biggest questions circles around what winning the In-Season Tournament does for the champions. Do they get an automatic playoff spot later in the season? Better playoff seeding? A cash prize? Participation trophies? We just don’t know.
There will obviously be some perks that go along winning, but it is a bit odd not to have them included in these other details that aren’t going to excite anyone just yet.
While we don’t know what the motivation for each individual player and team will be to win an In-Season Tournament, we know why the NBA is interested: Money.
Just like when they added the Play-In Tournament, the Association is thrilled about what bringing more competition to the early portion of the regular season can do for their popularity. We’ve seen how having as many as 82 games leads to fans and even players tuning out here and there until the playoffs are near. Some even suggest the NBA season doesn’t truly start until Christmas Day. The NBA hopes to do away with all this nonsense by creating more intrigue earlier in the season.
While it may only begin on an experiment basis, and who knows, it could end up being a catastrophic failure, yet it’s hard to blame the league for wanting to try something new, hopefully reducing the amount of ‘rest days’ from its biggest stars throughout the year as they coast to the playoffs.
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