As we relayed last week, the NBA sent a proposal to all 30 teams outlining possible changes to the league’s schedule for the 2021/22 season. One of those changes would be an in-season tournament which would reward the winning team with $1MM-per-player bonuses.
While that cash prize may motivate players to invest in the proposed tournament, it likely wouldn’t increase fans’ interest in the event. So, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter links), the league continues to discuss possible incentives for fans and teams. One idea still being considered, per Stein, is extra draft pick compensation – perhaps in the form of a first-round pick – for the winning team.
Stein first reported earlier this month that the NBA was mulling the possibility of a draft-related reward for the winner of the proposed in-season tournament, so today’s report confirms that the idea may be gaining momentum. At the very least, it remains on the table.
According to Stein, further details on the NBA’s proposed schedule changes are expected to surface before the All-Star Game in February. The league will look to firm up a proposal that teams can vote on at the NBA’s Board of Governors meetings in April.
Besides the in-season tournament, the NBA has also proposed a play-in tournament for the seventh and eighth playoff seeds in each conference, and a re-seeding of the final four teams for the Conference Finals.
In order for the changes to be approved, at least 23 of 30 teams would have to vote in favor of them, and it remains to be seen whether that’s on track to happen. According to Stein, there been “strong concern” registered against the idea of re-seeding the final four teams. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban also took to Twitter today to criticize the NBA’s proposed rewards for the in-season tournament winner.
“So dumb,” Cuban tweeted in response to Stein’s report on a draft-pick prize. “What will teams that are in the tax going out do, tank the tournament because they don’t want the pick? Or teams trying to build cap room? Be forced to trade it? Draft and stash?
“And to create incremental financial incentives to play games just sends so many wrong messages,” Cuban added, referring to the proposed $1MM-per-player reward. “Free agency recruitment will change. ‘Hey, we can’t compete for a ring, but we go all out for the (tournament), so sign with us and you could make another $1MM.'”
It’s possible that some of the scheduling changes could be approved while others fall by the wayside, but the NBA appears committed for now to all aspects of its proposal, so we’ll see what tweaks the league makes in the coming months to get more teams, players, and fans on board.
The tournament can be treated as a bye week (like in football) for the top tier star players. And let the younger players that are rookies or players on 2 way deals play in the tournament. They dont make a lot. That $1mm will be a hige incentive to play
I can’t be the only person who will wash their hands entirely of the NBA if this ridiculous nonsense becomes a reality…
Lol, you’re gonna wash your hands of the NBA if this happens??
Why not? If it no longer interests him, it’s really not required for him to remain a fan.
I quit watching the NFL when they started wearing pink uniforms the entire month of October. Stupid reason you may think, but it turned me away from the game gradually. It wasn’t really the only reason, but I didn’t like it. I went from 25 years of never missing a game to watching nothing but the playoffs to not watching any football at all for the past 3 years. And I don’t really miss it.
Anyway, the point is that even stupid reasons can change the way you spend your money and time.
The more they talk about this in-season tournament the worse it sounds. The ratings are down 15%, this looks more like a panic move.
A post season play-in tournament may work but in-season? Forget about it
How about a color for self-examination. No other cancer-target is as easy to check.
The only way an in season tournament works is if the team that wins it has a playoff advantage.
The prize for winning should be a 5-year exemption from competing in it.
Wait… you want a competitive league so you reward a solid team with a lottery pick for winning this tournament? It should be a locked pick, no chance of it moving up.
There isn’t a single team that wouldn’t want an extra draft pick. No idea what on Earth Cuban is talking about
Well, Cuban has a team, so there is at least one single team that wouldn’t want an extra draft pick.
If he thinks a free first round draft pick would be a bad thing everyone in that organization is lucky that he’s just the owner and not the GM.
Hard to imagine anything being dumber than Silver’s original idea of using $$ as an incentive to prompt up a meaningless tournament. But Silver has come up with one with this draft pick award idea. Does he understand the reasons why teams get picks in reverse order of the standings? Compensatory picks for losing UFAs is something other leagues’ use to supplement this, but no league has ever given draft picks for winning anything.
Giving an extra pick to the team that wins a tournament (likely to be a top team) is not only irrational, it won’t even work as incentive. The vast majority of existing players and coaches for any team aren’t going to care whether the team they play for gets an extra draft pick.
To be fair, it’s not meant to be an incentive for players and coaches — that’s what the prize money would be for.
Is the draft pick intended to motivate anyone?
FO’s ? I’m certainly they’d like the pick, but I doubt many are going to do much different in the off season on the tiny chance they can win this early season tournament. Is that even what the league wants. Bad teams aren’t winning this, and trying to will only keep them bad longer.
Fans maybe? The fans that care about these things are watching intensely anyway. This started as a ratings issue, that’s about other fans.
It seems aimed at fans/management/ownership. I’d question whether an incentive for those groups is all that necessary as long as the players buy in.
An extra draft pick is a disincentive because it would introduce another high quality competitor for limited minutes. What player wants that irregardless of what management wants? Management does not play the games. Is anyone thinking through these ideas from different points of view?
Let’s get PT Barnum to run the league. It is a circus. They have ruined the draft and everything else. They can keep it and their $300 a game seats.
This is a terrible idea, the nba unlike other sports is not random. At the start of every season you know the final 4 teams. And never does that deviate. No matter how the league tries to structure this tournament the best teams will win. Why can’t the nba just leave well enough alone?
Silver cannot add new things without disrespecting existing things. It’s in his makeup. People (like Silver) who dislike the status quo get confused with people who fix problems.
Silver is not just being open to change, he needs it.
Fortunately the commish is not the boss and courts of law have not respected commish powers. I’m rooting for unknown owners voting ‘nay’ at this point, just for the numbers 82 and 16!
Sure, a player is going to really bust it if he knows that the prize is their team gets to draft someone who will take his job.
The only way I can see fans getting behind this is if the winning team earns ticket discounts to be paid by the NBA. The players don’t get anything extra, but the team that wins earns discounts for fan tickets. Perhaps even a tiered discount for the final four teams. 20% for the winner, 10% for the runner up and 5% for the other two final four teams. The players and coaches are already getting paid millions, why should they need more incentive to play an extra 5 games?
That’s the only way I would be interested in this idea at all.
That’s actually pretty good imo. I like the idea of a play game or short tourny for the 7 and 8 seeds in the playoff. Also, there used to be a lot of talk of making the playoffs the top 16 teams regardless of conference, where has that gone? So maybe a mix of that stuff and I love your idea about ticket discounts. What about some discount code for fans of those teams for League Pass? Or like a month free of that team? Idk but these things seem way more fan oriented than more money for players or a late pick (forced cap hit) for a team.
A lot of people are convinced the mid-season tournament idea will flop, but what if it doesn’t? What if the players and coaches are excited about the extra cash, and the teams are excited by an extra pick? What if the teams put a better product on the floor every game? What if there’s less “load management” because the NBA eliminates a handful of back-to-backs?
I think the possibility of improving the game is reason enough to try.
It’s weird to me that the reaction to this is so resoundingly negative. The “play-in” games would just be part of the regular season schedule, so the only real change would be the eight-team single-elimination part that follows. A knockout tournament featuring eight of the NBA’s best teams sounds more fun to me than games 30 through 32 of the regular season, regardless of the stakes.
The way you put it here makes it way more clear and doesn’t sound as bad as all previous commentary and descriptions of it.
Here are the play-in games right now:
CHI (12-20) @ BRK (16-13)
CHA (13-20) @ ORL (13-17)
SAC (12-18) @ OKC (15-14)
SAS (12-17) @ POR (14-17)
Not very exciting. This is a lineup that is offered on free nights of NBA League Pass.
I was referring to the mid-season tournament rather than the one for the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds at season’s end. I have no strong feelings either way on that one.
Though I suppose as someone who very much enjoys MLB’s Wild Card games, I have no objection to more single-elimination/knockout games. A dramatic win in one of those games could at least be more fun for a fanbase than simply entering the playoffs and being dispatched in 4 or 5 games by a top seed.
What about a secondary playoff single elimation tournament for the 5-14 lottery teams to recede them in the draft?
How about add a Third Round in Draft back and NBATV also showing it live.
As for incentives. Why not, say an extra $5-10 million in salary cap space for the winning team for the current season plus 1? The league pays the winning team the money so the team is not winning the right to spend more of its money (team prize for winning). Make it a tradable asset? If not used it has to be paid to players as bonus? Players might be motivated because its team has more flexibility to add help in season or next season or team can pay the bonus.
Somebody check with former MLB commish Bud Selig about what happens when a league tries to impose importance on exhibition games…
I think fans of the winning team should get free chicken sandwiches, at the very least.
Winner winner
Teams that lose the trny “play-in” games should get “fill-in” games to get to 82 total.
I see two situations for the term “play-in game”: teams #17 through #20 playoff meetings (snore), and trny early round games that are also RS games. I bet this terminology never gets straight.
Let’s recap the problems first:
– lack of fan interest, partly due to uncompetitive games (ratings are down)
– tanking teams, especially in the second half of the season
I’d split the season in three phases:
Phase A) first 35 ish games like they are
Phase B) All-Star Game & Tournament
So those who play in all star games do so any everyone is happy about it. Let’s leave it there.
Obviously not in parallel but the week before or after, teams play (only without All-Stars), play an in season tournament at neutral sites (Mexico, Seattle, London, whatever). Incentives are as follows (for winner/finalists/semi-finalists):
– Players: $1m / $0.5m and $0.25m
– FO/Owners: 10th / 20th / 30th & 31st picks
– Fans: 50% / 25% / 10% discount on League Pass
Phase C) the second ~35 games of normal season, but with a twist: the lottery pick order is not reversed anymore. Meaning that draft picks 1-16 are determined by the actual (not reverse) final season standing of teams finishing in the bottom half of the standings, taking away reasons to tank.
E.g. A team that is dead last after Phase A) would only get the 16th highest odds for 1st round pick if they actually finish last after Phase C) If they instead get their act together in the second half of the season and finish, say, 20th, they’d get the 5th highest odds, rewarding them for hard play.
On the other end of the spectrum, teams that just miss playoffs despite playing hard for it, get a high chances of a good pick, giving them a chance to compete in FA and get out of the “dreaded middle”
IMHO the narrative of this would be great in so many ways: every player gets a week of mid season rest. # of games are not increased. it’d bring the league more fans from places without nba teams, it’d trigger 2nd levels stars to rise up when their AS colleagues are gone for their camp, it’d eliminate tanking, rewards fans properly, even gives teams like the NYK a chance to play meaningful basketball.
But, what do you think guys / Luke? Did I miss anything? (Where) do you see any unintended consequences?
Btw, AdamS if you are reading this, I’m happy for this to be considered as my application letter. J
Cuban’s points are honestly horrendously bad. How on earth would any team view a free first round pick as a bad thing?
A much better point to make is it’d be bad for parity. Good teams are more likely to win the tournament and get a free pick that they don’t need.