The NBA has a fun way it could make its new in-season tournament a lot spicier moving forward
This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
What’s up, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for chopping it up with me today. I appreciate you.
The in-season tournament is finally here! We’ve been waiting months for this moment and it’s finally culminating. Just in case you need a refresher on how things work for this, here’s a quick one we put together just for the occasion.
It should be lots of fun. It’ll be interesting to see whether this thing works out or not. The stakes aren’t the most riveting — players and coaches of the winning team get to split an $18 million pool.
That’s not nothing, obviously. To be clear, I’m not already trying to fix this idea when it hasn’t presented any problems yet. But I do think there’s a way to raise the stake a bit more for next season if the NBA wants to. It’s a pretty easy add — just involve the NBA playoffs.
Tyrese Haliburton presented the idea to Yahoo! Sports’ Jake Fischer earlier this year and, honestly, I like the way he’s thinking.
“I think the greatest incentive for everybody to do it would be an automatic playoff bid. … If it was a playoff spot, I think everyone would take it very, very serious, right? I think the older teams would take it serious. But then it might … what would [the winning team] do then?”
Now that’s a spicy tournament.
Theoretically, it’s pretty simple to do. If this tournament works out well, the league could spice things up with an automatic playoff berth for the winner. Make it so that the team that wins gets no lower than an automatic 6th seed in the conference.
If you’re one of the top seeds in the playoffs, maybe you get to choose your opponent between the play-in teams that make it in. Or maybe you get to choose your homecourt format for the first round of the playoffs. There are some things the league could throw in to make that interesting for the best teams, too.
It’s probably best the NBA didn’t go that route this year. It’s hard to justify raising the stakes so high on an unproven event. There’s a chance this thing doesn’t go well and nobody likes it. That’s probably not going to happen — but there is a chance!
It’s best to test things out first and see how they work before the stakes are raised again. But don’t be surprised if this is something that’s being considered in a few years. It gives the players something other than cash to play for and makes things a tad bit more riveting.
Just food for thought, though. For now, let’s enjoy the format we do have. Here’s to a good in-season tournament, NBA.
James Harden still doesn’t get it
(AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
On Thursday in his first press conference with the Clippers, James Harden made his best Jay-Z impression. “I’m not a businessman. I’m a business, man,” the hip-hop laureate once famously said.
“I am not a system player. I am a system.”
Full comment from James Harden: pic.twitter.com/wWfLzgndlO
— Malika Andrews (@malika_andrews) November 2, 2023
“When I meant a leash, I don’t mean just shooting the basketball every time. Like, I think the game and I’m a creator on the court. … I’m not a system player. I am a system. You know what I mean?”
I’m not a system player. I am a system. Sheesh.
There were plenty of rumors about Harden wanting a different role in Philadelphia. He didn’t seem to enjoy the play style centered around Joel Embiid. Those were only rumors, though.
Here he kind of confirms all of that. And that’s probably not what you want to hear if you’re a Clippers fan.
Harden is about to be the third option on this team behind both Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. There’s not going to be a ton of room for Harden to create. He’s going to have to feed off of other players. It remains to be seen whether he can do that or not here.
If his last stint in Philly is any indication, he can’t. Let’s hope that’s not true.
What to watch
Make sure you take a good look at each of the NBA’s in-season tournament courts tonight. They’re certainly going to be a sight to behold.
I’ve made my opinion that I don’t like these very clear. Some of them are already beginning to pop up on social media. The Pacers were kind enough to share a time-lapse video of the staff laying the court down and it looks wild.
In-Season Tournament ready pic.twitter.com/qQX7wTe6Rr
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) November 3, 2023
There’s plenty more where that came from. All seven games tonight will be played on these trippy courts.
Here’s the full slate:
— Cavaliers @ Pacers, 7 p.m. ET
— Knicks @ Bucks, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN)
— Wizards @ Heat, 8 p.m. ET
— Nets @ Bulls, 8 p.m. ET
— Warriors @ Thunder 8 p.m. ET
— Grizzlies @ Blazers, 10 p.m. ET
— Mavericks @ Nuggets, 10 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Enjoy.
Shootaround
— Keldon Johnson had the most appropriate reaction to Victor Wembanyama’s career night. Meghan Hall has more.
— Prince Grimes has you covered with three teams that will absolutely NOT win the in-season tournament. Suns fans, sorry.
— Here are 7 photos of Victor Wembanyama making the tallest human beings look short. Charles Curtis has more.
—Speaking of Wemby, you better hope your team wins a chip now. Because, man. It’s his world. We’re all just living in it.