There came a miniature breaking point for Michael Malone last week after yet another question about the in-season tournament.
“I think everybody’s doing the right thing and saying all the right things, like ‘This is a big in-season game tonight,’” Malone said before the Nuggets’ group stage finale in Houston. “Well for me, we’re 1-3 on the road trip. The last thing I’m thinking about is the in-season tournament. I’m just being very honest.”
His answer was illuminating in two ways. First, the obvious: This new NBA endeavor is fun to play along with, but only as long as it isn’t eclipsing a team’s primary goal, which is to win games regardless of whether the court is painted funny. By this point in the group stage, the tournament as a novelty concept — and the accompanying questions from media — had clearly worn off for Malone, who was trying to get a championship-caliber team back on track. Understandable. He won’t be the last coach to make a comment like that when a group game coincides with a losing streak.
Second, however: After the dismissive portion of his answer, Malone went on to accurately explain Denver’s situation in the group standings entering the Rockets matchup, noting the Nuggets no longer controlled their own destiny but needed a win to stay alive as a wild card at minimum.
Even in the frustrating moments, people are invested in this thing.
It’s safe to say the inaugural tournament has been a hit. Competitors enjoy competing for stuff, even something completely made-up with no history or prestige behind it. And fans have seemingly bought in to an event that spices up the early part of a long season.
While eight teams move on to the single-elimination knockout stage starting Monday, the Nuggets will have to wait for next year if they want to hoist the “NBA Cup.”
In the meantime, the league should be considering how to improve the event. Here are the changes we think can make the tournament even better in the future. Please bear in mind: This is an act of imagination, not reporting.
1. Eight groups of four
Yes, we’re envisioning a post-expansion world here. What’s the point of pitching amendments that’ll only last a handful of years if the league is reportedly hoping to add teams after completing its next media rights deal in 2024?
Once there are 32 NBA franchises, the group stage should be broken into eight geography-based divisions of the same four teams every year, to cultivate rivalries. And since this is just one beat writer’s idealistic outcome, let’s introduce the two potential expansion cities where said beat writer would most like to travel. Something like this:
• Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia
• Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto, Washington
• Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Minnesota
• Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, Orlando
• Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans, Oklahoma City
• Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, Mexico City
• Utah, Denver, Portland, Seattle
• L.A. Clippers, Sacramento, L.A. Lakers, Golden State
2. Group stage procedure
Round robin, doubled. Every team plays its group-mates twice, once at home and once on the road. This does a few things to improve the overall product. Obviously, it increases fairness by eliminating the randomness of home-court advantage year to year during the group stage. (Does West B this season have a different result if the Pelicans visit Denver and the Nuggets visit Los Angeles? In non-tournament games this season, we’ve already seen the Nuggets win at home vs. New Orleans and on the road against the Clippers.)
It also increases the number of group games played from four to six, which is beneficial to the league’s ratings-and-publicity objective while also creating a more reliable sample size in determining which teams advance.
There are no wild cards. Only first place advances, maintaining the current eight-team knockout stage. If the NBA wants to try and blow up the knockout stage to 12 someday, this system allows that. All you have to do is add four wild cards based on point differential and give the top four group winners a bye into the quarterfinals. The obstacle is scheduling, of course. Already in the current eight-team setup, the league has to assign two new games to every team eliminated in the group stage. If the NBA went to 12, the knockout stage would take longer and require teams’ schedules to be vacant for a longer stretch. Some teams would end up needing two rescheduled games, other teams three.
The real fun in a six-game group stage is the tiebreaker potential. In one group finale Tuesday between the Celtics and Bulls, Boston kept its starters on the floor with a 30-point lead in the fourth quarter to improve the team’s point differential and advance via tiebreaker.
Lean into that chaos. Players weren’t universally thrilled with the sportsmanship aspect of running up the score. But with a four-team group in which only one team advances, players won’t be competing for point differential against teams from other groups — only against their own group rivals. If there’s a tie atop the standings, the first tiebreaker remains head-to-head, but that situation will usually involve the two (or three) tied teams having split their head-to-head games.
That means the second tiebreaker — overall group point differential — comes into play more often than it does currently, ensuring it’s taken into consideration during the last game. To add another layer, the third tiebreaker should be head-to-head point differential, a soccer-style aggregate.
The final wave of group games will be played simultaneously, so that one team doesn’t have the advantage of knowing what point differential it needs to finish higher than another. Scoreboard watching is welcomed, however.
3. Knockout stage procedure
To prevent certain quarterfinal matchups from growing stale, a knockout bracket of the eight groups will be randomized before the start of each tournament, locking in which group winners will play each other in advance. Quarterfinal home-court advantage is still decided by group stage record followed by point differential.
4. Courts
Just lower the color saturation a tiny bit during the design phase. Please.
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