Earlier this week, the NBA’s Board of Governors decided to make the play-in tournament a regularly scheduled event. At the same meeting, the Board also discussed the possibility of an in-season tournament, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
According to Charania, the format would have all 30 teams competing, with eight teams advancing to a single-elimination round to determine the winner. The NBA’s “Final Four” would be held at a neutral site. However, the in-season tournament won’t happen until at least the 2023/24 season.
We have more from around the basketball world:
- It’s inevitable the extensions given by the Trail Blazers to Damian Lillard and by the Wizards to Bradley Beal will come back to haunt those franchises, John Hollinger of The Athletic opines. Lillard is projected to make a cap-killing $63MM in 2026/27 when he’s 36, Hollinger notes. The Wizards gave Beal a five-year deal that pays him $70MM more than he could have gotten elsewhere and they added a no-trade clause, both of which could doom the franchise to mediocrity.
- Former NBA forward Derrick Williams has agreed to a one-year deal with Panathinaikos Athens, according to Sportando. Williams played for Maccabi Tel Aviv last season. The No. 2 overall pick of the 2011 draft hasn’t played an NBA game since the 2017/18 season.
- Former NBA guard Yogi Ferrell is re-signing with Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana, according to Sportando. He averaged 12.6 PPG in ABA Liga games, 15.3 PPG in EuroCup and 13.8 PPG in domestic league contests for the Slovenian team last season. Ferrell played for the Clippers in the 2020/21 regular season and playoffs before going overseas.
- From stars sitting out regular-season games to high draft picks getting shut down in the Summer League, the league has a major problem with its recognizable players simply not playing enough, argues Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
Stars sitting in the regular season and rookies in summer league is not even close to the same
Am I reading this correctly? Millard will make 63 million in one season? How is anyone realistically worth that amount. That’s insane
Yes! Players get half of all of the basketball related revenue. LeBron, Chris Paul and the biggest stars pushed through a Collective Bargaining Agreement that mirrors the United States. Basically, the “elite” players get the overwhelming majority of the money. The “Middle Class” of the NBA get squeezed out Mid-Level Exemption and Bi-Annual Exemption is how these guys have to fit under the cap while John Wall, Westbrook, etc. sit on their max deals tanking whatever franchise they are on. Brad Beal and Damian Lillard will be the next to totally tank their franchises. What happens when Portland once again doesn’t win this year? Lillard will be eating HALF the salary cap by himself!
Most top guys only play 2-3 games in summer league. They didnt even used to have that many teams until a couple of years ago. Summer league is meant to show a little of what those guys do, and then the rest is for evaluations
Recognizable names…maybe people should learn the game, outside of the people on ESPN b/c they score
As for this in season tournament that incessantly has been talked about the last couple of years, its asinine, and hopefully isnt more of an attempt to make the league into a mockery the way baseball has done the last few years with their ridiculous rules
What exactly is this even supposed to be for? How is it prestigious? Then are we taking away from the regular season schedule? If so, that’s even more ridiculous. O we didnt win the championship or get to the conference finals, but we won this arbitrary tournament for nothing that nobody cares about…
Ever heard of the FA Cup in England?! NBA wants something like that, combined with a Final Four style tournament. Could be fun, though I also don’t care if it ever happens.
It’s not the same thing though. The way those leagues are orchestrated is totally different. There are world championships and other offseason tournaments that take place, and some players go over and play in Eurocup or other things like that as well. During the season, the whole point is NBA Championship. You play through training camp/preseason, 82 regular season games, and 3 7 game series to get you prepared for the NBA Finals. Taking away from that makes no sense
And as you said, who would care about this? I live basketball, so if it means more basketball, I would watch it, but if it takes away from the aforementioned stuff, then why should I care?
If it’s a way to add more developmental players and give them more playing time, in addition to the 82 game regular season/regular format, then I become a lot more interested as its essentially an upgraded summer league in the middle that maybe gives other players a chance to rest up for 10 extra days or so, while being a good evaluation tool and more exposure for those players either on 2 way deals or on the cusp of the NBA, or even back of the rotation/roster type of players that dont see regular minutes as often/young guys. Like an upgraded g-league showcase
How about getting guys who make insane amounts of money to actually play hard and actually play in as many games possible for fans paying insane amounts of money to watch them play.
The NBA now has to resort to “gimmicks” to entice interest during the regular season because it has become somewhat meaningless.
Players have figured out that preserving themselves for the playoffs creates the most value for themselves.
Fans keep getting screwed. Now what, pay mega-millionaires even more millions as an enticement to actually take an in-season tournament seriously.
excited about an in season tourney!
Stop.
There shouldn’t be any issue with teams holding players out of Summer League, especially if they have looked solid in their appearances like Paolo Banchero. It’s meant to be a time to see what those fringe and end of the roster guys can do to show off their development in the hopes of getting a contract and bigger opportunities when the season starts. Bigger name attendees like Banchero have little else to prove in the Summer League and they’re better off not risking injury in these meaningless (for them) minutes.
I still don’t get the NTC for Beal and probably never will.
The Athletic outlines it with better words than I could; good read (and worth the 1$ per month for those of you who don’t sub to the Athletic btw )
Hated Cronin’s trade deadline last year but I did like their offseason to date. Didn’t see the reason for a Lillard ext so soon, prolly coulda waited till the break next year to see how he comes back but that leads me too…….>>>>>>
** CBT was intended to help these small-mid range teams but it just seems to hurt them a little more than help in most areas against it’s original intention. Kinda forces these max’s on fringy max players/or older max players, it shuts more doors than it opens really . Have faith in Silver to make the changes necessary tho here soon
It was LeBron, Chris Paul, etc. that pushed through a garbage Collective Bargaining Agreement that gave the overwhelming majority of the money to the so-called “biggest” stars since as they put it…. They were who people were paying to see play. Ironic how most of them DON’T play for one reason or another. Like i said before. It mirrors America. The Elite take the majority for themselves while the “Middle Class” of the NBA is forced to exist on the Mid-Level and Bi-Annual exemptions to the cap. LeBron, AD and Westbrook take the entire Laker salary cap by themselves. Lillard will take half of Portland’s cap starting next year.
Some half truths in there but still some truths ill agree
Basketball is the best sport to get paid if your an “avg” player still . Granted only 15 paid spots
My bigger concern isn’t how they split the pie on their own cap sheets; its giving all 30 teams the same opportunity (as realistic as that can get) .
I think that was Silver’s intention last CBA just the players have SO SO much power they have kinda circumvented it in a way that helps big vs small markets too disproportionately.
Nobody is forcing these owners to sign these ridiculous deals.
Man, still hard to believe that Derrick Williams was once a #2 pick overall. Just awful.
Idk if it would be beneficial or not to the league but I’d rather see a tournament that was like your 2-way players, and end of the bench guys and each team is granted X amount of 10-day contracts to build a squad. Your regulars get a much needed rest, and you get to evaluate more guys versus just sending them to the G League bc you’ll still have a bunch of veteran guys in there that make up that 10 to 15 spot that aren’t on 2 ways so the competition would be better than watching Summer League or G League games. Like not as sloppy not as frantic. And you’d have guys really competing bc it’s a showcase.