Adam Silver's in-season NBA tournament will suck

It's true that you and I won't know every detail until the big reveal Saturday night, but, at least from what I know now, per Red Satan, it sucks.

It sucks starting with the pool round games counting toward regular season records. It sucks because that means you can't tank pool round games unless you were going to tank the whole season anyway and don't give a fuck about Adam Silver giving you a Rob Manfred hunk of metal in Las Vegas.

 

Update, Aug. 15: ESPN touches on the no-tank issue, how this is of course about the Benjamins, and a list of the pool round games and more, in this overview piece.

 

There's be a helluva lot less confusion if Silver had announced all the details at once, but he clearly learned nothing from "The Decision" by LeBron. Since that too was on Red Satan, where the bald-headed goon is going to do the Big Reveal on this, I think it's clear the bottom line is all about the Benjamins. That is stimulated in part after posting to Reddit. 

And, yes, you should want to tank, as I see it. (And, to a lesser degree, I stand by that even with the updates below.) With that said, per the ESPN link, let's dig in.

Update 2.0, Part A. The Decision 2.0 is in, and god, it's even more fucking stupid than I thought, starting with how the pool games will work.

The group play portion of the tournament will consist of four games -- one against each of the other four teams across each group -- that will take place on seven dates throughout November. This year, those dates will be Nov. 3, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28 -- a combination of four Fridays and three Tuesdays.

And, I suppose Red Satan will beat us all over the head about "this is POOL NIGHT! Go swimming!" Add in a picture of Doris Burke frothing at the mouth, and you've got it.

The basic set-up, for those who know zip, zilch, nada is that Silver, having seen the success of the play-in for the playoffs, which HAS BEEN good on juicing interest and cutting into tanking, especially with the Miami Heat making the NBA Finals (got any regrets over tanking, decided, based on the English Premier League having an in-season tourney, to do the same for the NBA.

Really? Dunno about other fans, but I was expecting one blocked-out week of games. Silver said he was influenced by European football. This is more like the "friendlies" between EPL, Bundesliga, La Liga, etc., that are the pool rounds for the UEFA Champions League than it is the midseason tournaments within each one of those leagues, like the EPL WITH other levels of English soccer, that has one.

I now see that on Reddit, Silver-stanners are trying to claim this IS like something in European football leagues. It is NOT. The UEFA title between the different European leagues' top teams is contested AFTER THE END of the season. The FA Cup involves teams from ALL RANKS of English soccer, not just the Premier League. The UEFA, as noted, involves all European leagues, If you know European football as well as you present yourself as knowing, you know that. Stop it. 

The only way Silver could actually do something like either of those, rather than a glorified NBA Summer League, was to cut regular season games. And, no way owners are agreeing to that.

And, ironically, The Decision itself was 13 years ago to the day of the 2.0.

Here's how it will work. Or not work.

In each of the two conferences will be three five-team pools. These will NOT correspond to current divisions. You'll play four pool games. These WILL COUNT toward your regular season record. The three pool winners and one wild card from each conference advance to the conference semifinals. The two winners in each conference advance to the conference finals. Those will both be one-and-done.

There will then be a Midseason NBA Finals! Duh-dah! (Sound of trumpets blowing.)

Silver has already indicated this will NOT be a single game.

So, if you're in the Midi-Finals, you're going to play at least two more, and possibly three more (good fucking doorknob, it had BETTER not be longer than 2-of-3) than any other team in the league. You'll be playing at least four, if not five more games than all teams who don't make it out of the pool round.

 

Update, and scratch that: I swear that Red Satan's original had the bald-headed goon saying the title game would NOT be single elimination. Maybe that means it will have an Elam type finish? That's still a single game. 

 

As for the idea that everybody else's schedule will be adjusted? That will take a helluva lot of work. NBA arenas often get rented out well in advance for non-NBA events. Some are dual-tenant sites with the NHL. 

Update to that, with the Big Reveal The Decision 2.0 being announced? The two regular season games will be Dec. 6 and 8, before the conference semifinal and conference final, respectively. Because we don't know who the 22 teams will be in advance, there's going to be a scramble. And, barring other news, I presume these games will be at NBA team arenas, not a playathon in Vegas.

In addition, Evan Wasch, NBA vice prez of strategery, admitted that some teams in this process WILL have back-to-backs. Wunderbar.

If you are a coach like Mike Malone of the Nuggets, hoping to repeat as the real NBA champs, do you really want four or five extra games on your players' odometers? The extra injury risk? I wouldn't. If you're coaches that don't get out of the pool, do you want last-minute scheduling? Possibly another back-to-back being part of the schedule.

But, you can't tank the pool round, remember? I guess you could tank the conference semi, and I SURE as hell fucking would, under a "load management" claim, and I'd tell Silver to fuck off and fine me if his knickers got in that big of a knot. Modify that now ... I'd play the pool games no more or less than any typical regular season game. Then for the playoff rounds? All five starters sit and its 6-15 scrubeenies fighting for $500K they might want more. And, the bald-headed goon can still fuck off. Seriously, for anybody above rookie scale, does that matter THAT much?

Update to that? The "finals" loser players get $250K. Conference finals losers get $100K. Quarterfinals losers get 50K, just enough to blow on a last night of coke, whores and high rollers in Vegas.

It's not just the extra games themselves, either. The "final four" will cover a few days. So, teams in the playoff round vs the pool non-qualifiers? Those folks are getting extra days off to rest, period, as well as just not play extra games.

And, how much are the players getting paid for this? Are the best teams getting compensation such as through extra draft choices? And, why are the three pools still based on the two conferences rather than mixing it up more?

Beyond that, per this old Reddit thread and other things, Silver's proposal, at least what we currently know of it, is not at all like the FA Cup. For those who don't know, there is NO postseason playoffs in the Premier League.

Per that Reddit thread, I think something better would be like the "friendlies" Premier League teams play toward Bundesliga, La Liga, etc., or how players representing national teams get time off from their pro leagues to play friendlies. In other words,  have two, or four, NBA All-Star teams selected, similar to the All-Star game. Have them play against, say, two Euroleague All-Star teams, and maybe two total from elsewhere in the world. Or, to slim it down, two NBA All-Stars, one Euroleague and one other, or whatever.

Or, in another version of this, have the top four NBA teams as teams play the top two Euroleague and two others WHILE the rest of the NBA plays pool games, so as not to put anybody at a games disadvantage. Something like that would even more closely parallel the "friendlies" of European football.

As is, Silver is still inside the box and also not understanding of the differences with international football. Shock me.

 

Bottom line update: This is a solution in search of a problem. And, as for the big reveal of "The Decision 2.0"? It's like LeBron announcing he was going to play for Buttermaker and the Bad News Bears.

And, if you're an NBA player, between this and the "second apron" and other things of the new CBA, don't you want to fire Players Association President C.J. McCollum and Executive Director Tamika Tremaglio?