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Fuck it. If we're going to incentivize teams, I want some unhinged, potentially game-breaking benefits.
None.
Draft stuff undermines the draft being a way for worse teams to get better.
Seeding stuff undermines the value of the wins each team gets in the regular season.
The in-season being prize money and a cup is fine.
An extra regular season win if you finish in the top 6, or a guaranteed play-in spot of you finish 7-10.
Winning team gets to get a free shot at Draymond
Whoever wins gets Wemby
The winner of the tournament automatically gets home court advantage for all their playoff matchups.
Playoff tiebreaker. It would be a significant incentive that doesn't invalidate the rest of the regular season.
I like to tie it to OP's first incentive. If you are the first seed at the end of reg season and won the tournament, you could choose which of the 7th or 8th seed from the play-ins to play against.
And if you're the lower seeds, then tiebreakers.
Because the IST/NBA Cup happens at the beginning of the season, I feel like they should receive something from the In-Season Tournament (besides money) that benefits them for the season, and not just hypothetically if they make the playoffs.
I came up with some silly ideas in another post, but realistically, maybe give them an extra timeout or challenge per game for the remainder of the season.
That's a pretty good idea. It's an incentive, but far from a game-breaking one.
Why do you think MORE incentives are needed? We've already had teams put their stars back in to boost the margin of victory for tournament reasons.
I've seen no evidence that the in-season tournament isn't being taken pretty seriously by the teams and coaches.
Adam Silver dancing in a thong at mid court for the championship game
I think they should make the first round of the NBA draft 31 picks and have the 31st pick go to the In-Season tournament winner. Giving the winner basically and extra pick to draft someone and sign to 4 years like any other 1st rounder would incentive every team even the really good teams who might be right against the cap or teams who might have traded away a 1st this would be a good incentive to recoup it.
This has always been my top choice.
Winner of the tournament gets an un-tradable extra first round pick that slots in right after the lottery.
The winner automatically gets a higher seed. So if they finish the regular season as the 6th seed, they get bumped up to the 4th seed for instance and the rest move one spot down. This way it still impacts the playoffs but doesn't allow the team to completely ignore the regular season.
Another one could be to give the winning team's players more load management days. Or they could remove back to back games from the winner's remaining schedule.
Should be a playoff berth. That's the only thing that matters. It would generate interest and a playoff team is likely to win it anyway
Add a number of wins for the winner and the semifinalists that count towards seeding. So you don't get an awful team with the top seed spot but you could get a decent-but-not-top team with the top-seed spot or a play-in team skipping the play-in. Everyone would take it seriously but you wouldn't make the regular season immaterial to the playoffs for the winner. Monetary bonuses, even if they were higher, are just incentive for players, not a reason for fans to care.
Winners get Christmas off- winning team's games due on 24th- 26th December inclusive are cancelled.
The players, coaches and staff get to relax at home for Christmas.
Limit the in-season tournament to 24 teams. Bottom 3 teams in each conference don't qualify for the tournament next year.
I like just making the tournament worth bonus wins. 5 wins for first place, 3 wins for second, and 1 win for Top 4.
The winner of the tournament will probably make the playoffs in some form anyways, but this gives good incentive for making the knockout stage and trying to win the tournament. Can turn someone like a 3rd seed into the potential one seed and home court through their conference.
if the winning team makes it to the playoffs, they get to use the services of any one player from a non-playoff team for one playoff game of choice.
like, if Suns win the tournament, they can use Cade or Lamelo for a crucial playoff game.
I hate the tournament because it's clearly there for gambling and that's it
Winners get to roast draymond and jordan Poole on live tv
One cool thing would be that the winner of the in-season tournament gets the first pick of the second round.
I think the winning team should automatically get a lottery pick.
Tell NBA voters that the NBA Cup should be weighed heavily when voting on season end awards
I like an idea I’ve heard of making it a “Triple Crown”. Winner of in season, best record of regular season and championship. If you marketed it enough and sold it, I think it could take off on its own. A special trophy and banner and all that. but attaching money to it always helps.
Winner of the tournament and whoever had the worst record in any of the groups play each other in their last games of the season