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Should In-Season Tournament Final Count Towards Seeding?

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by celebrevida, Feb 12, 2024.

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Should In-Season Tournament Final Count Towards Seeding?

  1. Yes

    3 vote(s)
    37.5%

  2. No

    5 vote(s)
    62.5%
  1. celebrevida

    celebrevida Member

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    All In-Season Tournament games other than the final game already double-count as regular season games. However the final game is an extra 83rd game that doesn't really count for anything other than bragging rights and cash bonus. It does NOT count towards the standings at all.

    I believe that to make it more meaningful, how about that 83rd game actually counts towards the standings, at least for seeding purposes?

    Example:
    Winner: +2 game
    Loser: +1 game

    As of this writing, Lakers are 28W/26L (0.519) and in 9th place.
    With my suggestion, Lakers would be 28+2W/26L (0.536), still in 9th place. However with things so tight, that +2 bonus could easily make the difference between 8th vs 9th seed or even 6th vs 7th seed, etc. It would not mess up regular season stats and records, the +2 only affects standing.

    If Winner gets +2 and loser gets +1 is too much or too little, that's fine and that can be debated.

    If we wanted to make the impact small, it could just count as +1 for the winner only which totally makes sense as they literally won an extra game. If we wanted the impact to be big, it could be as much as +1 not in games won but literally +1 in seeding!

    Regardless, the idea is that the 83rd game counts towards the standings so making or winning the IST final actually means something.

    Agree or disagree?
     
    #1 celebrevida, Feb 12, 2024
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2024
  2. jim1961

    jim1961 Member

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    [​IMG]
     
    #2 jim1961, Feb 12, 2024
    clos4life likes this.
  3. Corpusfan

    Corpusfan Member

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    Not sure why you’d need to make it more meaningful. The teams in it really cared about winning. It’s not like the all-star game.
     
    #3 Corpusfan, Feb 12, 2024
  4. celebrevida

    celebrevida Member

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    It would make it more meaningful for the fans. Right now the biggest criticism is that fans don't think anything of winning the IST because what do they care about a stupid IST banner or players getting a $500K bonus?

    But if you said that winner gets +1 bump in seeding as an example, suddenly it matters for fans.
     
    #4 celebrevida, Feb 12, 2024
  5. DrNuegebauer

    DrNuegebauer Member

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    So wait, the teams in the final not only play an extra game, they get an extra win (for losing) or two (for winning)?

    How is that fair? It makes no sense.
     
    #5 DrNuegebauer, Feb 12, 2024
  6. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
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    I don't see why the loser of the final should be rewarded one extra win. All the wins that get them to the final have been counted. I can see the merit of giving the winner an extra win because that win is... you know... extra. But then shouldn't you count an extra loss for the loser? Hmm, that would mess things up, wouldn't it. I am okay if they use the win as a tiebreaker for playoffs seeding.
     
    #6 Easy, Feb 12, 2024
  7. mfastx

    mfastx Member
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    I hate the idea of an in-season tournament unless teams from additional leagues (Euroleague) are competing as well.

    But, if there must be an in-season tournament, the winner should be guaranteed a playoff spot (top 6 seed), IMO.
     
    #7 mfastx, Feb 12, 2024
    clos4life and Rocket River like this.
  8. celebrevida

    celebrevida Member

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    Counting the lost of IST final runner-up makes no sense. So a team that makes the IST final is worse off for going almost all the way than a team that got knocked out earlier???

    The point of rewarding the IST runner-up is that while they didn't win the IST, they still made it really far. Of course I understand if that is too much and to provide no reward and only reward the actual winner. In that case, the weakest but still meaningful reward is to give the winner +1 wins (for seeding only). If that is too weak you could make it +2 wins or even one spot bump in seeding (might be too much for most people).
     
    #8 celebrevida, Feb 12, 2024
  9. celebrevida

    celebrevida Member

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    If winning the IST guaranteed no worst than 6 seed, that would be a huge prize indeed. It might be too much though. Imagine Lakers have significant injuries right after winning the IST and lost most of the remaining games but still take up the 6th seed. Instead the most I can see is that it bumps you up one seed if and only if doing so either qualifies you for the playoffs (from 11th to 10th seed) or moves you up if the IST winner would otherwise qualify.
     
    #9 celebrevida, Feb 12, 2024
  10. mfastx

    mfastx Member
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    Yeah I get that, hopefully in most cases the IST winner would still be playing for higher than just a 6th seed. But like you said this year's Lakers would def rest on their laurel since they're a play in team at best. So they'd be incentivized to rest guys and not take the rest of the season seriously.
     
    #10 mfastx, Feb 12, 2024
  11. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    Tourney winner is automatic #1 seed regardless of record.
     
    #11 KingCheetah, Feb 12, 2024
  12. Easy

    Easy Boban Only Fan
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    That's why I said giving the runner-up an extra loss wouldn't be right. My point is, the teams make the final by winning a lot of games that already count for regular season records. That's the whole point of "in-season" right? The "championship" as you said is no more than bragging right and some financial incentives. But I really don't know how much it is worth bragging. Will the Lakers brag to the eventual NBA champ, "Yeah, but we won the IST!"?

    The issue here is how to make the IST something meaningful enough to brag about.

    In the Euro soccer leagues, they don't have postseason playoffs. Season championship is determined by points. And they have separate cup tourneys, intra league and inter leagues. So you have several different champions all have their own bragging rights.
     
    #12 Easy, Feb 12, 2024
  13. A_3PO

    A_3PO Member

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    Give it some time. The NBA couldn't afford to invest too much meaning into the in-season tournament until they proved it would be successful. Now that the issue is settled, expect them to greatly increase the value of tournament success going forward. Gradually.

    5-10 years from now, the in-season tournament will be a huge deal everyone will anticipate.
     
    #13 A_3PO, Feb 12, 2024
  14. PhiSlammaJamma

    PhiSlammaJamma Member

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    My prediction is that the in-season tournament will die. And I think fast. I would not add emphasis and meaning to it. It was a short-term curiosity and no more. For the most part, regular non-tournament games were getting more viewers. And that makes sense to me. I'd rather watch the Rockets and I think most NBA fans feel the same way.
     
    #14 PhiSlammaJamma, Feb 13, 2024
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2024
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