We Now Have An Explanation For The NBA In-Season Tournament And It Sounds Pretty Damn Awesome

Nic Antaya. Getty Images.

Good thing this NBA In-Season Tournament sounds dope, because otherwise it'd be a convoluted, joyless mess of a thing to break down. Richard Jefferson does a pretty fine job laying it all out above. It'd save me a lot of work and word count if you could just watch that video. Or read the deeper breakdown on NBA Dot Com. OK but I should probably write some key deets out. Do people still say deets? Woof.

Alright so…I'm really excited for this tournament. It adds a lot of spice to a rather inconsequential part of the too-long regular season. Seriously, guys are striving to only play about 65 games as is. Can we reduce the number of games, Adam Silver? It ain't an MLB-sized problem but still.

The tournament won't add any extra games on top of the typical 82, save for the championship round. Most confusing about the format is the Group Play draw. All 30 teams are involved and it's kinda messy to be honest.

Last night they already revealed what the groups will be for each conference in the inaugural tourney:

There had to be a more aesthetically pleasing way to craft this tweet but hey, the info is there. Enjoy. You know what's great? Point differential is the second tiebreaker in the Group portion behind head-to-head record. That should only add to the quality of the basketball product.

From the Group Play stage, where each team plays four games (two home, two road), eight finalists emerge who make it through to the Knockout stage. Then, it's a single-elimination, win-or-go-home situation, a la March Madness.

With the regular season starting in mid/late October-ish, this tournament is tipping off quite early in the proceedings. Thank goodness. Teams who'd otherwise be locked in on tanking have incentive to play hard almost right out of the gates. 

Visual aids for the Knockout/Championship rounds. I don't usually capitalize words like these but the NBA is doing it so I figure I'll follow suit.

The randomness of the Group draw created some fun matchups. Feels like the best groups are West A and C, along with East A. Having legit contenders like Memphis, Phoenix and the Lakers in one group is awesome. We get to see the Grizz sort through early chaos sans Ja Morant, whether the Lakers can carry over their momentum from a surprise playoff run, and how Bradley Beal looks early on for the Suns. West C has resurgent Sacramento, Golden State clinging to its dynasty, the ever-turbulent Timberwolves, OKC on the rise and Victor Wembanyama's Spurs. LIT.

PS, had some strong words for Wemby's awful Summer League debut. Was I being serious about it or not? Who's to say?

As for the East A group, all those teams feel like they're at huge crossroads. What will the Sixers look like once James Harden is presumably traded? Are the Cavs kinda fucked as they're currently constructed? The Hawks seems to be on the perpetual precipice of implosion. Indiana might be a low-key frisky squad this coming season with a good young core in place. For Detroit, maybe all those lottery picks will finally pay off? Maybe not. They paid Monty Williams a lot of money to try to make all that shit work.

My only gripe with this NBA In-Season Tournament is that it isn't longer. All told, it's six games out of 82 since the championship doesn't count toward the total. A great start to be sure, but I'd either double the length of the tournament, make the knockout phase best-of-three series, or hold a second in-season tournament starting in late January or so. You could run that right into the All-Star break, or even put it a little later so that those festivities create a sort of intermission.

Whatever, not gonna complain about what we just got. Count me in for this in-season tourney. 

Twitter @MattFitz_gerald/TikTok