How the NBA Can Maximize the In-Season Tournament

With the NBA Cup quarterfinals wrapping up last night, we are closing in on the two year mark of one of the more outlandish experiments a major sport has attempted in recent memory. So far it's safe to say the results have been mixed, as games have been fun along the way, and the players at the least will take that random Tuesday game in November more seriously than usual, but there's plenty of work to be done to get the most out of this opportunity. The NBA Cup is probably never going to be significant enough where people are still talking about it months, even weeks later, but for the opportunity it presents, it can at least be the obvious spectacle on the sports calendar while it takes place. Adam Silver has a completely blank slate in front of him. He can make it as weird and unique wants with nothing really to lose, and it's a golden chance to help solve one of the league's biggest issues - a lack of regular season excitement.

There's some aspects I can get behind - the points differential adds another layer of chaos that you wouldn't see otherwise and the alternate courts are, if nothing else, a way to differentiate a Cup game from a random regular season game, but there's a few more changes I'd like to see from this event if it really wants to maximize excitement. What I don't want to see is the league get way over their heads with this and throw some ridiculous playoff implications into the event that nobody wants to see, but more minor changes that could make the league stand out a little more for the few weeks it goes on. First off, do away with the groups as they stand, and separate them by division. One thing the NFL and MLB get right is divisions. Winning your division is crucial in the playoff picture, and division titles alone get and deserve their own special celebration. Divisions have their own identities, teams generally associate the closest with their division foes, and the familiarity and inevitable disdain makes those matchups especially interesting. For the NBA, which did away with its division-winning postseason implications, has reached the point where its divisions feel about as jumbled as the NBA Cup groups. Most fans probably couldn't even tell you who's in what division, and the unfortunate reality is there's no reason to know that. For a league that has always struggled to maintain authentic rivalries between franchises, ensuring these divisional battles mean a little more, and establishing the continuity that every Cup you're going to face your divisional opponents and only them feels like a net positive for the league. And, to top it off, make the final week of group stage play a rivalry weekend, where the biggest divisional rivals face off with some extra intrigue around the last games before the bracket is set. The NBA has always struggled with authentic rivalries between teams, and adding this extra layer is an easy way to help stir the pot with the teams in your area.

My next issue is the scheduling. The NBA tries to work their IST schedule into the normal regular season slate, assigning Tuesday and Friday as NBA Cup days and every other day just a normal day in the long season. If it weren't for the colorful courts, you might not even notice that random Tuesday night game between the Spurs and Jazz actually has Cup significance. Most fans might not even remember the randomly assigned two days in the week, three days apart, are for a separate event. For starters, the games need to be on consecutive days. There's just nothing to gain from spreadin them out the way they are, and ensures any potential Tuesday momentum is long gone by the time Friday rolls around. The NBA needs to make Friday and Saturday designated in-season tournament days, capitalizing on the weekend and allowing its fans to associate the Cup with its own separate entity they look forward to every weekend. Fighting the NFL on a Sunday probably isn't worth it, so kicking off on the late Friday afternoon as everyone's week comes to a close and continuing all throughout the day on Saturday suddenly makes the scheduling a whole lot easier to grasp. And next, for the two days each week the Cup is played, one day should be assigned for each conference, and the games should be spread out to the absolute max, March Madness style. I'm not here to talk TV deals, but with ESPN always having NBA Friday, let's propose the ESPN networks get all of the Friday games and the Turner Sports network take Saturday. Or maybe even a mix of both. It's all about creating an identity for this tournament, and making it something clear to NBA fans when it is, what it is, and how to watch. Everyone loves the first two days of the NCAA Tournament, with so many games spaced out to the point where there's always one, if not more games worth watching going on. An earlier start time than the usual 7 PM ET with seven or eight games on a Friday going into the night, all on ESPN networks, becomes a day sports fans are sure to take note of. And ride that momentum into action all day Saturday, and you've got a product that NBA fans can suddenly look forward to every weekend. And giving one day to the East and one day to the West establishes even greater clarity to the event and makes it even easier for fans to keep up with what's going on. And if the scheduling doesn't line up perfectly, add one extra week to group play. If these changes are added, fans certainly won't be complaining about an extra weekend of action.

All of these will build the hype for the event as a whole, and now we can add just a bit of significance in the grand scheme of the NBA season. Make the tiebreaker in the postseason standings separated by IST rank, with point differential again separating the same record. Not only does point differential break the ties in the group standings, but it'll come in handy down the line as seeding works itself out later. As I've made clear, the NBA can't fly too close to the sun when it comes to mixing the NBA Cup with the hunt for a championship, but this adds a nice little twist that makes the games mean a bit more. Adam Silver has an open platter to make this tournament anything he can imagine, and it's time to start using it. These small, yet significant changes can make this event a staple of the sports calendar and add plenty more excitement than where it currently stands. Let's get the most of one of the NBA's boldest experiments yet.