I’ve been watching the current szn and this new tourney really has peaked my interest. Not necessarily because of the heightened competition early in the szn, which I’ve been enjoying. More so because we’re at its genesis and witnessing something that could potentially be of high value for the new direction of the NBA, its players to come, the fans of high level entertaining basketball and so forth; just the greater ecosystem of it all. The quality & impacts of the moments created from & around it, will determine its historical value and integrity. It’s what’s going to have us, the fans and followers of NBA basketball, hold reverence for it in a relative manner to how we do NBA Championships. Now it’ll never be the same, because the pursuit for each and what they entail are substantially different. Though the In-Season Tourney can still be majorly impactful as an aspect of the sport and the NBA brand. Currently I see it in-kind to that of a sprint, whereas the NBA Championships would be a marathon. If you love the overall sport of running, then you love both but each sub-contest has it’s own distinct attributes, commitment, discipline and so forth.

I’m starting this thread because as the tourney continues to take shape, I wanted to create a space where we could critically discuss everything under the sun, from it’s process and practice to that of its eso/exoteric values.

First query I have is how is the In-Season grouping & scheduling determined? Has this question been answered already? I’m trying to make sense of what the NBA shared on their site. What does “randomly drawn…based on won-loss records from the 2022-23 regular season” mean? Am I the only one confused by this phrasing? This process, how I’m perceiving it, seems that there isn’t any rhyme or reason to it.

https://www.nba.com/news/2023-in-season-tournament-group-play