Haliburton said the winner should get a guaranteed playoff spot, which is a nice idea for incentive but probably wouldn’t work because the teams that won could just half-ass it the rest of the season.
I have a couple non-in depth incentives in mind, in addition to the cash prizes.
- If the winner of the in-season tournament makes the playoffs, they get to choose their first round opponent. Would create lots of drama and storylines, while also increasing viewership.
If the winner of the in-season tournament doesn’t make the playoffs, they get increased lottery odds. Still a very good incentive for bad or young teams.
- The team who wins gets an extra first round pick. Probably a lesser incentive compared to the first one, but still something teams would want.
What incentives would you guys add if the in-season tournament is permanent?
The winner of the tournament automatically gets home court advantage for all their playoff matchups.
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.
Fuck it. If we’re going to incentivize teams, I want some unhinged, potentially game-breaking benefits.
- The winning team gets an automatic 2 point lead to start every game for the remainder of the season.
- The winning team can change 1 loss they received to a win at any point during the season.
- The winning team gets the ability to use a “power play” every game, where for 5 minutes they get to put an extra player on the court for 6 on 5.
Playoff tiebreaker. It would be a significant incentive that doesn’t invalidate the rest of the regular season.
An extra regular season win if you finish in the top 6, or a guaranteed play-in spot of you finish 7-10.
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.
I think the winning team should automatically get a lottery pick.
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
Tell NBA voters that the NBA Cup should be weighed heavily when voting on season end awards