Over the holidays, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that there is “renewed momentum” for an NBA midseason tournament. That idea has been thrown around quite a bit in recent years, and previously, it was easy to dismiss it as too radical. However, since the league instituted the play-in, a midseason tournament no longer seems so far-fetched.
ESPN reports that an in-season competition would be pool play, followed by eight teams advancing into a single-elimination bracket-style tournament. In order to accommodate the extra games, the regular season total would be reduced from 82 to 78.
Big picture, a tournament doesn’t solve the problem of increasing interest in the regular season, which is the league’s main problem.