2023 IST *** THE FIRST ANNUAL THREAD FOR THE FAMOUS NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT *** IST WE LIVE FOR IT

Celtics @ Pacers Monday Dec 4
Pelicans @ Kings Monday Dec 4
Knicks @ Bucks Tuesday Dec 5
Suns @ Lakers Tuesday Dec 5

vegas, baby:
semifinals dec 7
championship dec 9

i want the knicks to win because i want to see if they hang a banner in MSG

would they have a little parade?

they should do it imo why not

i do think it would be cool if the in season tournament regular season best record and the playoffs all became some level of meaningful, they should make winning the reg season more of a big deal next, i said this somewhere else already but i think they should do like soccer and have the reg season champ be the nba champ then have the playoff be a separate tourney and invite everyone with the good teams getting byes, then you could shorten the regular season and make the playoffs longer, and teams could go for the nba treble

i think there's things they could try out to give the 1 seed more meaning... you could reasonably argue that w/in the play in system the 1 seed is less valuable than ever because of the potential of facing a team like the heat the first round

i wonder if they'd figure out a system where the 1 seed just gets a first round bye... pretty common occurrence in the other major sports that the NBA has never adopted

there's also some more experimental ideas like letting the 1 seed choose their opponent from the two play in winners, or making it so that the 8 seed doesn't get any home games, or making it so that if the 1 seed wins the first 3 games the series ends and they get a break. those last two prob wouldn't fly bcuz they would effect revenue but you get the idea

w/ the IST i'm pretty ok w/ the idea of it being financially driven for the players leading to high level intensity leading to playoff level games that people want to watch during football season. i'm not convinced that it needs any more meaning than that

I guess the meaning is whatever the fans make it, I mean technically the Finals don't "mean" anything either, win or lose your team is done afterwards. I really have no idea if the IST is gonna be seen as meaningful or not but I can definitely see the players going all out for it this year, since whoever wins is making NBA history somehow.

imo the NBA doesn't really need the 1st round bye because it's still rare for an 8 seed to beat a 1 (yes I remember what happened to the Bucks last year). if those series suddenly start becoming more competitive due to the play-in maybe they can revisit that.

I think I agree with Barkley that they should replace point differential with overall record as tiebreaker. If Denver and Utah are both 3-1 wild card options, I'd rather see Denver, ya know?

yeah thats a good idea

one thing that could be cool about the tourney is the mega rich stars playing hard to get their minimum contract teammates that 500k bump

like luke kornet was saying that hed pay off his mortgage if they won while jaylen brown shows up to work in a 250k car

one thing that could be cool about the tourney is the mega rich stars playing hard to get their minimum contract teammates that 500k bump

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 29, 2023 2:13 PM (eleven minutes ago)

based on quotes i've seen from the stars that does seem to be one of the main motivating factors

Anthony Davis didn't try to obfuscate the fact that the in-season tournament's cash prize is a real lure for the Lakers: "$500 [thousand] sounds real good to us. It’s going to bring that juice, you know what I mean? … I heard one of our players, I’m not going to say who but he…

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 15, 2023

yeah it could be very cute during the winning celebration

why does lebron need the 500k so bad

I think I agree with Barkley that they should replace point differential with overall record as tiebreaker. If Denver and Utah are both 3-1 wild card options, I'd rather see Denver, ya know?

― reggae mike love (polyphonic), Wednesday, November 29, 2023 2:04 PM (twenty-two minutes ago)

this strikes me as a good idea not because of the reason you state but just because last night felt too much like a farce to me... like there is something different about a soccer team needing to win by 3 goals than a basketball team needing to win by 29 points. i don't care about the moral sanctity of competition it's just that for me the latter starts to feel disconnected from the actual game in a way that i don't think is positive or really all that fun. like, can the celtics beat the bulls by 32 if the knicks are beating the hornets by 31... i don't find this to be a very compelling sports narrative

it was also impossible to follow unless you were reading tim bontempts or john hollinger tweets by the minute and even then there was some level of guesswork happening to try and project what might end up happening. they need to figure out a system that makes the final night way more legible imo

why does lebron need the 500k so bad

― Clay, Wednesday, November 29, 2023 2:32 PM (seventeen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

hes got a lot of mouths to feed

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nike_lebrons_4489.jpg

this strikes me as a good idea not because of the reason you state but just because last night felt too much like a farce to me...

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Wednesday, November 29, 2023 2:32 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

players didnt like it either, celtics said as much after

the only way i can envision it working is if they come up w/ a website that displays real time point differential standings like a stock market ticker. and maybe you could come up w/ a similar living graphic for TNT & the local broadcasts? cuz last night required like 3 separate screens to watch the basketball and also be provided the necessary context for said basketball

players didnt like it either, celtics said as much after

― lag∞n, Wednesday, November 29, 2023 2:35 PM (fifteen seconds ago)

yeah for sure & frankly it's just setting the league up for a huge revolt once someone suffers a serious injury trying to extend a 27 point lead to a 33 point lead w/ 3 mins left in the game

wouldnt be surprised if they changed that part next year, no one liked it

would they have a little parade?

aiui, the players on the winning team each get half a million. for the players who mainly sit on the bench during games, that kind of money is worth popping some champagne over.

also -- i assume the wacky courts are here to stay but they really need to address the issue of the courts not just looking ridiculous but also being confusing because of the colors. like last night the kings and warriors were playing in *sacramento* on a blue and yellow court w/ the warriors wearing blue and yellow jerseys. it's crazy to me nobody stopped that before it happened. the heat's court was this weird shade of pinkish-red that they've never used paired w/ a big grey stripe down the middle... you turn the TV on and you assume you're watching a game being played in toronto. the celtics are a trademark kelly green franchise & yet their court was bathed in milwaukee's shade of hunter green. this stuff just all feels easily avoidable to me

yeah theyve lost their minds

tho tbf the weird celtics dark green color this year is slightly lighter than the bucks where last year it was a perfect match which leads me to believe they are aware that it might be a problem

I genuinely like the colored courts but I agree the particular colors really do need to get sorted out. the NBA has been really bad with this in general, like letting teams use their 2nd alternate colors vs. a team who happens to have those colors as a primary - I think there was some Bucks/Mavericks game last year where the Bucks wore blue and the Mavs were in green, it was really weird

yeah I watched kings-warriors for a full quarter before figuring out it was in Sacramento

other than the courts my main gripe with the IST is that so many podcast minutes seem to be dedicated to the standings and scenarios

IST is a godsend to nba-centered podcasters. not so much for their podcast audience.

we're goonna need another one of these in january

tonight at 730est the in season tournament knock out rounds begin when the indana pacers host the boston celtics

folks we have a game of basketball

sorry but i refuse to "give it up" for austin reaves

he is powered by his h8rs, thank u 4 playing

AD having quite a game.

LeBron definitely does not play like he is going to be turning 39 this month. Kareem was still really good at that age, but it is still rare.

I'm sure with how players train year round for their entire career, you will see more staying that good that late, but LeBron is still a freak of nature.

the lakers scored 123 points and only made 2 threes, ha

anthony davis can be pretty fun to watch when it's all clicking for him

yeah his potential still shines through sometimes, best defender in the league when hes on

one might think that the ist semis were the first regular season games in vegas but ive just been informed that in fact the lakers played a home playoff game in vegas during the la riots in 92, compelling historical factoid

and the jazz played 11 home games there in the 82-83 season too but thats not as interesting

ok this is actually kind of interesting

The Jazz played a number of home games (11 in total) at the then-newly built Thomas & Mack Center in the Las Vegas Valley, in an attempt to drum up regional support. In one of those games, Los Angeles Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored the points that would make him the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

i saw that pop up on the screen during the broadcast but i wasn't listening closely enough to know what the situation was, huh

ive edited the wiki

In one of those games, Los Angeles Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored the points that made him the NBA's all-time leading scorer.

hah nice find too obscure for the lebron fans to notice

I still don't know about score differential vs overall record, like for example when the Wolves were eliminated even though they had the best overall record in the West they ended up getting two new easier games against Memphis and San Antonio added to their schedule, seems sort of unfair, like being rewarded in the big picture for missing the IST

seems like they way to go would be to expand the tourney have everyone play twice in the group stage and add another round to the knockout stage, then tie breakers wouldnt matter as much and the nba can squeeze more juice out of their successful new thing

I liked the point diff, players got salty about it.

xp yeah the home and away would be good. if and when the nba expands to 32 teams, they could easily do the 8 winners of 4-team divisions which would be 6 games of home-and-away group games.