Adam Silver Wants to Institute an In-Season Tournament, and It's a Terrible Idea

All things considered, Adam Silver has been a good commissioner during his tenure as head of the National Basketball Association. He navigated the Donald Sterling situation with the grace and firmness it required, he seems to have found a reasonable solution to the tanking issue, and generally has kept a steady course over the last five years.

Part of his draw as commissioner is his willingness to listen and potentially implement unusual ideas, as we saw during discussions surrounding the draft lottery. It also means he’ll consider some terrible ideas, the most recent of which is an in-season tournament.

Adam Silver says NBA is “looking at” various new formats including reducing games to 40 mins, in-season tournaments, etc. with a view to load management that’s closer to football’s rotation of line-ups depending on each game.
— Mark Woods (@markbritball) April 12, 2019

Silver says there would need to be a long-term cultural shift in the US to introduce NBA mid-season tournament (like a FA Cup) but open to look at “best way to put the season together” even if current format has been around for 50 years. “Will require a great deal more research"
— Mark Woods (@markbritball) April 12, 2019

The goal would be to help alleviate the in-season workload for NBA players, which would then reduce the number of games superstars sit out for “load management” purposes. Again, it’s nice to see Silver willing to discuss unorthodox methods for the betterment of the game and players, but this is just an awful idea. What would it even look like? If it was modeled after the FA Cup, it would be a 30-team, single elimination tournament in the middle of the season, and would result in at least a month-long break from the regular season. I understand the overall goal of reducing workloads, but stretching the NBA into July or even August would be a drag for fans and players.

There’s a host of other issues with an in-season tournament. What’s the motivation to play? The biggest names, the ones the league doesn’t want resting, already make enough money that a financial reward to the victors wouldn’t be enough. No one wants something like playoff seeding or home court advantage on the line. I can’t imagine Silver would be happy if the faces of the league skipped the tournament and disappeared from the public eye for a month or so in the middle of the season, which is what most of them would do. So what’s the point of it all?

If we’re looking to reduce workload, shortening the season would be a good start. Let’s start there before we get into discussions around a midseason tournament and a 10-month NBA season.