After the establishment of the play-in tournament in recent years, we know that NBA boss Adam Silver has many other projects, including the In-Season Tournament. And given the latest news, we’re going straight there!
This is Shams Charania from The Athletic who dropped the little bomb on Wednesday evening shortly before midnight. According to one of the NBA’s two most knowledgeable insiders, the League plans to go from 82 to 80 games in the regular season starting in the 2023-24 campaign, a sign that the mid-season tournament is becoming more and more of a reality.
NBA informed teams today that the 2023-24 season will start on Oct. 24, 2023, and conclude April 14, 2024.
Noteworthy: If/when In-Season Tournament is approved, initial schedule will have 80 games per team; remaining games scheduled following eight teams advance to knockout rounds.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 30, 2022
80 matches for each team therefore, and one, two or three more for those who will participate in the In-Season Tournament. As a reminder and as we specified last September in a nice little piece of paper, uncle Adam’s new concept would bring together the top eight teams at the end of November of the current season (with matches counting for both the regular and the mid-season tournament), to ultimately offer a knockout tournament starting at the quarter-final stage. So obviously, all of this will require confirmation and agreement between the Board of Governors and the players’ association through a vote, but obviously it’s on the right track.
In the end, if this is done, it will also impact the start dates of the regular season because according to Shams, the 2023-24 campaign will only start on October 24, 2023a week later compared to the current season (which started on October 18), to end as usual in mid-April.
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Source texte : The Athletic
