Update: mid season tournament prize may be an extra draft pick?

[mavsluvr]

I'm really excited Adam Silver is trying to add new things to the NBA. The play in sounds interesting and the in season tournament will be something new to pay attention to. The NBA wants to keep and grow the global viewers. Mid season tournaments are big in soccer. I can see this being popular globally. The tournament seems to be actual games that count towards the regular season so it should stay competitive. There's nothing wrong with adding something new to the NBA. I like the ideas and it sounds like it's going to happen.

This is the closest analogy I could think of, although there are some major differences.  In competitions like the Champions League, Copa del Rey, FA Cup, etc., the vast number of participants are sides outside of a team's own league/division. And the reward for those is partly glory, but largely money, with the CL being quite lucrative, and the lesser paying competitions less prestigious. Also, those are separate competitions from the leagues, don't count in league competition, and have their own rules. 

You may be right that having the games count toward the regular season might help keep it from being a competition where teams play their lesser players, like the English Football Association's League Cup, which, probably not coincidentally, is being abandoned after this season. 

I don't know, I'm having a hard time conceiving why the teams would especially care about it, unless substantial dough was involved for participants/winners. But I agree with you that it is good that new ideas are being considered, and I'm not opposed to trying new things.

An obvious fix is to determine playoff participants/seeding without regard to conferences, but I understand that the idea has limited support among owners. Spreading the season out would also help avoid back-to-backs, but I guess there are logistical and other difficulties involved.