The NBA In Season Tournament is almost unanimously seen as a success.
The NBA Play-In produced some meaningful games for franchises and even produced the Eastern Conference champions.
Do you think they add more assurances to the champion of the NBA Cup? Do they add a regular season trophy? Do they find a way to utilize the divisions?
Well, the first thing they are likely to do is give it a better name now that they know its a success: something like the David Stern Cup or the Kobe Bryant Cup or whatever, not necessarily them, but something that makes it stand out more and less generic. I think they were holding off an attaching a good name to it in case it failed and was trashed before next season.
Frank Isola, who does Brooklyn Nets halftime postgame commentary on YES Network, suggested that there should be more trophies and awards and ceremonies, for instance giving a trophy to whichever team has the best regular season record, before the playoffs. More pageantry is fun and more teams than the Champs getting some kind of award, of lesser importance but still commendable, will please players and fans alike, I think.
There just has to be a bigger reward for who wins the most regular season games.