Coming into the 2023-24 NBA season, the league will be functioning a little bit differently, with the In-Season Tournament set to be played for the first time in the history of the league.
The NBA has decided to take a page out of the book of international soccer yet again, with this tournament to be played throughout the regular season, which has come with mixed reviews as fans and pundits aren’t sure whether this change will result in competitive play.
Some believe that NBA players won’t take the In-Season Tournament all that seriously, with their minds set on simply getting through the grind of the 82-game regular season.
However, new Golden State Warriors GM Mike Dunleavy Jr. makes the case that his team will be “highly competitive” with Stephen Curry and company wanting to win this tournament, via Warriors on NBCS.
"We're going to be highly competitive towards it. We want to win it."
Mike Dunleavy Jr. on the in-season tournment pic.twitter.com/eUvEPazAVv
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) August 17, 2023
This is a pretty typical response from an NBA executive, as he’d never come out and say the team won’t be taking it seriously or plan not to compete during the tournament.
However, this tournament could have similar success to the Play-in Tournament that was implemented a few years ago and received much of the same backlash.
Now the Play-in Tournament is incredibly successful, especially after last season when the Los Angeles Lakers reached the Western Conference Finals and the Miami Heat were able to get to the NBA Finals from the tournament.
It comes down to the fact that people generally don’t like change when it comes to the sports they love, and to a degree, that’s understandable, but change is inevitable and can turn out to be a good thing, which might be the way this goes in the NBA.
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