Checking on the Pacers in-season tournament schedule, the stakes and tiebreaker rules

The NBA schedule release has a little extra juice this year (or at least some juice) with a tournament early in the regular season.

The NBA announced the schedule for the league’s inaugural in-season tournament games on Tuesday ahead of the full schedule release on Thursday. The Pacers are in Group A for tournament play with Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta and Detroit.

Since the team groupings were compiled via a league ranking of the teams in each conference based on last season’s results, we can assume Philly was ranked first in Group A, followed by the Cavs, Hawks, Pacers and Pistons. Much has changed since the end of last season, though. In fact, much has changed since Monday when reports surfaced about of James Harden going scorched on Sixers’ GM Daryl Morey while in China.

Plus, the Hawks still seem a little unsettled while the Pacers and Pistons have quality young talent ready to show out. So Group A should be competitive and definitely add a little spice to the normally bland November slate of games.

Here’s the Pacers schedule:

• Nov. 3 vs. Cleveland, 7 p.m. ET

• Nov. 14 at Philadelphia, 7 p.m. ET

• Nov. 21 at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. ET

• Nov. 24 vs. Detroit, 8 p.m. ET

Of course, it is no surprise that none of the Pacers tournament games will be among the 14 nationally televised games. However, I would expect at least a couple of national TV games among the full schedule release thanks to Tyrese Haliburton. No money will be wagered on that thought, though.

Hopefully, the Pacers are still in the mix to advance out of pool play when the Pistons visit for the annual Circle tree lighting game on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Always a festive crowd and some added stakes to the outcome would add even more energy to the Fieldhouse.

Normally, the regular season schedule release is a snooze, since we know there will be 82 games with half at the Fieldhouse. That will still be the case on Thursday, but two of the games will be determined by the tournament.

The winner of each group, plus two wild cards (team with the best record in each conference to finish second in pool play). Those eight teams will play a single-elimination quarterfinal game. Then the quarter finals (Nov. 7) and final game (Nov. 9) will be in Vegas. On Nov. 6 and Nov. 8, the 22 teams that don’t make the quarters will match up for two additional games TBD later.

The Stakes

The biggest complaint about the in-season tournament has been the apparent lack of stakes. But as the idea of this thing has been allowed to breathe and the details emerge, the stakes seem appropriate. For one, as mentioned earlier, as these pool play results play out, the NBA will have far more intrigue than usual throughout November. The natural competitive instincts of the best players in the world (the stuff that makes them elite) will be a big part of making these games mean more.

Also, in addition to the new trophy you can see in the logo above, each player on the tournament champs will earn a $500,000 bonus. Big deal, you may say. Haliburton signed a contract that will pay him about $40 million per year.

True.

But that deal doesn’t kick in until next year. Haliburton is one of eight players making less than $7 million, most of whom are young players. $500,000 would be a nice Christmas bonus for some of those guys on the lower end of the team’s salary cap.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks mentioned the money factor on NBA Today, reminding everyone that currently, 178 players are making between $1-4 million and 115 are making between $4-10 million which is well over half of the players. 32 players make between $20-30 million, while 44 players are at the top level of $30+ million.

All of the teams making it to Vegas will get some scratch for the effort, not just the champs. Second place players will earn $200,000 while the semifinal losing players from both teams will receive $100,000. The quarterfinal losers will also receive $50,000 for the effort.

So, yeah, any extra money is a nice bonus for a big chunk of the league.

Tiebreaker

For someone who has endured many mind-bending variables for pool play tiebreakers in AAU ball and travel baseball, my first question with the format went to the tiebreaker system. I have stories of making a case for ad hoc tiebreakers in situations where the established tie breakers weren’t enough. Good times!

There are usually tiebreaker decision trees that eventually use variables that aren’t fair to determine the winner and the NBA did not disappoint. Well, the only one that isn’t real fair, albeit reasonable, is the fourth tiebreaker based on a team’s 2022-23 record. These are different teams in 2023-24, but at least going forward, this will be known.

The tiebreaker rules will be applied, as needed to determine the group winner, the seeding among conference group winners, the wild card winner for each conference and finally, to rank the 5th-15th teams for purposes of scheduling the two additional games.

Here are the tiebreakers in sequential order:

1. Head-to-head record in group play (if both teams are in same group)

2. Point differential in group play

3. Total points scored in group play

4. 2022/23 record

5. Random drawing

Considering all of the scenarios in play for what I’d expect will be quite a few ties, you can see the need for a random drawing as the worst-case scenario. Point differential or total points should do the trick, but the league is ready for any bizarre situation that may arise.