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Saturday was the final for the in-season tournament and congratulations to the Lakers for winning the cup and setting a potential standard for this tournament going forward. To my surprise this was a successful experiment that got fans interested in the regular season earlier than usual, so here are my winners and losers from this tournament.
Winners
Adam Silver & The NBA doing something different!
The big and clear-cut winner is commissioner Adam Silver who has been pushing for this to happen for quite some time now and not only did it happen, but it was a success. As a basketball traditionalist I was highly skeptical about this tournament working, but I am glad to be wrong, because this tournament was good and made the early part of the regular season have some interest and competitive.
Sure there are some tweaks to this tournament that can make it better for example some incentives towards the playoffs like guarantee play-in or playoff spot for winning, home court advantage, or higher prize money if all fails but the response for the tournament was positive and hopefully Silver and the NBA will capitalized on this momentum.
Tyrese Haliburton & The Indiana Pacers
There were some players and teams that certainly benefited from those tournament games and settings, but without question the Indiana Pacers, who despite losing in the final are big winners. Tyrese Haliburton especially gained some long overdue national exposure putting him in the top 10 player and MVP discussions after his performances throughout the tournament. Although their lack of size and defensive flaws cost them the cup, the Pacers have made a statement that they are certainly a team to be reckoned with in the eastern conference.
Losers
The Milwaukee Bucks
With lofty expectations coming into the season, the Bucks certainly looked flawed in the semi-final against the Pacers. With a dominate performance from Giannis and a hot streak in the 2nd half from Dame Lillard was not enough to win game as Tyrese Haliburton simply dominated his match ups, which shined a light on coach Adrian Griffin’s trust in his perimeter players like Malik Beasley who are not known for their defense.
Add on that Bobby Portis very passionately challenged Griffin and his teammates to do better certainly should concern Bucks fans as the season progresses but a rocky exit none the less from one of the favorites to be in the finals.
Zion Williamson
Last but certainly not least, possibly the biggest loser from the in-season tournament is Zion Willamson who absolutely looked horrible in the semi-final against the Lakers were coming out of that defeat questions about his diet and conditioning came up in discussions louder than ever before. On paper the Pelicans have one of the more promising young cores in the league, but Williamson’s lack of leadership, professionalism and maturity has led to the Pelicans falling short of expectations as well as leaving his biggest supporters and fans questioning is this over before it even started.
Hopefully that is not the case especially for Williamson who has shown he can be top 10 caliber force, but the semi-final game performance was embarrassing, huffing and puffing throughout the game, not crashing the boards made it fair to criticize the young star and future that hopefully we be the wake up call he desperately needs.