Recently, comments surfaced from Mark Cuban where he expressed displeasure with the idea of an in-season tournament for the NBA. These comments included Cuban suggesting Dallas might “sit out” the tournament entirely, because wining the NBA Finals is the real goal. With the in-season cup seemingly on the horizon, Marc Stein of Substack reached out to Cuban for clarification on how the Dallas Mavericks owner feels about the in-season tournament.
Cuban said that those comments were “old”, and that he is “actually open” to the concept of an in-season tournament. He thinks an in-season cup “has a chance to build interest” if implemented for the 2023-24 NBA season.
In addition to being supportive of the idea of a tournament, Cuban said he’d like to see the NBA Draft expanded by two rounds. The Mavs governor would like to see a four-round draft and the winner of the in-season cup given the top pick in the third and fourth rounds, with an added stipulation that those selections can’t be traded.
The NBA Draft has been in its current two-round format since 1989. Any changes to the NBA Draft would need to be collectively bargained between the NBA and NBPA.
