NBA in-season tournament - Dream final? What should change? - ESPN

The NBA's inaugural in-season tournament has reached the knockout rounds, which will see one team lift the NBA Cup and each of its players win $500,000 in prize money. What started with all 30 teams playing four group stage games has now been whittled down to eight quarterfinalists.

Four teams from each conference will play for the right to advance to the semifinals on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, followed by the championship game on Dec. 9. On Monday, the Indiana Pacers will host the Boston Celtics, while the New Orleans Pelicans will travel to the Sacramento Kings.

On Tuesday, the New York Knicks will visit the Milwaukee Bucks, followed by LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers welcoming the Phoenix Suns. The tourney has created plenty of buzz for its unique format, newly designed courts and an uptick in interest among fans for early-season games.

Ahead of next week's quarterfinals, our experts look at the biggest questions: what they've liked so far about the tournament, who has been the best player, what should be changed, and who will ultimately make history by winning the first tournament title.

Tim MacMahon: Fun. The league office figured out a way to give some extra juice to a set of early regular-season games. The colorful courts were a great marketing gimmick that clearly branded those contests as tournament games and got people to talk about the NBA during football season. If the league can claim Tuesday and Friday nights during the fall, that's a massive win.

Jamal Collier: Taken more seriously than I anticipated, by fans, media, players and teams alike. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed it and it gave the pre-Christmas Day portion of the schedule some intrigue. The point-differential tiebreakers