The in-season tournament made its debut in the 2023-24 NBA season. All the games are part of the regular season games as well, but in order for fans to easily recognize that it’s an in-season game, the teams play on a different court for the in-season tournament games, and the tournament winners get a cash prize. But Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner are not happy with the current narrative that has been going around.

During the recent episode of their podcast, the former players expressed their thoughts on how most people don’t understand NBA players.

Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner share the truth about NBA players and teams

In the latest episode of the ‘Point Forward’ podcast with Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner, the first topic of conversation was the new in-season tournament. Although the teams are playing well and have shown interest in the event, Andre Iguodala is not a fan of the current narrative that is prevalent.

The NBA has cash prizes for the winning teams in the in-season tournament. This is so that the teams will take the games more seriously. This creates a new incentive for the players to play better. So people believe that the tournament is a means to get players more invested in the games during the early days of the season.

But Andre Iguodala feels like the players and teams should do this regardless. Any great team that wants to win a championship should take the early months seriously and win as many games as possible to secure the number one spot in their conference.

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For middle-of-the-pack teams, the early months are important too, as a good performance here could change the trajectory of their season. Also, for players individually, these months are crucial for their personal accolades, like making the All-Star Game. As such, Andre Iguodala has always felt that a good player and a good team always took these months very seriously.

According to Evan Turner and Iguodala, if the NBA is doing this tournament in order for the players to take things more seriously, then they are wrong. Players and teams have always taken these months seriously and given it their all.

New rules brought forward by the NBA for in-season tournament

The NBA recently announced its new player participation policy (PPP). This has been brought into effect to keep healthy players on the court. The league has let it known that if a star player is missing the in-season tournament game, then there is an automatic investigation from the NBA. If it is found that a healthy player has been resting, it would bring major fines to the organization. On repeated offenses, this can get into the millions. A star player is any NBA player who has been an All-Star or NBA player in the last three seasons.

Furthermore, players are not allowed to sit out on back-to-back games during the in-season tournament. But for players with an injury history, the teams can file a request for players to sit out on these games.

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What do you think of these new rules from the NBA? Let us know in the comments!