I don't understand why they want to do it. More viewers? I can see a lot of load management during this thing.
Why do stats count except for the championship game? Is it because all teams have equal amount of games up until that point? Otherwise it should be all or nothing.
I think that's exactly it. "Tournament games" are part of the regular season, except the championship game.
Just like playoff games don’t count. If every player can’t have the same opportunity, they don’t count them unfortunately.
I'd actually like to see a tournament like this with every single team at the beginning of the season and neutral sites. Single elimination. Whoever plays who gets one of those games knocked off their schedule, so the 82-game schedule holds. It would be a fun way to gather interest in the NBA to kick off the season.