Read and React: Giving the NBA regular season more meaning

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The NBA season is too long and filled with a lot of games where players either sit or simply go through the motions.

Adam Silver wants to change that.

An ESPN report on Wednesday confirmed earlier talk that the league is looking to both shorten its season and institute a midseason cup to keep things fresh during the calendar's dog days.

Also up for discussion is a postseason play-in tournament, which could give the NBA the type of high-stakes, win-or-go-home competition that has been a success for Major League Baseball's wild card games.

Now, I'll believe the owners will say goodbye to cash-laden home dates when I see it. But it's encouraging to see Silver and Co. thinking outside the box when it comes to rigging the regular season games with a little more skin.

The midseason cup idea is something that MLB and the NHL should be watching closely, as both of those leagues also suffer from regular seasons that are long on dates but short on meaning.

The main problem would be convincing both players and fans that these manufactured trophies are worth coveting. Just because multiple championships has worked in international soccer doesn't mean it'll translate here in the states.

But they won't know until they try. And there's so much opportunity to think outside the box here. Imagine the top eight teams squaring off over the week of Christmas in a one-game elimination tournament with a guaranteed top seed on the line. Or the bottom eight from the previous season playing each other for more ping-pong balls in the next lottery? (This would be one way to help the fight against tanking.)

For baseball, it'd be a fun way to inject life into an interleague product that's gone stale. Let the A's, Angels, Dodgers, Giants and Padres square off in the battle of California. The Brewers, Indians, Tigers and the Chicago teams could compete for the Great Lakes title.

Hockey already has a blueprint in place with college hockey's Beanpot tournament, a mini in-season competition held among Boston's four major college hockey squads.

Yes, there are challenges here. Every league's marketing arm would need to be up to the task, which is no easy assumption.

The right combination of matchups and incentives would need to be instituted as well.

But standing pat is simply not an option in a world where these leagues are not only battling against the NFL monolith but other attention hogs like Netflix, Instagram and video games.

The NBA won the social media battle by harnessing the power of its stars and putting them in front of a huge audience. Now we'll see if they can do the same with its six-month slate of games.

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