Tim Bontemps, ESPN
LAS VEGAS — The NBA formally unveiled its newly shaped in-season match and the NBA Cup that groups will declare for profitable it at NBA2K24 Summer season League on Saturday afternoon. The development is the end result of a optical NBA commissioner Adam Silver has had for years in order a Ecu cup-style festival to the league.
“This is a concept that has been rumbling around the league office for around 15 years,” Silver mentioned on a unique episode of “NBA Today” from “NBA Con” as a part of the league’s annual coming in combination in Las Vegas. “We thought what a perfect opportunity for a global league like the NBA, and it’s a perfect fit for our game.
“Brandnew traditions whisk year. However, all right through sports activities, we’re visual unutilized inventions, and now’s the year for this NBA in-season match.”
As a part of Saturday’s announcement, the league additionally unveiled the six five-team teams — 3 made up of Jap Convention groups, and 3 made up of Western Convention foes — that can create up the crowd level of the match:
Team 1: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons
Team 2: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets
Team 3: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic
Team 4: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers
Team 5: Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets
Team 6: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs
To create the groups, the NBA used a World Cup-style draw process, splitting each conference into five pots that were separated by last year’s regular-season standings. Pot 1 featured the teams that finished first through third — so, in the East, the Bucks, Celtics and 76ers; followed by teams 4-6 landing in Pot 2 (Cavaliers, Knicks and Nets); teams 7-9 landing in Pot 3 (Hawks, Heat, Raptors); teams 10-12 landing in Pot 4 (Bulls, Pacers and Wizards); and teams 13-15 landing in Pot 5 (Magic, Hornets and Pistons).
From there, one team was randomly selected from each of the five pots to create what the league hopes will be three evenly matched groups of teams to compete against one another.
The group play portion of the tournament will consist of four games — one against each of the other four teams across each group — that will take place on seven dates across the month of November. This year, those dates will be Nov. 3, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28 — a combination of four Fridays and three Tuesdays.
Evan Wasch, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics and a key person behind the creation of the midseason tournament, said that the league is going to try its best to have back-to-backs as part of those group games held to a minimum.
“The constancy we made to groups is that we might do the whole lot in our energy to keep away from the crowd play games video games being the second one night time of back-to-backs, it is going to most probably be inconceivable to keep away from a few of them being the primary night time of back-to-backs,” Wasch said. “It’s most likely infeasible for us to bring a agenda the place they’re now not the primary or 2d night time of [any] back-to-backs. So the constancy we are hoping to reach at this level is to keep away from 2d nights of back-to-backs.”
From there, the winner of each group will advance to the knockout round, along with the highest-finishing team that didn’t win a group in each conference. Those teams will then play quarterfinal games on Monday, Dec. 4, and Tuesday, Dec. 5, at the higher-seeded teams, with the four teams that win those games advancing to the semifinals on Thursday, Dec. 7, at T-Mobile Arena, followed by the championship game on Saturday, Dec. 9.
Up until the title game, East and West teams will play only opponents within their conference, setting up an East vs. West showdown in the championship game in the same format as the NBA playoffs.
During the knockout rounds on days when in-season tournament games are not scheduled (Dec. 6 and Dec. 8 ), the 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout rounds will each play two regular-season games.
Players will take home $500,000 for being on the team that wins the NBA Cup, while players on the team that loses in the title game will take home $200,000 each, with players on the semifinal losing teams each getting $100,000 and players on the quarterfinal losers taking home $50,000. But while other incentives were discussed to give players and teams more incentive to be invested in the tournament, such as guaranteeing the winner a playoff spot, ultimately the league opted not to enact any such measures.
As part of that process, the league readily admits it’s going to take time for people to adjust to having a new trophy to win, and a new competition as part of the NBA season, but believes that in time it will become an integral part of the NBA calendar.
“Everyone’s now not going to shop for in in an instant,” said Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations. “In order that can’t be the function that everyone’s going to shop for in from while one.
“These things take time. And I think, as time goes on, I think you can build this up and people can really get into it.”
As for deciding to call the championship trophy the “NBA Cup” — versus, for instance, naming it upcoming former NBA commissioner David Stern as some had speculated — Wasch mentioned the league thought to be various other names for each the match itself and the championship trophy prior to deciding to exit with plain descriptors for every of them.
He did, alternatively, admit that each may alternate going forward — in particular if sponsors get entangled.
“I would say we went through an extensive exercise on naming both the tournament itself as well as the trophy because they don’t have to be the same thing, right?” Wasch mentioned. “Ultimately, we decided that at least in the early years, you’re trying to establish something from scratch and build understanding. And so, the literal terms we felt were just most resonant in the market and we recognize that that could come with some criticism that they’re lacking creativity and they’re too simple. But we felt that that was the best way to build a fan understanding of what this is.
“That is an in-season match and the winner will elevate a cup — the NBA Cup. Now, may the ones names alternate over year? Sure. May just they’ve entitlements connected to them as we develop companions round this? Sure, positive. So I believe the ones issues will alternate, however for now, this type of extra plain descriptors we concept had been the best way to get this off the grassland.”
