What the Heck Is the NBA Cup?!

I’ve established repeatedly that watching sports is a waste of time. Yet I willingly continue to make the same mistake. Take the NBA Cup, for example. This brand-new, in-season NBA tournament is not worthy of my (or your) time. Is it? Let’s find out.

(Note: It appears that the name of the tournament is literally In-Season Tournament and NBA Cup refers to the awarded trophy, but I’ve taken the liberty of conflating terminology.)

 

A Little Background

The NBA (National Basketball Association) is the world’s premier basketball league. Headquartered in New York City, the 30-team league rakes in annual revenue in the range of $10 billion, attracting talent from all corners of the globe.

But despite the monetary success of the star-driven enterprise, grabbing headlines in an NFL-obsessed country isn’t a given, and mainstream interest in the 82-game NBA season doesn’t pick up until Christmas (or, for that matter, until the conclusion of the Super Bowl in early February).

It doesn’t help that even prior to the season, a reasonable number of teams have no hope of accomplishing anything meaningful beyond positioning themselves for draft picks. Throw in the fact that NBA players have earned a reputation for taking a liberal number of nights off, and it’s easy to see why casual fans are dismissive of the regular season.

Enter the NBA Cup, a soccer-inspired, in-season tournament that just might convince the naysayers that the NBA regular season is…not totally pointless.

 

The NBA Cup

Starting in the 2023-24 season, a November-December tournament will be incorporated into the regular season using the strategy outlined below.

The 15 teams from the Eastern Conference will be divided into three groups of five, as will the 15 teams from the Western Conference. Group assignment is randomized, though records from the previous season are accounted for such that groups should have a balance of good, mediocre, and bad teams. Here are the groupings for the inaugural event.

East Group A: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons

East Group B: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets

East Group C: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic

West Group A: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers

West Group B: Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets

West Group C: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs

Each team will play the other four in its group once during group play. Two of the games will be at home and two on the road, with all four counting toward regular season standings. Games will be held on Tuesday and Friday nights, known as tournament nights.

The winners of the six groups as well as the two best second place teams (one from the East and one from the West) will then advance to the knockout rounds (i.e. single-elimination games starting with the quarterfinals).

Quarterfinal games will be hosted by the higher-seeded teams and count toward the regular season.

Semifinal games—which also count toward the regular season—will be played in Las Vegas, as will the championship game, which stands out for not counting toward the regular season.

Somehow, NBA schedulers have figured out a way to still have each team play 82 games—aside, of course, from the two sides that make the final (though, again, that 83rd game doesn’t actually count toward regular season standings or statistics).

The NBA Cup, it must be mentioned, comes with far more than mere bragging rights (and a trophy). Each player on the championship team receives a healthy $500,000, while those on the second place team land $200,000 apiece. Players who lose in the semifinals take home $100,000 each, and those exiting in the quarterfinals settle for a personal bonus of $50,000. These generous figures suggest that the NBA itself is hoping to cash in, namely via selling media rights for the proceedings.

 

So yes, there’s clearly upside for the league and its players, but is this NBA Cup thing worth our time? We’ll find out when we watch.