The 2024 Emirates NBA Cup starts on Tuesday and it looks like Adam Silver’s dream of making early-season matches more high-stakes will continue.
The Los Angeles Lakers took home their first tournament title last year in Las Vegas, beating the Indiana Pacers in the final. The New Orleans Pelicans and Milwaukee Bucks also earned a trip to Vegas for the semifinals.
The NBA will continue to adjust various elements of the event, and after consulting with participants, the league believes they have come up with an even more effective way to implement this new feature.
Evan Wasch, Executive Vice President of NBA Basketball Strategy and Analytics, recently spoke with Yahoo Sports about the NBA Cup. In Year 1, he said, scores for group play were closer to those of the average NBA game, TV ratings were 18% higher than regular-season games, attendance was higher, as evidenced by breaking league records last November, and social media engagement was “off the charts” – with the Lakers’ NBA Cup win being watched by nearly 5 million people, a number typically only reached during the first games Christmas Day in the competition.
Group play matches will still be held on Tuesdays and Fridays, and there will still be individual rankings until a decision is made on group play. The tournament will conclude in mid-December with the semi-finals and a final in Las Vegas.
Here’s what you need to know for Year 2 of the NBA Cup.
What is the NBA Cup schedule?
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Group game: November 12 – December 3 (Tuesday and Friday)
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Quarter finals: December 10 and 11
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Semi-finals: December 14
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Championship: December 17
Are NBA Cup courts back?
For most viewers, the courts were an eyesore because the bright colors were such a stark difference from the usual hardwood and center court logo design that everyone is used to. In that respect, the court designs of the New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz stood out last year.
But the designs did achieve the goal of drawing attention to the night and letting fans know it was an NBA Cup game. However, it didn’t always play well on television, an expected consequence. In one case with the Dallas Mavericks, the field was not even functional for tournament play due to a manufacturing defect.
Like everything else in this endeavor, changes came.
“I won’t say shock value, but the differentiation of those lanes I think is particularly important in Year 1, not only from a fan perspective, but we’ve even heard from players,” Wasch said. “What we heard from players after the tournament was that some might even have forgotten that something was a tournament game. But as soon as they came out of the tunnel and saw that court, they immediately stopped and said, ‘Oh, this is different. Something else is going on.’ And I think the most surprising part was how much the courts translated into the sense that something big was happening.
In general, the floors will return, although some courses will look a bit more muted.
“Each team with their background, their watermark that is unique to their city or their traditional field,” Wasch said. “In a case like Boston with parquet, we thought this would allow for a little bit more team branding on top of what was otherwise a league initiative last year.”
The competition worked with the teams and with artist Victor Solomon to find a balance between shock value and sensitivity.
How does group play work?
The formula for group play has not changed. All 30 teams were randomly divided into groups of five based on the previous season’s regular season records, creating three divisions in each conference. Each team plays four group matches: one against each opponent in its group, two at home and two away.
“So in each conference we take the top three teams, we put them in a pot, fourth through six, they are in a pot, seven through nine, etc. And then to make the groups, you draw one team out. of every pot,” Wasch said.
Eastern group A
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New York Knicks
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Orlando magic
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Philadelphia 76ers
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Brooklyn Nets
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Charlotte Hornets
Eastern group B
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Milwaukee Bucks
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Indiana Pacers
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Miami heat
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Toronto Raptors
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Detroit Pistons
Eastern group C
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Boston Celtics
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Cleveland Cavaliers
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Chicago Bulls
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Atlanta Hawks
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Washington Wizards
West group A
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Minnesota Timberwolves
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LA Clippers
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Sacramento Kings
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Houston Rockets
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Portland Trail Blazers
Western Group B
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Oklahoma City Thunder
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Phoenix suns
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Los Angeles Lakers
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Utah Jazz
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San Antonio Spurs
West Group C
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Denver Nuggets
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Dallas Mavericks
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New Orleans Pelicans
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Warriors of the Golden State
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Memphis Grizzlies
The league considered making it identical to the actual NBA divisions, but decided against it due to the strength of the division. Take the Northwest division: there are three title contenders in Oklahoma City, Denver and Minnesota. That would be out of proportion to, say, the Southwest Division, which includes Memphis, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and New Orleans.
“And so what you get is you get different groups every year for the group stage of the tournament,” Wasch said. “We were talking about: should we just use divisions? Because divisions are five teams, but then you get the same teams in the group every year. And so we thought that spreading out those top teams would lead to more competitive results and also more storylines.
One general manager suggested keeping the groups the same way year after year, to develop continuity and perhaps fuel rivalry, regardless of year-to-year records and the lottery nature of the draw – think of the first meeting between Victor Wembanyama from San Antonio and those from Oklahoma City. Chet Holmgren last season, a pre-season tournament game at Oklahoma last November.
However, the league decided not to do this.
What about the knockout stages?
Eight teams advance from group play to the knockout rounds: the six group winners and two wild cards. The wild cards are the teams from each conference that finished with the best records among the second-place teams in group play.
Unlike last season, scoring overtime will not be a factor in the outcome of the tiebreaker.
“(Warriors coach) Steve Kerr made a comment after the last group stage match, whether it was a joke or not, that they were considering whether to deliberately send the game into extra time to make up the score, to try to win with the 12 points they needed. advance to the knockout rounds,” Wasch said.
To maintain the integrity of the matches and avoid some controversial finishes, they have removed the overtime score from the points differentials and the total points tiebreakers.
The single-elimination games of the NBA Cup quarterfinals will be held on December 10 and 11. The higher ranked teams will host the quarter-finals in their home arena. The four winners will advance to the semifinals in Las Vegas.
(During the knockout stage, the 22 teams that did not qualify will each play two regular season matches to be determined.)
What’s happening in Vegas?
Las Vegas, home of the NBA Summer League and future home of an expansion team, serves as ground zero for the NBA Cup semifinals and finals on December 14 and 17, respectively.
For the four teams, spending a few days in Las Vegas in December could certainly provide an incentive to put extra effort into these games, along with a cash prize for the winning team of $500,000 per player. (The runner-up receives $200,000 per player.)
Las Vegas served as the Lakers’ pseudo-home game last year due to its proximity to New Orleans, Milwaukee and Indianapolis. Add to that the quick turnaround from the quarterfinals and it was difficult to create a true home field advantage for the teams outside of LA
“It’s a double-edged sword,” Wasch admitted.
They added an extra day between the semifinals and the finals, and avoided the NFL schedule, to create a better atmosphere for the fans. They believe they have made it more accessible overall.
“And because the semifinals are on this Saturday, it’s a little easier to imagine a fan who might want to go to Vegas for the weekend, rather than flying to Vegas for a game that would end at 2 p.m. one night . Thursday,” Wasch said. “A lot of our fans are working, so that was a real challenge. So we think we’ve expanded the opportunity for fans who want to attend Saturday’s semifinal doubleheader.
“This thing may rise to the level years down the road where it becomes such an integral part of the league season that you get that energy and that turnout, but at least we think we’ve made it easier, and we do think we will see some more excitement and appeal among fans, let’s say, outside of the LA (market).”
And it also puts Las Vegas at the center of the basketball conversation for something other than Summer League, in the heart of the NBA season.
