LAS VEGAS (AP) — Coming soon: the NBA Cup.The NBA unveiled the details Saturday of its inaugural in-season tournament, which will have a prize pool of about $18 million and will be capped by a championship game — which won’t count in the standings — in Las Vegas on Dec. 9. It’s an event that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wanted for years, giving teams a trophy to play for during the regular season.And now, it’s finally reality.“This is a concept that has been rumbling around the league office for about 15 years,” Silver said. “It's not a new concept in sports. For those that follow particularly international soccer, it's a long tradition of having in-season tournaments ... so we thought, what a perfect opportunity for a global league like the NBA and it's a perfect fit for our game.”The tournament payouts for players on standard contracts will be $500,000 apiece for those on the winning team, $200,000 apiece for those on the runner-up, $100,000 apiece for those on the teams that lose semifinal games and $50,000 for those on the teams that lose in the quarterfinals.Two-way players on any of those teams are eligible for up to half those amounts, depending on how many games they spend on a roster during the tournament.“I can see what the aim could be,” said Miami guard Josh Richardson, who follows global soccer closely and understands the parallels Silver makes when comparing it to in-season tournaments that sport has around the world. “It gives you another chance to win something, for real. I think that’s a big part.”Games will start on Nov. 3, being played mostly on Tuesdays and Fridays in November — except for Nov. 7, when the NBA will play no games to commemorate Election Day. That announcement came Saturday, and will mark the second consecutive year when the NBA has no games on that date with hopes of promoting civic awareness and engagement.The Final Four will be in Las Vegas.“This city knows how to host big events,” Silver said.Teams were assigned to a five-team group. They'll play one game against each other; the six group winners will make the quarterfinals, as will the best two second-place teams from the groups.They were chosen as follows:West Group A — Memphis, Phoenix, the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah and Portland.West Group B — Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans, Dallas and Houston.West Group C — Sacramento, Golden State, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.East Group A — Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Indiana and Detroit.East Group B — Milwaukee, New York, Miami, Washington and Charlotte.East Group C — Boston, Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago and Orlando.“I'm excited about this midseason tournament,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “I think it's going to add an element of energy and excitement for the players and coaches and the fans. I think it's a great idea.”Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president of basketball operations and a Hall of Famer as a player, said he thinks players will like the idea — even if it takes some time.“Everybody’s not going to buy in right away,” Dumars said. “That can’t be the goal, that everybody’s going to buy in from Day 1. These things take time. And I think as time goes on you can build this up and people can really get into it.”Tournament games, except for the championship game, will all count in the standings — much in the same way that the WNBA runs its Commissioner's Cup event.It’s been known for some time that teams will be getting only an 80-game schedule when the 2023-24 slate is released by the NBA in the coming weeks.Games 81 and 82 will be added in December; this is where things get tricky.Teams that don’t make the knockout stage will be assigned two games against other non-knockout qualifiers, and those will be the missing two games on their schedules.For the eight teams that make the knockout stage, the quarterfinal game becomes the 81st game added to their schedule. Quarterfinal losers — two from the East, two from the West — will play each other, and that’ll be the 82nd game on their schedules. Semifinalists — again, two from the East, two from the West — will play, and that game becomes the 82nd game on their schedules.That means the championship game will be one of 83 games on the schedule for the last two teams standing. And since the season is 82 games, that game won’t count in the standings, nor will the stats count for anything. They’ll be playing for money and the trophy.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
      16·
      1 year ago

      The purpose is to get people excited about midseason basketball. Many fans don’t watch any games or care about their teams until the end of the season when the playoffs approach. By then, many teams will be out of contention or obviously outmatched.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          Maybe not. We’ll see if anyone cares about a midseason tournament. I’ll be curious to see how seriously the players take it. Like will the middle third franchises rest some players and use it to develop some guys? Since the games won’t count, and they have little hope of winning, will it be treated like summer league games?

          • BanjosKazoo@geddit.social
            3·
            1 year ago

            All the tournament games still count as regular season games so there’s no change in incentive to rest guys. The only one that doesn’t count as a regular season game is the tournament championship and they win a half million bucks if they win so they’re trying to incentivize the players to play.

        • pdxfed@lemmy.world
          1·
          1 year ago

          I think you’ll see a non-zero change in the group stage but it will ramp quickly up. No one gives two fucka about FA cup early stages but top premier league soccer teams consider it just slightly less important than winning the league. I don’t think it gets there or that the NBA was aiming for it but hey, don’t underestimate the ability of owners to use marketing for fans and incentives for teams to make it important.

  • AfricanExpansionist@lemmy.ml
    10·
    1 year ago

    This is really cool. I like seeing US leagues experimenting and trying to incorporate ideas from around the world. It’d be really cool if this tournament was invitational, so teams had to qualify based on something, or they get grouped according to some standard. But the current format is still a great idea

  • cavsfan@lemmy.worldM
    5·
    1 year ago

    500k each for the winners all the way down to 50k for the 8th place team will no doubt bring out some good competition. That’s some pretty nice dough even for the max contract guys. Who doesn’t want an extra 50k of pocket change? Especially going forward when the 5th place team sees other guys getting hundreds of thousands more than them, that’ll no doubt bring out the competitive spirit in a lot of guys.

    East Group B is looking to be a bloodbath, same with West Group A.

    I wonder if scheduling will cause any weird issues like playing a team 5 times or an intraconference team only twice. I suppose you could have games later in the season against team A or team B depending on who of your group went on to the knockout stage.

    • Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      When you have contractual incentives that can trigger for millions of dollars that largely are based off your health, I don’t see a lot of guys caring too much about this. In fact I can see the better teams purposely losing early in the knockout rounds to just not have to worry about it and focus on what really matters.

      Dumbest thing is the two-way guys, the guys who absolutely would need that money the most, only get half of the winnings lol

      • cavsfan@lemmy.worldM
        1·
        1 year ago

        So I don’t see teams purposely losing, since it’s not like they play more games unless they play in the final. At which point the different between 100k then 200k and 500k is not nothing. Even if some players or teams could care less about the tournament, I can’t see them treating it less than a regular season game at the very least.

        On your second point, yeah that’s incredibly stupid. If the guys play in the games they should get paid for playing in the games. You’re playing in an NBA game against NBA teams in an NBA tournament with payouts to players based on how far you go.

    • mtwolf55@lemm.ee
      1·
      1 year ago

      I don’t think that’s reason #1 but expect it was a consideration. Sure doesn’t hurt

  • BrerChicken @lemmy.world
    2·
    1 year ago

    I don’t have much to say about the tournament, mostly because I friggin love basketball and I’m just as excited about it in December as I am in April!

    But did anyone else find it weird that in there s article, in the list of groups all teams were referred to ONLY by their city, except for LA? They got some LA fans at the AP?

    West Group A — Memphis, Phoenix, the Los Angeles Lakers, Utah and Portland.

    West Group B — Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans, Dallas and Houston.

    West Group C — Sacramento, Golden State, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and San Antonio.

    East Group A — Philadelphia, Cleveland, Atlanta, Indiana and Detroit.

    East Group B — Milwaukee, New York, Miami, Washington and Charlotte.

    East Group C — Boston, Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago and Orlando.

    EDIT: Duh, I totally ignored the Clippers, which is extra special because they’re literally in the next group down 🤦‍♂️

  • coygsu@lemmy.world
    1·
    1 year ago

    The incentives are limited. I think a significant addition to the cap space and a playin tournament guarantee (if not in the playoffs) would make the games more competitive. Otherwise this is just rebranded regular season basketball.