The NBA Cup isn’t worth the hassle

Warriors beat writer Danny Emerman shares his thoughts on the NBA 

The NBA Cup isn’t worth the hassle.

Following it during the group stage is nearly impossible. The incentive structure of prize money for players and coaches is off. Some within the league worry about the potential injury risk of ramping up for playoff-level play so early in the season. The championship game gets Thanos snapped from history.

What’s worst is that teams get punished, not rewarded, for performing well in the NBA Cup. They’re better off missing the knockout rounds. Making, and advancing in, the NBA Cup comes at a cost.

Consider the Warriors, who are set to go on the road to play Houston with a chance to advance to the semifinals in Las Vegas. If they beat the Rockets, they’ll play 40 home games on the season, imbalancing their schedule and creating more difficult travel that can cascade.

“Schedule-wise, it hurts,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “You lose a home game, it’s not good. That’s the one thing I feel like it sucks.”

Their already gauntlet of a December schedule could add the Rockets game, a neutral-site Mavericks or Thunder matchup, and a high-intensity 83rd game that doesn’t even count at all (except for a banner and cash).

Teams on the East Coast who make the semifinals have to traverse multiple time zones to get to Vegas, facing an even higher competitive disadvantage.

Teams that miss the knockout round, meanwhile, play the standard 41 home games and get rescheduled against other teams who missed the Cup — likely easier opponents.

Because the NBA Cup (previously known as the In-Season Tournament) is only in its second year, it’s hard to make snap judgments. The league’s goal with it is admirable: generate interest in games before Christmas with an artificially more competitive setting.  But it’s clear there are issues with it that need to be smoothed out.

“I get why they’re doing it,” the executive said. “I’d love to see data that shows this is working. And helps the league out. Like I’d love to see the numbers after this one and I think they’ve got to re-evaluate if it’s not helping at all.”

Last year, the Lakers-Pacers championship last year was the most-watched, non-Christmas regular season game in six years, per Nielsen. It was a major win for the league, whose fans got to see an elevated level of competition early in the season in a novel tournament.

But it’s possible that the ratings success from last year was a blip; it shouldn’t be a surprise that people were interested in LeBron James in a championship-coded game. What happens this year if Steph Curry doesn’t reach the title game?

In the group stage, muddied groups that change annually and head-spinning tiebreaker machinations make the barrier for entry for fans very high.

There’s no real path for the league to do an about-face. In their 11-year media rights deal, Amazon purchased the rights to stream future NBA Cup quarterfinal, semifinal and championship games.

To be fair, the NBA Cup isn’t on DEFCON 2. As long as the players are bought in, the games should be entertaining — and that’s what really matters to the league. To a man, players have taken the games seriously and they talk about winning the prize money. Some teams, particularly those with young rosters, like to see their players experience playoff-like games, too. It’s not a disaster.