The second battle for the NBA Cup has concluded, and the Milwaukee Bucks have been crowned champions.
Bucks fans reacted with excitement, but the rest of the basketball world reacted with a collective shrug.
Desperate for attention, the NBA brought back the in-season tournament to continue incentivizing players and attract more viewers. The winners receive just over $500K each. What do the fans get? An 83rd game, which doesn’t count.
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When you think about this “meaningless” 83rd game, you have to stop yourself and look back to March 2020. You say, ‘Well, at least we are very fortunate to have nonstop action from the NBA and an extra game at that! We could be living those awful months of the suspended season.’ As accurate as that may be, the rest of the fans do not feel the same way, and viewership was down 28% in November on ESPN.
The tournament could be worse— it could be as painfully gimmicky as the new NBA All-Star Game format. The winner of the cup race should have something that benefits the fans and the team.
The Cup’s incentive can’t be too extreme, like a guaranteed playoff spot or full home-court advantage. No, it has to be practical.
So, what could the NBA do to make the Cup chase more appealing to fans, players, and teams?
No. 1: Cup = Lottery
This article would be lengthy if we discussed the lottery’s complexity, so let’s keep it simple.
Regardless of their standing, imagine the cup-winning team gains a way into the lottery or has higher draft odds.
For this scenario, say the Cup team makes the playoffs. The NBA could take a team within picks 14-10 and adjust their lottery odds. Last year, the Golden State Warriors had a 96.6% chance of landing the 14th pick. To imagine this scenario, you could give a portion of that probability to the Cup team. The original 14th team’s odds could drop to 72%, with the Cup winner getting a 24% chance.
A team that wins the Cup but misses the playoffs could also receive a higher draft pick probability by doing the same. Keeping with the 14th pick scenario, say the cup team falls to 27th in the draft and defies the odds by winning the 14th pick. The original 14th pick would move to 15th, 15th to 16th, and so on to fill the gap.
No. 2: Bring the Cup Home, Get an Extra Home Game
This is by far the best incentive the NBA could choose. If the cup championship is not counted in the regular-season record, it should affect the postseason.
The answer is not to give a team home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Doing that would seriously change their effort throughout the season and would be a massive issue for the league. However, adding a home game to the first round would be critical for any team in the playoffs.
Think back to the Milwaukee-Indiana series this past postseason. If the Pacers had one more home game, that series would most likely have ended in five games instead of six. Imagine an eight-seed team stealing a game on the road and then getting three home games.
No. 3: The Cup Disrespects Ties
Last season in the Eastern Conference, there was a three-way tie for fifth place between the Orlando Magic, Indiana Pacers, and Philadelphia 76ers. In the Western Conference, there was a second-place tie between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets. Overall, the teams were well-matched for the playoffs, but it’s frustrating when a tie doesn’t go your way.
If a team finishes tied in playoff contention after winning the Cup, they could automatically own the tiebreaker and gain that seeding.
It isn’t the most glamorous incentive, but ties for seeding always happen. The last time the NBA playoffs didn’t have tie implications for seeding was in the 1995 postseason! If you tie for fourth in your conference and lose the tiebreaker, you lose home-court advantage! However, this incentive doesn’t benefit non-playoff teams, as they prefer to finish lower for a better draft pick. But still, it’d be awesome to implement for the postseason.
Changes to the 2025 NBA Cup?
These incentives are merely ideas and have the potential to be far more challenging to establish.
However, anything is possible. Commissioner Adam Silver must take risks to keep the Cup relevant next year. The Bucks-Thunder Cup game attracted 2.99 million viewers, down from 4.58 million in 2023. Moving it away from a Tuesday night would pay dividends, but more changes are needed before crowning the third winner.
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