The NBA has revealed more details, as well as the team groups. They say that they're not expecting everyone to warm to it initially but hope that over time it will develop its own tradition, like the European cups and tournaments that have centuries (in the case of the FA Cup, 152 years) of history behind them.
As part of Saturday's announcement, the league also unveiled the six five-team groups -- three made up of Eastern Conference teams and three made up of Western Conference foes -- that will make up the group stage of the tournament:
Group 1: Philadelphia 76ers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons
Group 2: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets
Group 3: Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Orlando Magic
Group 4: Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers
Group 5: Denver Nuggets, LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets
Group 6: Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, San Antonio Spurs
To create the groups, the NBA used a World Cup-style draw process, splitting each conference into five pots that were separated by last year's regular-season standings. Pot 1 featured the teams that finished first through third -- so, in the East, the Bucks, Celtics and 76ers; followed by teams 4-6 landing in Pot 2 (Cavaliers, Knicks and Nets); teams 7-9 landing in Pot 3 (Hawks, Heat, Raptors); teams 10-12 landing in Pot 4 (Bulls, Pacers and Wizards); and teams 13-15 landing in Pot 5 (Magic, Hornets and Pistons).
From there, one team was randomly selected from each of the five pots to create what the league hopes will be three evenly matched groups of teams to compete against one another.
The group play portion of the tournament will consist of four games -- one against each of the other four teams across each group -- that will take place on seven dates throughout November. This year, those dates will be Nov. 3, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28 -- a combination of four Fridays and three Tuesdays.
Evan Wasch, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics and a key person behind the creation of the in-season tournament, said that the league is going to try its best to have back-to-backs as part of those group games held to a minimum.
"The commitment we made to teams is that we would do everything in our power to avoid the group play games being the second night of back-to-backs, it will likely be impossible to avoid some of them being the first night of back-to-backs," Wasch said. "It is probably infeasible for us to deliver a schedule where they're not the first or second night of [any] back-to-backs. So the commitment we hope to achieve at this point is to avoid second nights of back-to-backs."
From there, the winner of each group will advance to the knockout round, along with the highest-finishing team that didn't win a group in each conference. Those teams will then play quarterfinal games on Dec. 4 and Dec. 5 at the higher-seeded teams, with the four teams that win those games advancing to the semifinals on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena, followed by the championship game on Dec. 9.
Up until the title game, East and West teams will play only opponents within their conference, setting up an East vs. West showdown in the championship game in the same format as the NBA playoffs.
During the knockout rounds on days when in-season tournament games are not scheduled (Dec. 6 and Dec. 
, the 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout rounds will each play two regular-season contests.
Players will take home $500,000 for being on the team that wins the NBA Cup, while players on the team that loses in the title game will take home $200,000 each, with players on the semifinal losing teams each getting $100,000 and players on the quarterfinal losers taking home $50,000. But while other incentives were discussed to give players and teams more incentive to be invested in the tournament, such as guaranteeing the winner a playoff spot, ultimately the league opted not to enact any such measures.
As part of that process, the league readily admits it's going to take time for people to adjust to having a new trophy to win, and a new competition as part of the NBA season, but believes that in time it will become an integral part of the NBA calendar.
"Everybody's not going to buy in right away," said Joe Dumars, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations. "So that can't be the goal that everybody's going to buy in from day one.
"These things take time. And I think, as time goes on, I think you can build this up and people can really get into it."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37981050/nba-officially-unveils-format-groups-new-season-tournament
I'm curious, for those of us here who live overseas, particularly in Europe (e.g. @Kernewek and @Who), what's your opinion on why are these domestic cups and mid season tournaments have a level of popularity and acceptance that they currently don't in the US? Other than the 150 years of tradition obviously. I lived in London for a few years and consider myself reasonably well versed in European soccer (for an American 
) but I obviously didn't grow up steeped in it. My English friends loved the FA Cup, especially the ones who didn't support the "Big Four" of the time (Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea), because it was a chance to win something because in a knockout tournament anything can happen? I posted at the start of the thread that all teams that play in Europe's domestic leagues, no matter if they are in League 5, can play in the domestic cups and get their chance to try and upset the big boys. So it could be the highlight of someone's year.
I guess in European soccer leagues there's no salary cap and so no financial parity, you see it with teams like Manchester City having a payroll of 184m pounds while newly promoted Luton Town has 420k pounds and even a mid-table team like Fulham has only 45m pounds. So anyone outside the Top 4 (Top 5 now) have precisely zero chance of ever winning, unless they get bought out by a rich Middle East or American owner like Manchester City did, or now Newcastle did. In fact most of these smaller teams, when they do develop good players, they end up becoming feeder teams for the Big 5 who just offer more for those players to poach them. Meanwhile in the NBA and NFL at least, there are strict salary caps, so technically every team can have a chance at winning a championship as long as they get their finances right. So the goal here is always "championship or bust". Anything less is seen as a Mickey Mouse tournament.
I’m going in with an open mind, but I think it would be more compelling if there were independent minor league teams that competed as well. American soccer has the US Open Cup, similar to the European tournaments. I grew up in Rochester, NY, and back in 1999, the second division A-League Rochester Raging Rhinos (RIP) made a run and won the whole thing, beating the MLS teams. I was at either a round of 16 or quarterfinal match (I forget how far along it was) when the Rhinos hosted the MLS Chicago Fire, who were the defending US Open and MLS champs. It was absolutely electric, with Rochester winning 1-0. It’s the only time a non-MLS teams has won the Cup since MLS started. Without giving an opportunity for a true underdog team to win, the NBA is probably going to be unable to capture the excitement of what goes on in Europe, or what makes March Madness so exciting. We’ll see — maybe they can and I’ll give them a shot — but even if just once in a decade a non-NBA team snuck through a round or two against the NBA teams, that would really increase the excitement. Right now it’s just an in-season NBA tournament, instead of an in-season tournament for the entire sport in the country.
Very good posts, and I think the closed ecosystem within the NBA is the primary reason for the lack of similar enthusiasm - we can look at the negative reaction to the Super League proposal (
Billy haisley did a great write up especially if someone's not well versed in the sport), which would have been closer to an NFL/NBA no-regulation model, to see why:
In the current system, qualifying for the Champions League is enormously important financially. There is an incredible amount of money in competing in the tournament, primarily in the form of broadcasting rights revenue that is split between the clubs that make it, plus the in-stadium income teams make from selling tickets to what are the very biggest games of the season. Clubs need that money to pay their best players their astronomical salaries, and to pay mountainous transfer fees to acquire more great players, which then ensures continued access to the Champions League’s riches to keep the good times rolling. In the other direction, failure to qualify for the tournament makes paying big salaries and transfer fees much more difficult, and it often makes Champions League-caliber players want to leave your club for one that can offer the big stage and salaries. All of this makes the Champions League a massive reward, but also a massive risk.
And it’s that risk that the big clubs behind the Super League want to eliminate. Those clubs don’t like the fact that qualification for the Champions League is so difficult and competitive, and they find it unfair that they, whose star players and globe-spanning fan bases and historical pedigrees lend the Champions League much of its allure and prestige and popularity, have to risk their asses every season to qualify against some nothing club like West Ham United.
So, yeah, for me it's the lack of a true underdog possibility and meaningful results are part of the lukewarm reception. Let's say the Hornets win the mid-season tournament: it doesn't actually
do anything for the team. But that's really difficult to balance because any immediate suggestion that would offer a tangible improvement to the team - a guaranteed playoff spot, an extra draft pick, a bigger MLE allowance, home court throughout the playoffs - can get picked apart pretty quickly if you want it to, no matter how good it is.
Topic: NBA to add in-season tournament with Final Four in Dec (Read 8572 times)