The NBA Cup, intended to add importance to the earlier part of the season, is shorter compared to the league’s regular 82-game season.
“There was an opportunity to grow the league with additional competitions,” Evan Wasch, NBA executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics, told BBC Sport.
“If you look around the world, there are many examples where teams can win more than one thing.
“We felt this was a missed opportunity. Not necessarily something we need, but just something that will really advance the game.”
The 30 NBA teams were divided into six regional groups of five teams.
After a one-off match against the other teams in their group, the top team from the six groups advanced to the quarterfinals along with the best and second-best teams from the Eastern and Western conferences.
The quarterfinals and semifinals were played regionally, with the top team from each conference advancing to the finals.
“It’s basically a World Cup format where there are five teams in a group rather than four or eight teams advancing,” Wasch said of the format.
“A lot of the elements look very similar to international football. There’s not much difference from what was done other than incorporating it into our season.
“It’s a pretty close one-to-one mapping.”
