LAS VEGAS — Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo smiled Friday when he was asked about the second NBA Cup and whether he was willing to make any changes to the event.
“I don’t think there’s anything that can be changed,” said Antetokounmpo, who led the Bucks to a semifinal loss in Las Vegas last season. “My room is nice. The arena here is nice too. You guys [the assembled media] Make it feel real.
“When we walked in, I overheard a couple of players saying, ‘Oh, wow, this is real.'” That’s how I felt last year. “
Last season’s NBA Cup champion LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers did not return to Las Vegas. The defending NBA champion Boston Celtics also failed to advance from the group stage. But as the game culminates on Tuesday night with a showdown between MVP favorite Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, plenty of star power will be on display as a second NBA Cup title is assured.
“We’re very pleased with the second year of this format and the first year of the Chiefs NBA Cup,” Evan Wasch, executive vice president of league strategy and analytics, told ESPN. “It’s great to see the players in action. “Coming in early in the season and really competing for something.”
That doesn’t mean the league’s in-season tournament is complete.
Ahead of Tuesday’s finale between the Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), we speak with the league’s power brokers in Las Vegas, as well as the tournament’s Final Four teams and Coaches and executives from teams around the league — on what worked, what didn’t and what’s next for the NBA Cup.
Adjusted schedule has paid off
Since the first NBA Cup last year, the biggest change made by the league is the adjustment of the knockout schedule. Last season, the entire process was completed in six days:
Quarterfinals at home on Monday and Tuesday
Thursday’s semifinals in Las Vegas
Championship game Saturday in Las Vegas
As a result, last year’s Bucks arrived in Las Vegas in the early hours of Wednesday morning and then played about 30 hours later in the early afternoon of Thursday. This also means the NBA will go head-to-head with the NFL on Monday and Thursday.
This year, the NBA has made several adjustments to its schedule, extending the game to eight days:
Quarterfinals at home on Tuesday and Wednesday
Semifinals Saturday in Las Vegas
championship game in las vegas on tuesday
The change is welcomed by everyone involved, as it allows the team to take a breather and fully prepare for the knockout rounds, avoiding the tough transition Milwaukee faced last year. It also produced two fiercely competitive games in Saturday’s semifinals and plenty of dramatic moments in the quarterfinals.
1:27
Rockets win, controversial ending shocks Warriors
A controversial call allowed Jalen Green to hit a free throw to give the Rockets the lead, and then Houston held off the Warriors on the final possession to advance to the NBA Cup semifinals.
But fitting the event into the existing schedule will still face many challenges. In 10 days, the NBA will have one day without a game, two other days with just one game, and three other days with just two games. All of these are necessary to make the NBA Cup stand out, but do the league no favors by reducing back-to-back games on the schedule. “It makes this week’s schedule very fluid,” one Western Conference executive said.
However, all four quarterfinals and two semifinals produced exciting and close games, drawing attention to the early stages of a league schedule that typically favors the NFL and college football.
“It’s done what it was supposed to do,” the executive said. “These games have more content than any of the old games.
“You heard [Steve] Kerr’s post-game comments [Golden State’s quarterfinal loss]. They are very angry. They want to be there. “
The neutral site game is still a work in progress
Tuesday night’s finale will show how much of an impact moving the finals from Saturday to Tuesday will have on attendance and TV ratings (although not having the Lakers involved could hurt both, too).
Despite the tight competition in Saturday’s semifinals, the mood inside T-Mobile Arena was tepid. Attendance for both games was consistent with what the league saw last year: a slight increase from 16,837 to 17,113 for Game 1 and 18,017 for Game 2 (against the Lakers) (all sold out) That dropped slightly to 17,937.
League officials were pleased with those attendance numbers, aided by a strong Atlanta team in town for the Falcons’ game against the Las Vegas Raiders on “Monday Night Football.”
“You could definitely hear them in the crowd tonight,” Hawks star Trae Young said after Atlanta’s semifinal loss. “It’s great to have them here supporting us. Hopefully we can get a win for them.”
Despite this, the game clearly lacked the energy of a home game, in stark contrast to the atmosphere of a cup quarter-final. Last year, the NBA benefited from the Lakers – just four hours away from the league’s largest fan base – winning the inaugural Cup. So far, this year’s tournament has demonstrated the challenges of playing in a neutral environment, regardless of the competition.
What changes might come next for the NBA Cup?
In conversations this week, some sources mentioned the possibility of a home semifinal game followed by a championship game in Las Vegas. This is similar to how soccer’s Champions League and other cup competitions are played. This will undoubtedly create a better atmosphere for the game.
The objection is that it would take away the carrot of a mid-season trip to Las Vegas for two of the four teams currently on the trip. Perhaps more importantly, it also requires teams to set aside more arena dates to host games, which is a significant hurdle to overcome for many teams with multi-purpose arenas.
However, there is one change that is sure to come to the NBA Cup: its next television broadcast center.
Amazon will take over the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games after TNT and ESPN shared hosting duties for the first two seasons. League sources told ESPN that discussions have taken place between the NBA and Amazon about possible schedule changes at some point in the future.
1:28
SGA scores 32 points to lead OKC to NBA Cup finals
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 32 points for the Rockets, leading the Thunder into the NBA Cup Finals.
That includes moving the tournament deeper into the regular season. But these sources cautioned that any such discussions are preliminary and any changes are unlikely to be implemented next season.
After the weekend, multiple sources will allow for another adjustment to the season: doubling the length of the group stage from four to eight games. The argument in favor of this change is to increase the chances of the best teams advancing.
Last year, none of the top five teams in the West made it to the playoffs. This year, the top two teams in the East — the Cleveland Cavaliers and Celtics — missed the opportunity.
“If you play eight group games,” another Western Conference executive said, “the Celtics are going to end up [the knockout rounds]”.
The NBA made adjustments to the knockout schedule immediately after the first game of last season, demonstrating its willingness to adjust at any time. While the league is pleased with the progress of the event as part of the schedule, it’s clear that the NBA Cup will continue to evolve.
“In terms of changes over the next few years, we are always looking for ways to improve the experience for our teams, players, fans and partners,” Wash said. “So while I can’t say that’s definitely going to be the case, we’re always looking at fine-tuning it.”
