Relevant_Swing1680 | Timberwolves

240 | 4 hours ago

NBA suits aren’t clever enough to actually do that

axecalibur | CHI

57 | 3 hours ago

Why would they even do that? Its better for them to own the whole of Christmas day sports broadcasting with 4-5 games instead of one game.

[deleted]

15 | 3 hours ago

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Ok_Shop7600 | Lakers

11 | 3 hours ago

No way it would bring in more money than a nba christmas game people eat that shit up way more it has people who don’t even watch basketball watching it that day from mom to grandma.

[deleted]

-4 | 3 hours ago

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ep29 | Knicks

5 | 3 hours ago

There’s no way to do that with the NFL now broadcasting on Christmas too. The best bet is to just stack the schedule with 6 marquee matchups and hope the football schedule is a pair of duds like it was this past holiday season.

In an era before NFL on Netflix on Christmas? Yeah, sure. Now? No fucking shot.

LouieBarlo24

1 | 2 hours ago

They air 5 games during christmas, there is no way to implement this that would cause 1 game to multiply it’s earnings by 5 times. You are just wrong.

[deleted]

0 | 2 hours ago

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LouieBarlo24

2 | 2 hours ago

No need to pout just because your idea was stupid

[deleted]

0 | 2 hours ago

[deleted]

LouieBarlo24

1 | an hour ago

I am endlessly entertained by being petty towards people with dumb ideas

WeAreBums

5 | 3 hours ago

If implemented right? Lmao sorry but you’re just saying things without knowing how any of this works

blubblu

2 | 3 hours ago

You mean like the elite 8 on Christmas, final four on New Year’s Eve and the final 2 days later?

pfaf6796 | Spurs

8 | 2 hours ago

There is nothing that says they couldn’t have multiple games on christmas and then have the championship game as the headliner during primetime.

aBakeinthelife | Pistons

6 | an hour ago

Quarterfinals on Christmas, seems pretty easy and hypes up the finals that will happen at a more mundane time.

redditlvlanalysis

1 | 23 minutes ago

Quarterfinals on Xmas finals on New Year’s day

jnightrain | Mavericks

2 | 2 hours ago

This is easy to work around

Championship game
“3rd place game” the 2 losers from the final four
2 consolation games which are made up of the 4 losers during the “elite 8”

4 games all should be high level teams. With the NFL trying to get in on Christmas day it might be better to have a “championship game” to contend with it, although i don’t think many people actually care about the cup and would just tune in because it should be 2 very good teams playing.

porkchop487 | Bulls

3 | an hour ago

Better would be having the elite 8 on christmas tbh

DiscreteBee | Raptors

130 | 3 hours ago

I kind of like the pools, but I definitely think that they should do it by division.

I could get into a single elimination tournament but it seems like it would be hard to schedule

lxkandel06 | Nets

97 | 3 hours ago

It’s such an embarrassing, colossal fumble that they didn’t just make each division its own pool. People complain about how divisions don’t mean anything anymore and this would’ve been such an obvious fix to that problem but they decided against it for literally no reason. Making each division its own pool would’ve ensured that every team gets one guaranteed game per season against each of their division rivals that means something more than just a regular season game. This is exactly the kind of tradition that builds rivalries, and they decided against it, again for no fucking reason at all

emoney_gotnomoney | Spurs

22 | 3 hours ago

Yep exactly. I’m fine with having divisions be meaningless for the playoffs as our current playoff and regular season formats don’t really jive with the divisions format, but I love the idea of having the NBA cup be tied to divisions.

ArmiinTamzarian | Spurs

9 | 3 hours ago

Counterpoint: the more divisions matter the more we can all hate each other (not that ours particularly is short on spite, except for the Pels)

DiscreteBee | Raptors

6 | 3 hours ago

I feel like it will inevitably happen that they make them the divisions because it seems like such an obvious move

lxkandel06 | Nets

5 | 3 hours ago

You’re right but it was just as obvious of a move when they created the idea of the cup as it is now and they still decided against it

HokageEzio | Knicks

-4 | 3 hours ago

embarrassing, colossal fumble

It’s not that deep.

I agree with the main point, but you can dial back the hyperbole a little…

lxkandel06 | Nets

6 | 3 hours ago

It’s not that deep but it’s just so fucking mind-boggling how they fumbled something that should’ve been so insanely easy not to fumble

HokageEzio | Knicks

5 | 3 hours ago

The logic was that they thought stacking it up across divisions would lead to less balanced groups than basing it off of previous records.

Again, I agree. I think divisions would be a way better and more consistent group that fans would actually remember. But there’s not zero logic as to why they went with what they did (for now).

[deleted]

9 | 3 hours ago

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Financial-Monk9400 | Lakers

9 | 3 hours ago

We can still cut the games to 72 while still keeping the in season tournament so I don’t really understand your point

Technical_Pace_4205 | Knicks

27 | 4 hours ago

Hey now.. OP is cooking

murdered-by-swords | Spurs

2 | an hour ago

NBA cup rewards had better be damn tangible otherwise, if I’m a player, I’m coming into those semifinals with an eye towards getting Christmas off this year.

redditlvlanalysis

1 | 22 minutes ago

Half a million is pretty tangible for all non superstars.

nbawizard1227

16 | 3 hours ago

This would be fun but messes up the entire regular season schedule

SufficientBit3153 | Thunder

1 | 26 minutes ago

Wouldn’t be so bad. A single-elimination bracket style tournament with 32 teams only requires 5 games (assuming you go all the way). So each team could just have 5 flex spots on their schedule where the opponent is TBD, based on who they’ve played in the tournament. Or if you do what we do now where the IST final doesn’t count as a regular season game, then it’s only 4 flex spots.

If you assume half the flex games are home, half away, then worst case would be 2-3 instances where a team has to fly out of the way to play an opponent, but you can just pad each of those flex days by a couple days off.

SmokeOddessey | Lakers

1 | an hour ago

Current cup format already messes it up more than this would

SavingsSkirt6064 | Mavericks

8 | 3 hours ago

Old UCL format

8 groups of 4 play twice and then single elim knockout rounds

Also have a cup draw instead of a bracket.

bigbodydenver | Nuggets

4 | 3 hours ago

They already have an 82 game season lol

CycloneofSparta | Thunder

-1 | 3 hours ago

And make it the ACTUAL UCL format.

NBA Champs, division champs, whoever. They all play the best EuroLeague teams and champions from respective countries.

I don’t want to see Charlotte play Chicago. I want to see the Nuggets play Red Star. I want to see the next Wemby or Luka against the Lakers. I want Giannis to return to play a Greek team whose fans have flares.

Joezepey | Knicks

9 | 3 hours ago

This could also fix the quirks in the schedule with teams having to play extra games. Just bake all the matchups into the schedule since every team already plays each other

Nmador7

22 | 3 hours ago

A single eliminations tourney would make scheduling much harder not easier

Joezepey | Knicks

7 | 3 hours ago

If they plan the bracket with the regular season schedule, they can set the schedule so that you play all the teams in your side of the bracket early in the season. They can fill in the early season non-NBA cup games with matchups that happen 3-4 times a year. The only time it could get messy is with the semis/final rounds, and those can be adjusted by swapping games later in the season

WhiteHeterosexualGuy | Hawks

1 | 3 hours ago

Yeah, I think the first 3 rounds could align with the schedule as you said. It wouldn’t be that hard but it does add one more variable to work around.

First round is straight forward… put it in early November
Second round only 2 possible opponents to put on the schedule, so that can happen a week after the first round
Third round only 4 possible opponents, so you complete that round in just over a week after the second round.

So by late November, you’re down to 4 teams. They can just flex the schedule the same as they’re doing now for the last two games.

Spiritual-Bed3948

0 | 3 hours ago

They should eliminate the Gimmick Cup!

PatrenzoK | Cavaliers

5 | 3 hours ago

I think it should be like the FA Cup. Every G league team as well.

justsaywhatsreal

3 | 3 hours ago

If the NBA really wants to generate hype with this, they should let teams pick their opponents. Same thing in the playoffs too tbh.

axecalibur | CHI

3 | 3 hours ago

That way every team has a chance.

They don’t give a shit about competitive balance. They want the best teams to play more games to sell more ads and to have more gambles.

DiscreteBee | Raptors

5 | 3 hours ago

They’d probably do that better with OP’s suggestion, since neither one changes the number of games

incredibleamadeuscho | Lakers

3 | 3 hours ago

This would be amazing. Imagine the Hornets out shooting everyone and winning the NBA cup

Valiant_Opp

2 | 3 hours ago

As it is now, NBA cup games besides the Finals count towards the regular season. If that stays then there would be lots of rescheduling involved depending upon seeding matchups which I think the NBA is too lazy to bother with since they also have to factor in NHL home schedules for some teams. I do see this as the perfect excuse for them to reduce the number of regular season games by making these Cup games not count towards the regular season. That way they could avoid that rescheduling mess and the finalists playing 5 extra cup games are actually playing the same amount of games played in the current regular season.

MatCauthonsHat | 76ers

1 | 3 hours ago

Great idea, but I can’t see the Cup culminating on Xmas.. Those are marquee matchups. What happens to your Xmas day schedule if the Lakers and Spurs end up in the cup final?

k1ngkoala | Lakers

1 | 2 hours ago

Perfect idea, I love it. The final game should be on new years though. Christmas games are already a special tradition and I don’t think the league wants to change it (imagine it’s Christmas and the only game on is Jazz vs Pels because of the cup. It’d be good hoops assuming both teams were good but the average person is not turning on the TV during Christmas to watch those teams play).

brandnameb | Knicks

1 | an hour ago

Agree on the general format. But it should either end A. Right before All Star Weekend or B. The last week of the season.

CutLonzosHair2017 | LAL

1 | 35 minutes ago

No chance. That’s an average of 1 cup game per team.

tribecalledflex | Bucks

1 | 31 minutes ago

random draw

Wonderful-Border3963

0 | 3 hours ago

They should get rid of the meaningless tournament

SydneyFall | Nuggets

-9 | 3 hours ago

You want to make the regular season completely meaningless?

DiscreteBee | Raptors

13 | 3 hours ago

NBA cup, not the championship

SydneyFall | Nuggets

-1 | 3 hours ago

Ah, thanks. yeah, that is better but I think they want to keep more teams in it longer so it grows. Once teams are eliminated, their fans just won’t care at all anymore. But maybe they would if they saw a few games had more hope their team would win.

Group state accomplishes that, and the group stage can be far cleaner with 32 teams.

DiscreteBee | Raptors

2 | 2 hours ago

I think the single elimination tournament won’t happen because it makes scheduling a mess.

But I think it would build a lot more hype than the group stage, because it would make the stakes of every NBA cup game clear: If you lose you’re out. Elimination games intrinsically have some intensity. The first round probably won’t pop off like crazy but after that suddenly half the fan bases are “in” and are just 4 wins away from the cup.

A weakness of the current format is that the group stage stakes can be unclear, it takes a while for the bracket to start and only 8 teams get elimination games

When the league expands to 32 teams, they should change the NBA Cup format to a 32-team single elimination bracket