NBA Cup final 2024: Date, how it works, teams, format & key players
The NBA Cup format is shorter than the 82-game regular season format and is designed to make the early part of the season more important.
“There are opportunities to grow the league through additional games,” NBA executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics Evan Wasch told BBC Sport.
“If you look around the world, there are many examples of teams winning for more than just one thing.
“We felt like it was an untapped opportunity. Not necessarily a need for us, but just something that could really grow the game.”
The 30 NBA teams are divided into 6 regional groups of 5 teams each.
After playing the other teams in the group once, the top teams in the six groups advance to the quarterfinals along with the best second-place teams in the Eastern and Western Conferences.
The quarter-finals and semi-finals are played by region, with the best team from each division advancing to the finals.
“It’s basically a World Cup format, with five teams in a group instead of four eight teams advancing,” Vash said of the format.
“A lot of the elements look very similar to international football. Other than incorporating it into our season, there’s not much difference to what’s already been done.
“It’s a very close one-to-one mapping.”
