Luka DončićSam Hodde/Getty Images
As you’ll see, there are plenty of wins for the NBA, its teams and its players from the NBA Cup, but it’s certainly not perfect.
For one thing, intermingling the Cup’s schedule with the regular season is a little confusing. The in-season tournament games would feel a little bigger if they were all confined to one portion of the year.
The NBA could even have some nights (and days) with a March Madness-like schedule. Have 20-plus teams on the slate, stagger the start times and get some good studio analysis crews to shepherd us through the entire thing.
The Courts could be toned down a bit, too. There’s nothing wrong with wanting unique floors to set these games apart from the regular season, but the deep reds, blues and greens pretty much write the memes for us.
Subtle tweaks like that, as well as a more concerted effort to address flopping and market lesser known teams and stars (both inside and out of this tournament) could help the league better address an issue it was certainly targeting when it conceived of the Cup in the first place.
The NBA has never had more skill and talent, but TV ratings aren’t reflecting that this season.
The casual fans haven’t totally bought into this new tournament yet, but it’s way too early to give up on it.
