2024 NBA Cup Greatest Winners and Losers: Giannis Antetokounmpo, SGA and Extra
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Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jalen WilliamsJeff Bottari/NBAE through Getty Photos
The 2024 NBA Cup is formally full, and the Milwaukee Bucks are your in-season event champions.
Behind a stifling defensive effort, the Bucks received the title sport on Tuesday, 97-81.
And now that the event is wrapped, we now have loads of winners and losers from this 12 months’s affair to debate.
The largest on both aspect of that line could be discovered under.
Loser: A few of the Informal Followers’ Expertise
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Luka DončićSam Hodde/Getty Photos
As you will see, there are many wins for the NBA, its groups and its gamers from the NBA Cup, but it surely’s definitely not good.
For one factor, intermingling the Cup’s schedule with the common season is somewhat complicated. The in-season event video games would really feel somewhat greater in the event that they have been all confined to 1 portion of the 12 months.
The NBA may even have some nights (and days) with a March Insanity-like schedule. Have 20-plus groups on the slate, stagger the beginning occasions and get some good studio evaluation crews to shepherd us by your complete factor.
The courts could possibly be toned down a bit, too. There’s nothing incorrect with wanting distinctive flooring to set these video games other than the common season, however the deep reds, blues and greens just about write the memes for us.
Delicate tweaks like that, in addition to a extra concerted effort to deal with flopping and market lesser-known groups and stars (each in and out of the event) may assist the league higher deal with a difficulty it was focusing on when it conceived of the Cup within the first place.
The NBA has by no means had extra talent and expertise, however TV rankings aren’t reflecting that this season.
The informal followers have not completely purchased into this new event but, but it surely’s approach too early to surrender on it.
Winner: Followers of Early-Season Depth
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Isaiah Hartenstein and Anthony DavisRonald Martinez/Getty Photos
Whether or not or not you care in regards to the NBA Cup individually, it could have been laborious to look at this 12 months’s video games with out seeing somewhat enhance in depth from the gamers.
Positive, there’s extra cash on the road. And that has to really feel much more tangible for the groups that made the knockout spherical.
However even throughout pool play, many of the Cup video games felt somewhat extra intense, not less than relative to what we have grown used to from November and December contests in latest historical past.
To the extent that was one of many league’s targets for this occasion, I feel it will possibly cautiously verify that field.
We’re solely within the second 12 months of what is a reasonably formidable experiment, and the depth is already rising. That bodes properly for future Cups.
Loser: Small-Contract Gamers Not on Bucks, Thunder
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Cam ReddishBarry Gossage/NBAE through Getty Photos
By now, virtually everybody is aware of in regards to the monetary incentives which have include this event.
Gamers who make it to the quarterfinals get an additional $50,000, semifinalists get $100,000, losers of the championship sport get $200,000, and the champions get $500,000 every.
To gamers like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, each of whom are making north of $48 million this season and are beneath contract for properly over $100 million, that additional half-million is not life-changing.
However for gamers who’re on the league’s fringes, could also be out of it quickly or are simply enjoying on minimal contracts, that form of cash is big.
In a really literal sense, the gamers on these smaller contracts misplaced out on some critical money.
Winner: Level Differential
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Victor Wembanyama and Chris PaulBarry Gossage/NBAE through Getty Photos
That is type of a cousin of the final “winner,” however the usage of level differential as a tie-breaker has helped maintain Cup video games aggressive additional into the fourth quarter.
In a single group-play matchup between the Orlando Magic and New York Knicks, it added a completely new layer of curiosity to what would’ve in any other case been a blowout.
The Magic have been at risk of shedding by a gargantuan quantity, however they knew they wanted to maintain it under 37 to advance to the knockout spherical. So, as a substitute of folding, sending everybody to the bench and accepting a doable lack of 40-plus factors, they fought on (and did certainly make the knockout spherical).
Heck, this wrinkle would possibly even make sense outdoors the Cup. The Ringer’s Raheem Palmer defined, whereas providing some options on easy methods to “repair” the NBA:
“Level differential ought to decide residence courtroom benefit, not report,” he wrote. “Additionally residence courtroom within the playoffs will get 5 of the potential 7 video games in a postseason sequence. You wish to take off one night time in December as a result of it would not matter, properly it does now.”
It might be a sensible and not-so-subtle option to enhance the competitiveness in video games all through the season (and outdoors the Cup).
Loser: Pelicans and Pacers
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Tyrese HaliburtonTayfun Cokun/Anadolu through Getty Photos
Nearly a 12 months in the past, a pair of seemingly up-and-coming groups punched their tickets to Las Vegas for the inaugural in-season event semifinals.
The New Orleans Pelicans have been there with Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. The Indiana Pacers rode the recent hand of Tyrese Haliburton all the way in which to the championship sport.
Neither received what’s now referred to as the Cup, however these early runs from New Orleans and Indiana felt like borderline arrivals.
Nicely, each groups at the moment are on their option to the draft lottery (although the East is unhealthy sufficient for the Pacers to get again into the play-in vary). And so they went a mixed 1-7 in Cup video games in 2024-25.
Maybe it is additional proof that virtually anybody can get sizzling on the proper time and earn somewhat extra cash, however younger groups such because the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks are definitely hoping they do not comply with within the Pelicans’ and Pacers’ footsteps.
Talking of which…
Winner: Hawks and Rockets
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Trae YoungerEthan Miller/Getty Photos
The Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets could not win their respective semifinal matchups in opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in Las Vegas, however they’re nonetheless winners for this train.
Each groups rely closely on younger cores that benefited from the expertise of those high-pressure video games.
Houston has Alperen Şengün, Jalen Inexperienced, Jabari Smith Jr., Amen Thompson, Tari Eason, Reed Sheppard and Cam Whitmore (when he is wholesome) in its rotation. All are 23 and beneath.
The Hawks, in the meantime, are enjoying Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, rookie Zaccharie Risacher and Onyeka Okongwu large minutes. They’re all 24 or youthful.
The entire above helped power the league to present them extra nationwide TV publicity. And in the event that they maintain their respective groups on this upward trajectory, they could possibly be a part of the answer to deliver followers again to the league en masse.
Loser: OKC Thunder
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Shai Gilgeous-AlexanderJuan Ocampo/NBAE through Getty Photos
Yeah, it is a little bit of a stretch.
The Thunder made all of it the way in which to the championship sport and completed with a 5-2 report in Cup contests, however they laid an egg on nationwide TV on Tuesday.
OKC and Milwaukee have been the one groups on. They obtained the full-fledged ABC therapy, with loads of promoting and buildup.
And with the Vegas lights shining on them, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 21 factors on 24 pictures. Jalen Williams had 18 factors on 20 pictures. The whole crew shot a woeful 33.7 p.c from the sphere and 15.6 p.c from deep.
They’d virtually as many turnovers (10) as assists (13). And their level whole (81) was 18 shy of their earlier season low.
On the brilliant aspect, the championship sport would not depend towards their report. And so they’ll certainly be within the hunt for the West’s high seed the remainder of this season. However they might not get one other shot at a showcase like this till the playoffs.
Winner: Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks
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Giannis AntetokounmpoLogan Riely/NBAE through Getty Photos
When the Bucks began the season 2-8, NBA fandom’s collective hand was hovering over the panic button.
Now, after capping a 7-0 run by the Cup, the Bucks are 14-11. They annihilated the Thunder. Khris Middleton is slowly working his approach again into the rotation, and Giannis Antetokounmpo has stormed again into MVP conversations.
Giannis had 26 factors, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, three blocks and two steals to assist finish OKC’s Cup desires. And regardless that these numbers will not depend towards his regular-season averages, the impression may final within the minds of followers and media members for months.
And for a crew and gamers with eyes on an even bigger prize, successful this event may generate sufficient confidence to bury that sluggish begin altogether.