NBA Executive on if the NBA Cup will exit Las Vegas, future of the All-Star weekend and more
What happens in Vegas might not actually stay in Vegas.
Evan Wasch, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball strategy, lauded the city as a “fantastic home” for the semifinals and championship games of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season tournament last year. He also expressed gratitude for T-Mobile Arena hosting the Emirates NBA Cup semifinal games on Saturday (Atlanta-Milwaukee, 4:30 pm ET; Houston-Oklahoma City, 8:30 pm ET) and the subsequent championship game (Tuesday, 8:30 pm ET).
In a Zoom call with various international outlets on Thursday, however, Wasch said that “we’re not committed to Las Vegas beyond this season.”
“We’re very open to all sorts of different formats for the future,” Wasch said. “That could mean taking the tournament on the road. It could mean taking it to different markets in the U.S. It could mean exploring international markets. It could mean, for example, having the semifinals in home markets like we have for the quarterfinals to build into the local fandom and exciting arena atmospheres. I would say everything is on the table for the future.”
Las Vegas has become an NBA hub in recent years. It has become the primary host site for NBA Summer League at Thomas & Mack Center (since 2007) and at Cox Pavilion (2004). It has hosted various NBA and Team USA exhibition games. It has remained a tourist magnet for the city’s nightlife and casinos as well as its proximity to other NBA markets. Though the NBA has not outlined a timeline on potential expansion, it is strongly expected that Las Vegas will have an NBA team at some point.
Nonetheless, the NBA has prided itself on staying innovative and flexible with both maintaining and creating tentpole events.
“Las Vegas has been a fantastic home,” Wasch said. “It was a fantastic home for the Cup last year. We’re excited for what’s on tap for this year. But we’re also hoping to think about this differently going forward.”
Despite his openness toward the NBA Cup taking place in international markets, Wasch expressed logistical concerns with that arrangement. Since the NBA Cup games have not prolonged the league’s 82-game season, such a setup could create a scheduling crunch for needed travel and recovery days.
“To send teams around the world across many time zones and long distances, it increases the wear and tear on players,” Wasch said. “When we send teams internationally, we build in more time around the schedule. There might be challenges with moving it too far away unless we were going to more fundamentally rethink the overall calendar, which we certainly can do as well. I would say everything is on the table going forward.”
Below are some other takeaways that Wasch shared on the conference call, which included Sportskeeda.
How does NBA Cup viewership compare to last season?
The NBA won’t know the definitive answer until after the semifinals and championship game. As of Thursday morning, Wasch said “we don’t have data yet for the quarterfinal games” that included the Milwaukee-Orlando, Oklahoma City-Dallas, Atlanta-New York and Houston-Golden State games. But Wasch conceded the NBA Cup ratings are “slightly down from last year” during the NBA’s inaugural In-Season tournament.
“Part of it was some of the injury issues and player absences and some blowouts,” Wasch said. “There’s always going to be noise in that. But we’re still seeing really strong performance for those games, especially when looked at compared to other non-Cup games this season.”
Case in point, Wasch noted the 14 Group Play games drew “seven percent higher on average than non-Group Play games.” TNT (Hawks-Bucks) and ABC (Rockets-Thunder, championship game) may experience rating dips after the Los Angeles Lakers last season’s inaugural In-Season tournament. Nonetheless, Wasch said this year’s tournament is a “fantastic opportunity to showcase those players and teams on this national stage” among the league’s smaller-market teams.
What do teams think of the NBA Cup Courts?
The commentary both reflected Steve Kerr’s wry sense of humor and the Warriors coach’s frustration with the Houston Rockets’ blood red playing surface during Wednesday’s quarterfinals game.
“I told one of the coaches that it felt like I was descending into the depths of hell,” Kerr told reporters. “Deep red hue on the floor, it’s a little disconcerting. I thought I had been better in my life. I didn’t think I deserved that fate.”
The NBA has featured elaborate court designs in hopes of distinguishing Cup games from other regular-season games, including the NBA Cup trophy, team logos and sponsorship signage. It also has featured fully painted courts to match the team’s colors, a visually pleasing site for some and an eye sore for others.
“Does that come with downsides around the starkness and vibrancy of maybe some of the bright reds, for example? Absolutely,” Wasch said. “That’s one of the things we heard last year -- that we went a little far with some of the color palettes. I personally think this year’s versions have muted that a bit. So even the ones in the red, especially around the baskets, are a little bit in the darker parts of the color spectrum and a little bit easier on the eyes. But overall, it's been really successful.”
Don’t expect the NBA Cup to expand games
Wasch strongly dismissed any notion that the NBA Cup contributed to the various injuries among star players. Some took place before the NBA Cup began. Beyond the championship game, the NBA Cup does not prolong the league’s 82-game regular season.
Nonetheless, Wasch expressed skepticism that the NBA would expand Group Stage play beyond four games.
“By definition, the intensity of each game is lower,” Wasch said. “When you have a four-game group stage, it’s almost like a knockout. One loss makes it very hard to advance. Two losses make it effectively impossible to advance. So we think there is value with having that limited set of [group play] games as well.”
What will NBA All-Star weekend look like?
Wasch generally confirmed reports that the NBA will tweak the league’s All-Star game, which takes place on Feb. 16 in San Francisco. He added, “we’ll be excited to announce some changes shortly.”
Wasch didn’t specify what exactly that will entail, but numerous reports said the NBA has considered changing the All-Star game format to a four-team mini-tournament that also includes the winner of the Rising Stars game.
In 2018, the NBA allowed the league’s two leading vote-getters to serve as captains and draft players regardless of conference affiliation. In 2020, the NBA added the “Elam Ending,” which required teams to reach a target score. But the NBA and its players received criticism for the poor effort shown in the past two All-Star games. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke in an annoyed tone last year when he congratulated the Eastern Conference All-Stars for their 211-186 win over the West and becoming the first team in NBA All-Star game history to score over 200 points.
“It’s no secret that the last two years the competition has been quite a disappointment,” Wasch said. “Adam Silver has talked a lot about that. So we’ve gone back to the drawing board and have spent a lot of time with different stakeholders this offseason and early this season on other ways we can think about All-Star.”
Mark Medina is an NBA insider for Sportskeeda. Follow him on X, Blue Sky, Instagram, Facebook and Threads.