The NBA will begin the second year of its in-season tournament, now branded the Emirates Cup, Tuesday night across the league.
The Milwaukee Bucks begin pool play by hosting the Toronto Raptors at 7 p.m., and fans will be reminded of the added significance to the regular-season game by a fully painted court that will feature different shades of blue, along with the Cup trophy.
Bucks head coach Doc Rivers was part of the ESPN broadcast teams for the Cup semifinals last season, of which the Bucks were a part under former head coach Adrian Griffin.
The Bucks were the tournament’s top seed, going 5-0 in group and quarterfinal play. But, Milwaukee lost to Indiana, and there were on-record stress fractures from the team about its organization and preparedness.
Ironically, Rivers replaced Griffin as the Bucks head coach a little over a month later.
“I was very skeptical when they brought it in,” Rivers recalled. “I was on the board when they first started talking about it. I was in favor of it, even though I was still skeptical ‘cause I just thought change is good. What the hell? Do it. See how it works out. I liked it. I thought it absolutely brought interest into our league in the middle of football. People talked about it. Maybe because it was the first, I don’t know that yet. I thought there were teams that attacked it. And I thought there were teams that just kind of played in it. I think more teams will attack it this year and want to win it.”
Last year, the Bucks treated the in-season tournament games seriously – Khris Middleton played in one in Charlotte and not the next night in Dallas – and the players spoke about how the cash prize was motivating not just for them as individuals, but for the assistant coaches and lower-paid members of the team.
While Rivers still isn’t a fan of the league’s emphasis on the Cup trophy and banner raising – the Los Angeles Lakers did in fact hang a banner alongside its 14 championships – he acknowledged there can be something to a team making a run at the Cup title.
Especially for his team, which is now one of the worst in the league as they enter pool play Tuesday night against the Raptors.
“Yeah, I mean, all of a sudden you’re (2-8) and the next thing you know you win the Cup – what does that say? It says something to your team,” Rivers acknowledged. “I think you’ll see every team, no matter what their record is though, I think people will take it way more serious. First of all, I think they understand it now. I mean, I did a lot of interviews and I was interviewing guys in Vegas who made and didn’t understand it. They didn’t know how they got there. But now I think everybody kind of understands it. I think the league will keep tweaking it to make it even better.”
Coaches can point to the Pacers, who eventually lost to Darvin Ham’s Lakers in the Cup final, as a team that benefited from the run. They took the nation by storm with their swagger (Tyrese Haliburton pantomimed Damian Lillard’s “Dame Time” watch-tap celebration after hitting a big shot vs. the Bucks) and their romp to the Cup final.
Months later, they were playing the Boston Celtics for the right to go to the NBA Finals.
“If you talk to Rick Carlisle, he said that he doesn’t know if that would’ve happened if they didn’t have the in-season tournament,” Rivers said. “That experience, and being on stage in a big game – and they laid an egg in that game – taught them a life lesson. You can’t teach that to a team. You can’t go through that and they went through that. I think if you’re all the other teams, you saw that. And that team made it to the Eastern finals.”
The core of the Bucks team does have a Finals ring, but the majority of the team does not know what that experience is like. And without Middleton and starting shooting guard Gary Trent Jr. (back spasms), they are struggling to win games – so a second trip to Las Vegas might mean something.
But, they have to get there first.
“I, you know, at this point, I’ll probably treat it the same way honestly,” Bucks center Brook Lopez said. “I don’t know what copy they have for us – I don’t think we have any in the locker…”
He laughed.
“…This is probably the wrong thing but I’m sure it’s the same for a lot of us in the locker room honestly. It’s another game for us. We just look at the one in front of us. That’s all we’re preparing for. It would be the same way if we were 8-2 or whatever our record is now. Whatever the game is in front of us we just gotta take care of business there.”
What is the Emirates Cup?
Created last year by the league and called the “In-Season Tournament,” it was designed to create more interest in regular-season games and give the league’s stars reason to play more games. The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural tournament by defeating Indiana under now-Bucks assistant coach Darvin Ham.
What is the cash prize for the Emirates Cup?
All players on the winning Cup team will receive $514,970 while players on two-way contracts receive half that. The runner-up team earns $205,988 per player while semi-finalists get $102,994 and quarterfinalists earn $51,497.
Head coaches receive the same amount as the players do and assistant coaches get 75% of the head coach’s total.
What group are the Bucks in?
The Bucks are in East Group B with Indiana, Miami, Detroit and Toronto. Last year the Bucks went undefeated in group play and earned an extra home game in the quarterfinals.
Group play games will take place on Tuesdays and Fridays from Nov. 12 through Dec. 3 and they will be the only games scheduled. All of the games will be broadcast nationally on TNT and ESPN (combined 14 games) and NBA TV (three).
Are there different courts and jerseys for the Cup games?
Yes. Just like last year, each team will have more team-specific, fully-painted courts and will contrast with the home team’s Statement Edition uniforms.
What is the Bucks’ Cup schedule?Nov. 12: Bucks vs. RaptorsNov. 22: Bucks vs. PacersNov. 26: Bucks at HeatDec. 3: Bucks at Pistons
The top two teams from the six groups, along with two wild cards, advance to the quarterfinals in home markets on Dec. 10 and 11.
This story has been updated to include new information.