Former Notre Dame guard [autotag]Blake Wesley[/autotag] had a couple of opportunities to prove himself with the San Antonio Spurs this past week. After not playing in a Dec. 8 win against the New Orleans Pelicans, he scored eight points and tied his season high with eight assists Dec. 13 to help beat the Portland Trail Blazers. Four points and five assists while losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 15 meant averaging 6.0 points and 6.5 assists for the week.
With the Milwaukee Bucks winning a couple of games to advance to the NBA Cup final, Doc Rivers opted to leave [autotag]Pat Connaughton[/autotag] on the bench the entire week. While it’s hard to tell what will happen when the Bucks battle the Oklahoma City Thunder for the title Dec. 17, this past week suggests Connaughton won’t play in that game either unless it’s a blowout and Rivers empties his bench. It’s tough to see Connaughton drop out of the Bucks’ rotation, but that’s the life of an NBA player, especially as one gets older.
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The conversation about ratings is so pointless now.
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had a fantastic week and are in for an even better weekend.
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing through the last 24 hours about the NBA Cup. Specifically on the subject of who’s — or, I guess, who’s not — watching it.
A report from Nielsen on Thursday revealed that viewership for the league’s new tournament is down by 10 percent year-over-year. Group play in the tournament averaged 1.5 million viewers on TNT for the eight games it hosted and 1.16 million viewers on ESPN for the six games it hosted.
This season group play is averaging 1.33 million viewers on ESPN and TNT, according to the report, which is an ever-so-slight dip in viewership.
Of course, there’s been a bunch of hemming and hawing on social media about whether this means the NBA is dead. People have dropped all these theories about why this slight dip is occurring. Some people think it’s all the 3-pointers. Some people (that I won’t be linking to here) think the league is too “woke,” or whatever. Some are blaming load management.
What I’m here to tell you is this: I could care less about any of this. And you should probably care a lot less, too.
I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “Sykes, ratings are dropping! That’s not good, buddy!” And I get it. Under certain circumstances, that’d be correct.
But none of this stuff actually matters. Not anymore, anyway.
It’d be one thing if the NBA was in the middle of a difficult broadcast deal negotiation, but the time for ratings conversations has passed, folks. The league signed a $76 billion TV deal incorporating three different networks (technically four with TNT licensing Inside the NBA) and two different streaming services. That deal wouldn’t have happened if the ratings dips were that bad of a sign. But it did. You’ll be watching the NBA on Prime and Peacock next year.
The only reason TV ratings exist is for proof of concept. Networks want to know what people are watching to know what to pour their money into. Advertisers want to know where they should be placing their ads. Despite all the doom and gloom, the NBA’s ratings aren’t bad enough to dissuade either of those entities from working with the league moving forward.
The ratings ignore that the NBA is a huge global product and don’t accurately measure the league’s impact in social spheres. It might not be the biggest hit on TV, but it’s clear that the league certainly doesn’t lack fans when you look at the social numbers. That’s something advertisers and networks are interested in, too.
Ratings are a small piece part of a much larger puzzle. Making doomsday judgments off of them is extremely reductive in 2024. Making them the center of the conversation when it comes to the league is the wrong way to go about it.
So let’s all be better about this moving forward, shall we? No more ratings talk. At least not until it’s time to discuss the next TV deal.
Bronny understands it now?
John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
Bronny James played his first game on the road with the South Bay Lakers on Thursday and it might have been his best game ever on any level of basketball.
He dropped 30 points on 23 shots while shooting 3-of-9 from 3-point range. He showed his chops as a shot creator that, quite frankly, nobody knew he had.
“Bronny had 14 possessions for South Bay in that game as the pick-and-roll ball handler and 6 more one-on-one against his defender in isolation, via Synergy. For comparison, he had just 19 possessions as the PnR ball handler and 9 in iso during his 25 games at USC.
South Bay put the ball in his hands and he made the most of the opportunity. Is that sustainable? That much is unclear, but any prediction between unlikely and cautiously optimistic is fair.
For his growth potential, however, these reps are invaluable and could go a long way to increase the likelihood of his longevity in the NBA.”
We’ll see how he carries this forward with him. Personally, I’m not sure this is much more than a blip on the radar, considering he’s never done anything like this before. But we’ll see!
HoopsHype breaks down how the NBA can make the NBA Cup a better tournament with multiple exciting and intriguing proposals.
Early returns on the NBA Cup, originally known as the In-Season Tournament, have been mixed. Some fans have seen it as a breath of fresh air while others see it as superfluous at best, and tedious at worst. The crazy court designs for NBA Cup games have likewise been divisive.
On our end, we commend the NBA for pushing the envelope and trying something new when they had no reason to do so besides to try and find another way to entertain basketball fans.
However…
We think there are things they could do differently to make the NBA Cup more interesting.
Below, we break down our proposal to make the NBA Cup a better, more exciting event.
Atlanta Hawks superstar point guard Trae Young embraced his villain side on Wednesday night after his team eliminated the New York Knicks from the 2024 NBA Cup.
Atlanta’s 108-100 quarterfinals win at Madison Square Garden sends the team to Las Vegas to face the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday afternoon in the NBA Cup semifinals.
As the clock ticked down on the Hawks’ road tournament win, Young decided to get a little Vegas-style trolling in and pretended to roll the dice on the New York midcourt logo.
It’s a harmless bit of mischief on Young’s part, just enough to get Knicks fans temporarily riled up and the rest of us laughing. We love this side of Young’s personality, and the NBA is better when he’s in villain mode.
What is it about Trae Young that New Yorkers despise so much?
One of the greatest rivalries in basketball over the past few years is between the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young.
If you are wondering how this all started, it all began during the 2021 NBA postseason. It was the first time that Young made the playoffs during his pro career and the first game of the series was at Madison Square Garden.
Young played extraordinarily well, scoring 32 points and recording 10 assists. At one point late during the game, Young took a bow after a go-ahead basket. He also silenced the crowd, gesturing his finger toward his mouth.
The Hawks went on to win the series as the guard averaged 29.2 points per game during the elimination.
Ever since that incident, though, the crowd has not exactly given him the warmest reception in New York. In fact, even during games not against the Hawks, crowds have still chanted all sorts of crazy things at Young in viral videos.
While he missed the next game Atlanta played at Madison Square Garden, his return to New York resulted in 45 points. He said it wasn’t even that loud at the arena.
The following match, Young then appeared wearing shoes that said “King of Broadway” but lost the game. This only added more fuel to the fire for fans.
New York and Atlanta will have another chance to ignite the rivalry when the Knicks and Hawks play in the NBA Cup on Wednesday night.
The common refrain was that many casual league observers didn’t start paying attention to it until after the All-Star Break in late February. That’s because many NBA teams and stars don’t take the early portions of the season all that seriously themselves. You should compare November to April basketball yourself someday soon when you get the time. The difference is night and day.
So, here’s a tournament like the NBA Cup with fancy, temporary courts and gaudy jerseys designed to add an extra competitive edge to the part of the year when many squads are still clearly easing their way into the action.
Sounds simple and straightforward, right?
As we enter the knockout rounds of the 2024 NBA Cup, Silver and his cronies failed to account for a significant loophole in the proceedings. As it stands, the 22 NBA teams who don’t qualify for the knockout rounds essentially get almost a week off, just about six weeks into the regular season.
In effect, this schedule loophole directly contradicts what the NBA Cup was trying to prevent.
Look at the below schedule. The next non-NBA Cup game isn’t until Thursday, December 12! The overwhelming majority of the league already eliminated from this year’s Cup play is getting three, four, or even five days off right before the holiday season. And because the NBA is trying to center the remaining Cup teams with a bigger spotlight, it can’t meaningfully shift around the schedule to mitigate this gap. It doesn’t want non-Cup teams playing when the quarterfinals are happening.
We cannot underestimate how valuable this is to NBA players who play games every other night, play back-to-backs, and travel cross-country all the time.
None of them were born yesterday because they can see how the schedule shakes out in advance:
This isn’t to say that NBA teams want to deliberately miss their chances at winning the Cup. I’m sure some measure of the cash prize motivates many squads, especially those with younger players who have yet to earn lucrative contracts. They’re not going to stop trying altogether.
But put yourself in the shoes of a head coach or superstar for a second.
If it’s mid-November and your team is nursing some light injuries before an NBA Cup group stage matchup, are you really gonna go all out there when you’re trying to play the long game and compete in the spring for the Larry O’Brien Trophy?
If it’s mid-November and your thin-depth hopeful title contender team (like, say, the Denver Nuggets) is trying to get off to a good start by playing everyone heavy early-season minutes, maybe you look at the NBA Cup schedule and realize you get a built-in break that makes that bold, development plan easier to institute if you miss out on the knockout rounds.
If you’re a reigning champion like the Boston Celtics, why not get more rest now as you plan to play two extra months of basketball later this season? There are bigger fish to fry.
If you’re a veteran team with older stars like the Los Angeles Lakers or Phoenix Suns, wouldn’t you want a week of rest instead? Remember that if you go all the way, you’re also playing an extra 83rd regular-season game, which doesn’t count in the standings, either.
Oof.
Perhaps I’m being too cynical. Maybe NBA players care a lot more about the NBA Cup than I realize. I’m willing to hear arguments to the contrary.
But I’ve seen enough patterns from league organizations already to suggest they understand there aren’t any real consequences for failing to advance to the knockout rounds. (Not that there should be; that would be silly, too.) If anything, they know that if they fall short of the Cup early, they get a massive benefit of rest that is extremely rare within the context of the entire season.
This Cup schedule gap is something the NBA will, unfortunately, never be able to account for. I don’t think players and coaches want the league to figure it out, either.
As we prepare for the final day of group play in the NBA Cup, only three teams have punched a ticket to the next round and five spots remain.
We know the Hawks (shockingly!), Rockets, and Warriors will all advance to the knockout phase of the tournament. But three of the other groups yet to have a winner while both the West and East wild card spots are still open as well.
Each group winner moves on to the next round, and one wild card from each conference advances as well.
With some very important games left on the last day of group play in the second year of this experiment by the league, here is how it all looks to play out:
East: Group A
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Orlando Magic
3
0
60
Alive
New York Knicks
3
0
15
Alive
Philadelphia 76ers
1
2
-9
Out
Brooklyn Nets
1
3
-39
Out
Charlotte Hornets
0
3
-27
Out
Orlando and New York play each other at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. The winner will advance out of Group A. Orlando would likely advance through the wild card with a loss, though New York would hav a much tougher chance due to their point differential.
IMPORTANT GAME: Magic @ Knicks (7:30 p.m. ET on TNT)
East: Group B
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Milwaukee Bucks
3
0
29
Alive
Detroit Pistons
3
0
28
Alive
Miami Heat
2
2
20
Out
Toronto Raptors
0
3
-28
Out
Indiana Pacers
0
3
-49
Out
Milwaukee and Detroit play each other on Tuesday night, and the winner will officially take Group B. Both are still alive as potential wild cards with a loss, too, but need a better overall point differential than the Celtics and the loser of New York and Orlando.
IMPORTANT GAME: Bucks @ Pistons (7:00 p.m. ET)
East: Group C
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Atlanta Hawks
3
1
15
Clinched Group
Boston Celtics
3
1
23
Alive
Chicago Bulls
2
2
6
Out
Cleveland Cavaliers
1
2
-1
Out
Washington Wizards
0
3
-43
Out
Atlanta has already won this group and with the exception of the Celtics, every other team is eliminated. Boston could come out in the wild card spot, but it will depend on point differential.
IMPORTANT GAME: N/A
East: Wild Card
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Orlando Magic
3
0
60
Alive
Milwaukee Bucks
3
0
29
Alive
Detroit Pistons
3
0
28
Alive
New York Knicks
3
0
15
Alive
Boston Celtics
3
1
23
Alive
Orlando or New York will advance out of group play, and so will either Detroit and Milwaukee. Between the losers of those games, and the Celtics, the team with the best point differential of that bunch will earn the wild card.
IMPORTANT GAME(S): Bucks @ Pistons (7:00 p.m. ET), Magic @ Knicks (7:30 p.m. ET on TNT)
West: Group A
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Houston Rockets
3
0
49
Clinched Group
Portland Trail Blazers
2
1
-5
Alive
Minnesota Timberwolves
2
2
-13
Out
L.A. Clippers
1
2
-6
Alive
Sacramento Kings
0
3
-25
Out
Houston has already won this group, but Portland and L.A. are both potentially able to advance via the wild card based on how their game goes at the Intuit Dome on Tuesday.
IMPORTANT GAME: Trail Blazers @ Clippers (10:30 p.m. ET)
West: Group B
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
San Antonio Spurs
2
1
14
Alive
Oklahoma City Thunder
2
1
18
Alive
Phoenix Suns
2
1
19
Alive
Los Angeles Lakers
2
2
-24
Out
Utah Jazz
0
3
-27
Out
This is arguably the most fun group left because three teams all have a chance to win the group and the two that do not can still advance via wild card seeding.
IMPORTANT GAME(S): Jazz @ Thunder (8:00 p.m. ET), Spurs @ Suns (9:00 p.m. ET)
West: Group C
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Golden State Warriors
3
0
12
Clinched Group
Dallas Mavericks
2
1
41
Alive
Denver Nuggets
1
2
2
Alive
Memphis Grizzlies
1
2
-6
Alive
New Orleans Pelicans
1
3
-49
Out
Golden State has already won this group, but three other teams still have a real chance to advance based on the remaining games. The other games give the remaining teams a chance in the wild card, though.
IMPORTANT GAME(S): Grizzlies @ Mavericks (8:30 p.m. ET), Warriors @ Nuggets (10:00 p.m. ET on TNT)
West: Wild Card
TEAM
WINS
LOSSES
DIFFERENTIAL
IN/OUT
Dallas Mavericks
2
1
41
Alive
Phoenix Suns
2
1
19
Alive
Oklahoma City Thunder
2
1
18
Alive
San Antonio Spurs
2
1
14
Alive
Portland Trail Blazers
2
1
-5
Alive
Denver Nuggets
1
2
2
Alive
Memphis Grizzlies
1
2
-6
Alive
L.A. Clippers
1
2
-6
Alive
One of the teams from Group B (San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Phoenix) will not need a wild card berth but instead advance from winning their group. Otherwise, while Dallas has the best chance of any team to win the wild card, there are plenty of other teams statistically still able to clinch a spot into the knockout rounds.
IMPORTANT GAME(S): Jazz @ Thunder (8:00 p.m. ET), Grizzlies @ Mavericks (8:30 p.m. ET), Spurs @ Suns (9:00 p.m. ET), Warriors @ Nuggets (10:00 p.m. ET on TNT), Trail Blazers @ Clippers (10:30 p.m. ET)
Former Vol Dalton Knecht scores 14 points in second NBA start.
Los Angeles (8-4) defeated San Antonio (6-7), 120-115, Friday in the second annual NBA Cup at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Former Tennessee basketball player Dalton Knecht made his second start for the Lakers. He totaled 14 points and three rebounds in 26 minutes against the Spurs.
Knecht converted 6-of-11 field goal attempts and 2-of-4 three-point attempts.
He was selected in the first-round of the 2024 NBA draft (No. 17 overall) by Los Angeles.
Knecht, a transfer from Northern Colorado, played for the Vols during the 2023-24 season under coach Rick Barnes. During his one season at Tennessee, he averaged 21.7 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.
He led the Vols to a SEC regular-season championship and an appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history.
Knecht was the 2024 SEC Player and SEC Newcomer of the Year. He was a consensus All-America standout and earned the Julius Erving Award.
Golden State Warriors superstar guard Steph Curry played against his former teammate Klay Thompson for the first time on Tuesday night, which is still such a strange thing to type.
The revered “Splash Brothers” won four NBA titles together in Golden State and will go down in history as one of the great duos on the basketball court.
However, Tuesday night’s NBA Cup game found Curry and the Warriors playing against Thompson and his new team, the Dallas Mavericks.
Very early in the contest, Curry actually hit a nice 3-point shot right over Thompson, which you really must see to believe given how weird it is.
This is going to take some getting used to; that’s for sure.
These 2024 NBA Cup basketballs are pretty awesome.
The 2024 NBA Cup kicks off on Tuesday night, pitting all 30 of the league’s teams against each other for the in-season championship.
This year’s NBA Cup will be utilizing a customized basketball for those in competition, just in case you’re watching and you notice the design on the basketball looks different than it usually does.
The design on the basketball shows the tournament bracket and the trophy, which is a neat twist for this year’s competition.
Be sure to check out the latest run of the NBA Cup to see these customized basketballs in action. They’re pretty sharp if you ask us.
