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The lawmakers urged Silver to consider Las Vegas’ 20-year partnership with the NBA through hosting the Summer League and NBA Cup championships. “As you consider the future of the NBA, we strongly urge you to build on the League’s local momentum by selecting Las Vegas as a site for a future league franchise,” the letter reads in part.
League sources said some of the proposals being discussed include lottery odds being allocated based on two-year records, flattened and/or frozen by the trade deadline or another in-season date. There is also discussion of extending the lottery to include the eight Play-In Tournament teams. Several other changes are also being considered. Among them: • Limitations on first-round pick protections; • Teams not being allowed to pick in the top four a year after making the conference finals; • Teams being prohibited from selecting in the top four in consecutive years; • Teams being prohibited from selecting in the top four after consecutive bottom-three finishes.
Streaming still cannot yet match the drawing power of linear television. Nine of the ten most-watched NBA game windows this season have not only aired on linear TV, but on over-the-air broadcast television — the five Christmas Day games on ABC (and ESPN), the two Opening Night games on NBC, and the premieres of NBC’s “Sunday Night Basketball” and “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday.” The lone exception was the NBA Cup Final on Prime Video.
Stefan Bondy: Media Day at NBA Cup an influencer put on a Josh Hart jersey asked Josh Hart for a picture. And that was the extent of his question. Another influencer went around asking about Phillip Rivers and another influencer wanted to know about Christmas gifts. This is the NBA’s way now.
NBA Base: Bill Simmons on the state of the NBA and Adam Silver’s leadership: “It’s the first time I’ve really wondered like, do we have the right guy running the league? Because he doesn’t seem interested in actually fixing real problems that everybody can see. And it’s not about like, look at the NBA Cup... Your schedule is too long. You have to fix this.” (Via The Bill Simmons Podcast)
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The most tense flare-up in what team sources otherwise described as a relatively cordial cold war between Jonathan Kuminga and Steve Kerr came on the afternoon of Dec. 10. The Golden State Warriors had been eliminated from the NBA Cup two weeks earlier, giving them a rare break in the schedule. They'd won in Chicago the previous Sunday night and didn't play again until Friday. Kuminga was prepared for the conversation. He knew management wanted to ding him for missing a team-requested event and alert him that someone around him was taking too much food from the family room. The gripes between player and organization, as multiple sources said, had become "petty" in the fifth year of a relationship many believed should've ended years before.
But the Knicks were mauled 114-97 Monday night at Madison Square Garden, extending their losing streak to four. It’s their second four-game skid in their past 11 games. They went 2-9 in those 11 games and are now 7-11 since their NBA Cup triumph. In a season that was set with Finals-or-bust expectations, the Knicks sit just 1 ¹/2 games above the play-in. “We didn’t show up,” Jalen Brunson said. Any idea why? “No,” he responded. It now feels like ages ago that Brown was being praised when his Knicks were firing on all cylinders. The alarm bells around his team keep growing louder, and it was Mavericks coach Jason Kidd — who The Post previously reported the Knicks had strong interest in hiring but were denied permission to interview — who delivered the latest gut punch to Brown’s team.
Ian Begley: Ty Lue credits his players & assistant Jeff Van Gundy for LAC’s improved defense after NBA Cup. Clips have won 8 of 9 & have No. 8 defense in that span. “Over the last 10-12 games, we’ve put ourselves in position to be really good defensively & that’s because of JVG.”
Ian Begley: Lue said Van Gundy, the last coach to lead NYK to a Finals, adjusted Clips’ defense during their days off amid NBA Cup. “JVG, the work he puts in, studying all the different teams, studying the league, how the game is being played and now” was critical, Lue said.
Carton: “They're like, ‘Banner, banner.’ I go, ‘I can guarantee you we are not raising a banner.’ Not that we’re not proud of winning.” Dolan: “Yes. No, we are going to raise a banner.” Carton: “No, you're not.” Dolan: “We're going to raise the NBA Championship. That’s the banner we want to raise.” Carton: “I said for all the accomplishments way back in the day the Knicks had… James Dolan and the New York Knicks are not — as much as it's great to win — and I think what Mike Brown said afterward, which was important: teams have to learn how to win. That was a playoff game. It was a Game 7 atmosphere. Spurs are a really good basketball team. That fourth quarter was awesome. And I'm a fan of the Cup because you get special games like that in the regular season.” Dolan: “Yeah.” Carton: “But I know the NBA wants teams to raise a banner. The Lakers said no for a while. Eventually, they did because LeBron wanted one. Milwaukee said no for a while. Eventually, they did. Was there ever a thought — we're going to raise an Emirates Cup banner at Madison Square Garden?” Dolan: “No.”
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Kris Pursiainen: James Dolan says he never had the thought to raise a banner for the NBA Cup. Says the organization wants an NBA Championship, not “the consolation prize” “We’re proud to have the Emirates Cup, but we want to hang a championship banner”
The Blazers earned one of their most gutsy and impressive wins of the season Saturday night at San Antonio, edging the Spurs 115-110 before 18,652 at Frost Bank Center. Playing the finale of a three-game trip and on the second night of a back-to-back, the Blazers (16-20) started hot, finished clutch and flexed plenty of mettle in between, avenging a painful November loss to the Spurs that prevented them from qualifying for the NBA Cup. “We’re really just sticking together,” Donovan Clingan told reporters after the game. “We’re figuring out what we have to do to win games, what we have to do to play well. And we’re not going off script … we’re listening to coaches. Everyone’s playing for one another and that’s really important.”
Dan Weiss: Keldon Johnson told me earlier tonight that despite not winning the NBA Cup, he did go ahead and purchase the and in his words the llama is “in transit”. No name yet but he’s willing to take fan suggestions.
Kansas coach Bill Self likes the hypothetical of the NBA playing the championship game of its midseason “NBA Cup” tournament in Allen Fieldhouse. The title game is typically played in Las Vegas, and it was no different this season. The New York Knicks defeated San Antonio to win the 2025 title on Dec. 16. League commissioner Adam Silver brought up the idea of playing the title game in “storied college arenas” during an interview with the “NBA on Prime.”