Money remains a big motivating factor for the league's in-season tournament.
The jury is still out on the Emirates NBA Cup.
The in-season tournament format was meant to inject more life into regular-season contests, adding stakes ahead of the NBA postseason that simply didn’t exist to this magnitude before.
NBA Cup play still has its detractors. Chiefly, fans who belittle the accomplishment of winning the NBA Cup because, to them, the NBA Cup “doesn’t matter” compared to an NBA championship.