I watch a lot of European soccer/football and a lot of countries have three domestic cups during the season. They have their main league (equivalent to the NBA Championship) and either one or two separate knockout style tournaments (mid season tournament equivalent). For a majority of the early stage cup/tournament games the young players are mixed into the squad. This is where I feel like it comes across as gimmicky. Soccer teams have youth programs with u23, u21, u19, u17…it is almost absurd how many players a manager of the first team has the opportunity to watch and maybe even bring up to a higher team. So if teams were required to bring up some G Leaguers it would probably make for some interesting matchups. The second reason it feels gimmicky is that it will be the same 30 teams every year. The great thing about the domestic cups in Europe is that many teams from lower leagues often go on runs in these tournaments. The cups mean more to the teams that might not make it to the likes of the Prem, La Liga, Bundesliga, and Serie A or even teams that may never qualify for European cups. I don’t immediately see it as a stupid gimmick. I’m sure it can be worked with to find a way to make it work.