The PBA is changing the Governors’ Cup competition format for the upcoming season in an effort to inject some new flavor.

The 12 clubs competing in the Governors’ Cup will be split into two groups and play a double round-robin elimination round within their same bracket, according to Commissioner Willie Marcial during Wednesday’s press briefing.

Under the new structure, each team in the elimination stage will play 10 games as opposed to the customary 11 when single round-robin tournaments are implemented in other conferences.

The Commissioner’s Cup and the Philippine Cup, the last two conferences of the 49th season, would continue to follow the same tournament format, according to Marcial.

Governor’s cup playoff schedule

The top four teams in each group advance to the crossover quarterfinals, where the top team in each group plays the top team in the other group, and the top two teams play the top three teams in the other group. Deputy commissioner Eric Castro disclosed these details on Thursday.

The playoffs will be a little longer because the quarterfinals will now be a best-of-five match rather than the customary best-of-three or twice-to-beat format, and the semifinals and finals will now be a best-of-seven match.

The teams that each team will play for have not yet been assigned to groups.

“The Board will announce after the planning session”. Castro remarked to the league’s annual meeting that takes place in advance of the 49th season.

PBA board desires a ‘new look’

In previous Governors’ Cup competitions, all teams competed in a single round-robin, with the top four teams receiving a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals, a best-of-five semifinal, and a best-of-seven championship game.

Castro stated that the elimination phase would consist of 60 games in total. The Governors’ Cup has had 66 matches in the past.

According to Marcial, the PBA leadership wanted to make improvements to the league to make it better and more thrilling for its 50th anniversary, which is why they came up with the current model.

On the other hand, at least in its current form, a proposed deal between Blackwater and TNT Tropang Giga is likely to encounter difficulties in the PBA Commissioner’s Office.

TNT team manager Jojo Lastimosa, who added that it was “pending the approval of the PBA”, confirmed the trade agreement between the two ball clubs.

Normally, the PBA Commissioner’s Office posts notices on its website about the approval of trades and other official transactions, but at the conclusion of business hours on Thursday, there were none.

Insiders revealed that the league’s trade committee, which is made up of legal counsel Melvin Mendoza and deputy commissioner Eric Castro, is unlikely to approve the trade proposal in its current form.

That does not imply that the deal is finalized. It probably indicates that in order to acquire Nambatac, a legitimate scorer for Rain or Shine and Blackwater, Tropang Giga will need to make a stronger trade offer.

TNT will need to give up more players and/or draft picks than the Montalbo-draft pick combination if it is determined to acquire Nambatac.

Nambatac is more significant

In 11 games with the Bossing after being acquired in a February trade from Rain or Shine in return for a first-round pick that had previously belonged to TNT, Nambatac averaged 11.09 points, 4.36 assists, and 2.36 rebounds.

Nambatac is viewed as a considerably greater asset than Montalbo, who averaged just 4.3 points in his four seasons with TNT, despite the fact that he only made 36% of his shots, including a scorching 26% from three-point range.