1. There is no competition between NBA Live and NBA 2K. There won't be for 3 years at least. NBA Live has already been K.O.'d
2. The Dev Team won't be scrapped because they were just put together in Fall of Last year. They didn't even get a Full Dev Cycle to make this game. I do agree with you that they may lose their contract if the game doesn't come out. I know the NBA's Director in marketing was disappointed in how things shaped up with Elite 11. It wouldn't be smart for the NBA to only have one license, especially when we don't know 2ksports future with majority of their sport games gone.
Answer to your question: If they started from scratch then that would be like taking off another year. The dev team should have been put together right after NBA ELITE 11 was cancelled. A 3 year process should have been in effect, but that's not the case. Because you have something to work with from NBA Elite, you give yourself time and can maybe salvage what's left of a bad game.