Ranking the Most NBA Cup Teams in the 2025 NBA Cup

The NBA In-Season Tournament, also known as the Emirates NBA Cup, is in its third year since being introduced as an idea to try and incentivize regular-season games to matter more and have eyes on games that look… different (blindingly distracting and hazardous courts and all).

When the NBA tries new ideas to grow the game, essentially the entirety of its success hinges on one simple mantra:

If the players care, the fans will care.

Credit: NBA-Twitter/X

It’s gotten off to generally mixed reviews from the beginning, but has continued to grow and adapt. The negatives have been that there hasn’t really been an established set calendar aside from when the ESPN app will tell you “they’re cup games,” or you see the court, they don’t do nearly enough to promote the group draw and update the standings like a World Cup soccer table, and the Vegas location has been pretty lifeless. The fans also want some sort of stake, and it’s essentially just for pride and a cash prize.

The positives have included that the standings are based on point differential, which means we’ve gotten to see the stars running up on the score because every point matters, and the players have seemingly wanted to invest more in it rather than take it as an All-Star Game-level joke now.

It’s never really actually told us anything about the season, though, is the thing. Often, the response to something that isn’t a championship trophy is “HANG THE BANNER!” for something that’s ultimately inconsequential. It’s really just about who cares the most this time of year, and that shows in the ticket prices — that’s why you need to get your cheap tickets at TicketX!

We’ve had the Lakers beat the Pacers (who finished 8th in the West and lost in the first round), and the Bucks beat the Thunder (who finished 5th in the East and lost in the first round), yet we talked ourselves into this being monumental because it’s just the NBA Cup.

With all of the stereotypes of what we know about the NBA Cup and whether or not it actually matters with these stakes, who fits the mold of the most “NBA Cup” team now that we’re down to the final 8 teams in the knockout round?

Let’s rank them based on narrative and actual odds that we think they’ll care enough to win it.

8) New York Knicks

It doesn’t fit the New York mold for them to try and win an NBA Cup in a city where Madison Square Garden is the mecca and the New York media will crucify them for caring about this banner but not winning an NBA title after back-to-back shortcomings in what’s a paid, win-now team. It’s not as if they don’t have the talent to do it with Jalen Brunson playing at an All-NBA level and manning what’s one of the best offenses in the league, but they’ve been burnt out in regular seasons too often in the Thibs era to go as hard as possible for an NBA Cup.

7) San Antonio Spurs

While they have been able to man down the fort without Wembanyama and have gone 7-2 in that span, the greater concern is just to get the young guys to play well together in his absence.

Wemby wanting to be the man who hoists an NBA Cup title in his quest for legacy would have helped the case, but they’re matched up with the Lakers in round one and are aware there’s a bigger end goal in mind.

6) Los Angeles Lakers

LeBron has already gotten to do the “Play-in tournament champion” added to the resume that will be looked at when we do the “well how many accolades did he have in comparison to Michael Jordan” that many of us will look at for the evergreen debate; coming off of planter fasciitis, it’s unlikely that he’s going exert everything he has into another one as he’s now sort of shifted to a supercharged Andre Iguodala role in year 23. It’s Luka and Austin Reaves running the offense essentially; there’s not much to prove as the Los Angeles Lakers aside from it would be another feather in Luka Doncic’s cap as an MVP candidate and the other guys, the DeAndre Ayton’s, the Jake Laravia’s, and the Rui Hachimura’s of the team are going to be motivated to prove their spots on the team rather than being trade pieces. The Lakers are also going toe-to-toe with the Nuggets as the second-best team in the West, and wouldn’t it be nice to have this tournament as a part of the argument?

5) Toronto Raptors

The Raptors would have 100% been the “NBA Cup Team” stereotype- a team with low expectations coming in that has overperformed, has gotten points off of assists and the midrange, and is winning with good vibes and smart shots as a young team with a new coach and something to prove. Unfortunately, the vibes have fallen off right on time for the NBA Cup, and they’re 1-7 after a 9-game win streak. The momentum has been lost, so the odds of them actually coming through as the team to accomplish the mission have thinned.

4) Orlando Magic

The Magic are in a very odd spot where they’ve suddenly been playing better WITHOUT their #1 overall pick Paolo Banchero, who requires the ball in a different playmaking space than Franz Wagner, who has had the offense humming; it’s not a knock on Paolo as a player as many have been trying to argue, but the fit has had the team’s future in question. That being said, the Magic WERE the “offseason darling” by going all-in and trading for physical sharpshooter Desmond Bane to finally generate some sort of offense, and the belief was that this year they’d take the leap.

After a slow start at the beginning of the year, Bane looks more comfortable, and they’re right back in the thick of things in the East. It’d be fitting for the team that everyone was so high on to start the year, to have this to make their case as a team; that is what we think it could be.

3) Phoenix Suns

Is there anyone who is going to play with more anger and vitriol than the left-for-dead Phoenix Suns after Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal jumped ship from their failed superteam? Dillon Brooks is going to play with the fire of… a thousand suns in the belief that he’s the best player on the court and try to harass everyone at all times.

This is the Phoenix banner that can be hung in light of tearing down an entirely failed operation and being a pleasant surprise.

2) Oklahoma City Thunder

As the reigning champion and starting off at an utterly historic rate, 23-1, where the MVP doesn’t even need to play in the fourth quarter, it’s been effortless. Typically, the defending champion has the “we want to conserve our energy for ACTUAL banners” logic, but this Thunder team is young, motivated, and doesn’t know any better.

Quite frankly, even with that mindset, they still might be better than everyone left in the field. To potentially have a season where they could avenge their NBA cup loss, have the best regular season record in NBA history, and go back-to-back is on this young team’s mind.

1) Miami Heat

Nothing would scream “HEAT CULTURE” than going hard at an unreasonable amount for regular season games than Pat Riley and the Miami Heat, who are more macho and team-built than the rest of us (until the postseason).