To make the early portions of the regular season interesting, the league has added the NBA Cup. Last season saw the inaugural in-season tournament succeed with LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers taking it seriously.
Many wondered how ambitious teams would be for the tournament. The winner received solely monetary gain before they returned to the rest of their regular season schedule.
For the league to see arguably the greatest player ever and their biggest franchise win it the first year must’ve provided a massive boost of confidence. Now it’s about building off that momentum.
This upcoming season hopes to see similar results as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver tries to weave the NBA Cup into the regular season tradition.
Fans have hesitated about the idea, mocking it as a meaningless trophy with no enjoyable rewards. However, as each season passes, the NBA Cup will become the norm for future generations.
To further legitimize the controversial NBA Cup, the Oklahoma City Thunder capturing the December crown can help.
The Thunder will be a title contender for the foreseeable future. The formation of their trio of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams is enough for several deep playoff runs barring health.
If the Thunder are next season’s NBA Cup winner, it could be a symbolic passing of the torch from James to Gilgeous-Alexander as one of the league’s faces.
The league should be excited about the possibility. OKC will be a fixture in the contender scene and pundits could point towards its win of the NBA Cup as a reason for its success later on down the road in the playoffs.
For the Thunder, an NBA Cup could help curry favor for future seasons. They were notably left off the slate for Opening Night and Christmas — the league’s two biggest regular-season days.
Boasting an NBA Cup championship should ensure that doesn’t happen again as long as the Thunder are in this title window. It’d be a beneficial success for both sides which goes beyond the extra cash all 18 Thunder players would receive in this scenario.
Now, with the motivation laid out, how realistic is it for the Thunder to win the 2024 NBA Cup?
They have one of the best odds to win it. That’s also considering the likelihood the Thunder treat the Group B games as the average regular season outing. Even if OKC doesn’t trim its rotation like a playoff contest, the roster is good enough to be a serious threat.
They are the first seed in the West’s Group B. Examing their competition of the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz, OKC should be the favorite to capture first place in group play and advance to the eight-team knockout stage.
The Lakers have already won the tournament, which means a lack of motivation to repeat might exist. James and Anthony Davis will likely pace themselves during the regular season. They won’t go all out for a November or December contest.
The Suns are in a similar situation. Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal hope to cruise through the regular season to be as healthy as possible by the playoffs. They won’t go 100 miles an hour at the start of the season.
The Jazz are in a rebuild. They hope to lose as many games as possible. Expect Utah to be a favorite to land Cooper Flagg in the 2025 NBA draft. This should be an easy win for the Thunder and gives them a chance to boost their point differential.
That leaves the Spurs, who will arguably be the toughest squad to face in group play for the Thunder. Like OKC, San Antonio is young and hungry. Victor Wembanyama will chase after the NBA Cup as an early-career accolade.
A Wembanyama-Holmgren matchup by itself is juicy enough, add in the stakes of the NBA Cup and it should increase those sparks.
Even with that considered, the Thunder are simply better than the Spurs. The latter added some nice veteran pieces but is still far from challenging OKC at the top of the Western Conference.
If the Thunder advance past the group stage, they have as good odds as anybody else to capture the NBA Cup. The league should cross its fingers and hope OKC takes it seriously enough to win.
