Brooklyn Nets NBA Cup Preview: State of East Group A

The NBA Cup, now sponsored by Emirates and no longer called the In-Season Tournament, is back! 

There was a lot of trepidation about the first edition of the NBA Cup, or the IST as it was then known, but it was largely considered a success. The concept shook up the monotony of the regular season, teams competed hard and games were genuinely entertaining with the intensity of there being real stakes on the line. 

Now, year two is here, and the Brooklyn Nets are back in the tournament. For this season’s NBA Cup, Jordi Fernández’s team is in East Group A. The other four teams in the group are the New York Knicks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Orlando Magic and the Philadelphia 76ers. 

The NBA offered this explanation of how the NBA Cup works:

The Nets tip off their NBA Cup on the road against the New York Knicks on Friday night. However, it’s important to note that group play has already started for all of East A’s other teams. 

The Magic beat the Hornets by 25 points, which puts them in first place of the group, while the Knicks are second with a +12 point difference after defeating the Sixers. Remember, how much you win or lose by also matters in this tournament.

Here’s a look at how the four teams that the Nets will face in this season’s cup are doing: 

The Knicks’ start to the season has been rockier than expected, although it’s far too early to panic. New York is 5-6, but still has to keep bedding in Karl-Anthony Towns and especially former Nets wing Mikal Bridges. 

Towns, although questionable on defense, has been very impressive down the other end. The 7-footer is arguably the best shooting big man ever, and he’s an incredibly talented scorer and playmaker overall. The Knicks dropped their last game, a one-point loss to the Chicago Bulls, but Towns had 46 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals on 18-for-30 shooting from the field.

On the flip side, Bridges’ outings so far have been less encouraging. The Knicks traded five first round picks, Bojan Bogdanovic and other assets for Bridges this summer in a historic, blockbuster deal. It transformed the immediate future of the Nets’ franchise, but also the championship expectations inside the city for the Knicks. 

Through Bridges’ first 11 games in orange and blue, he is shooting a career-low 55.5 TS% and 30.4% from three. Advanced metrics indicate that the Knicks are better right now with Bridges off the court, although it’s hard to visualize the team’s final product coming out of the oven with that still being the case.

The Knicks are 1-0 in the NBA Cup, having defeated the Sixers by 12 points.

New head coach Charles Lee has improved the vibes around the Charlotte Hornets organization, which sorely needed a boost on and off the court after years of malaise.

The Hornets are being led by LaMelo Ball, who is averaging 29.9 points, five rebounds and 6.3 assists per game. He is shooting more than 13 3-pointers a night and making 37.5% of them. Simply put, Ball has been one of the best guards in the NBA. In the fourth quarter, few are as clutch as the mercurial Charlotte point guard.

Brandon Miller has continued to play well in his second NBA season. The former Alabama scorer has improved his playmaking, and he remains a crucial part of the Hornets’ future. At the same time, recently acquired pieces like Tre Mann, Grant Williams or Josh Green — plus this year’s sixth overall pick Tidjane Salaün — give the team an energetic tinge that was missing in years past. 

The Hornets are 0-1 in the NBA Cup, having lost to the Magic by 25 points.

It’s been a rough start to the season for the Phialdelphia 76ers, despite the championship-contending hopes that were fairly being harbored due to the triumvirate of Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George. 

Instead, Embiid has only played one game so far this season. He missed the Sixers’ preseason and first nine regular season games with what the team dubbed “left knee injury management.” Last season, the Cameroon-born American center missed 43 games due to a torn left knee meniscus. He will reportedly wear a knee brace going forward.

George suffered a left knee bone bruise in mid-October, but any fears of a more serious injury were quickly alleviated. He’s back but has only played in five games this season. Maxey is currently out with a right hamstring strain. The next game will mark his fifth straight contest not available due to that injury.

Philadelphia rookie Jared McCain has performed well in Maxey’s absence. The former Duke guard dropped a career-high 34 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, but it’s his recent four-game stretch that has jumped off the page. McCain has averaged 25.5 points in 32.5 minutes, shooting 42.5% from three while putting up ten triples a night. He is also averaging four turnovers to two assists, and reading NBA defenses much better. 

The Sixers are 0-1 in the NBA Cup, having lost to the Knicks by 12 points.

The Orlando Magic are third in the Eastern Conference with a 7-6 record. They have one of the best young cores in the league, but are already a real team to watch out for in the east.

Paolo Banchero and Wendell Carter Jr. are currently out with a torn right oblique and left foot plantar fasciitis, respectively. Banchero suffered the injury on Oct. 30 against the Chicago Bulls, and was averaging a career-high 29 points per game until that. 

His absence, in turn, means that Franz Wagner is the Magic’s main man. The German wing is an excellent playmaker, but this is his chance to be an even more assertive scorer. He is capable of doing so, and the signs so far are great. In Wagner’s last six games, he’s putting up 26.8 points per night to go along with 5.3 assists and rebounds.

Outside of the Magic’s centerpieces, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was the team’s biggest addition this off-season. Tristan da Silva, the rookie drafted eighteenth out of Colorado this past draft, has also been an important part of Orlando’s rotation. Anthony Black, now in his second NBA season, and Georgian center Goga Bitadze have stepped into bigger roles, as well.

The Magic are 1-0 in the NBA Cup, having defeated the Hornets by 25 points.

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