The dust has settled, the colored courts have been played upon. With all of the group play completed, the knockout round bracket is set for the 2025 NBA Cup. For the second time in three seasons since the event began, it will feature the Phoenix Suns. They enter as the fourth and final seed in NBA Cup group play. Their reward is a first-round matchup with the team that beat them yesterday. Yes, they will be in Oklahoma City on December 10 at 7:30pm on Amazon.
I talked about why being in the Cup felt less than ideal a couple of days back. The Suns (valiantly) lost to OKC, but seeing as they are in the NBA Cup, they do not get the scheduling perks of the teams that just missed the knockout tournament. They don’t get the Jazz and Clippers like Memphis received, or the Jazz and Nets like Dallas.
Facing the Thunder is not a warm bath. They are tearing through the league with a historic 19-1 start. Only four teams have opened a season like that before them. The 1969-70 Knicks began 19-1 and won the title. The 1990-91 Trail Blazers did the same and made the Western Conference Finals. Houston went 19-1 in 1993-94 and won it all. Golden State rolled out a 20 of 20 start in 2015-16 and made it to a seven-game Finals thriller.
So yeah. Not an ideal matchup. We saw what they can do last night. But the Thunder also witnessed what the Suns can do.
If the Suns lose that first knockout game, they draw the loser of Spurs vs Lakers on the opposite side of the Western bracket, and they’ll be on the road for it. In theory, they could walk out of the NBA Cup with two losses in hand. We will see if any of that carries weight in the postseason conversation later this season.
Ideal or not, the Suns are here. So let’s lean into what makes it worth our time.
A team trying to reshape its identity needs moments that force growth. A tournament like this gives them that. You face elite talent under pressure. You learn how to respond. It sharpens the room. It sharpens the core. It tests belief, effort, structure, and trust. It gives this group something to measure against, and it gives them reason to feel dangerous.
Phoenix was not supposed to be much this season. A good Cup run adds a layer of edge and pride. Iron sharpening iron n’ such. You see what the next rung on the ladder looks like. You start to understand the climb. Confidence grows. Opportunity grows.
The Cup exists to pull eyes early in the league year. This is a stage. And it’s a reminder to the rest of the league that Phoenix is present. The new picture is a team that competes. A team worth attention. A team that plays with purpose, that earns viewership, and one that is fun to watch.
I will set my own leanings aside. I would have preferred a path that banked a couple more wins, something to pad the standings for later. And who knows? Maybe they’ll shock the world. Maybe they get those wins in the NBA Cup. Who cares that they currently have +5500 odds to win it, the longest odds of any of the 8 teams in it? These odds are made by the same people who had the Suns’ line at 30.5 to start the year.
There is another way to view this.
The Suns being in the NBA Cup could mirror what Indiana became two seasons back. That Pacers group was learning to win, a team in the process of fortifying a culture. They were searching for identity and belief. They had talent, they had spark, and the Cup stage helped solidify that belief.
They made it to the final and fell to the Lakers, but it marked a shift for the franchise. A moment they could point to. A place where things began to rise. One year later, they stood in the NBA Finals. Game 7. Trading blows with Oklahoma City. And we will always wonder what might have happened if Tyrese Haliburton’s ACL had held together.
A week remains before the Cup tips. Thoughts will crowd timelines, conversations will spin. Meaning, value, risk, reward. All of it. The Suns are in. Now we find out what they make of it.