Groups Set For 2025 NBA Cup
The NBA has officially announced the six groups of five teams apiece for the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup, also known as the in-season tournament (Twitter link).
In order to set the groups, the league splits the Western and Eastern Conferences into five three-team tiers based on last season’s regular season standings, with one club from each tier randomly drawn into each of the conference’s three groups.
For instance, the top three teams from the West will all be in separate groups, with each of those three groups also featuring one team in the 4-6 range, one in the 7-9 range, and so on.
Here are the groups for the 2025 NBA Cup:
- West Group A: Oklahoma City Thunder (1), Minnesota Timberwolves (6), Sacramento Kings (9), Phoenix Suns (11), Utah Jazz (15)
- West Group B: Los Angeles Lakers (3), Los Angeles Clippers (5), Memphis Grizzlies (8), Dallas Mavericks (10), New Orleans Pelicans (14)
- West Group C: Houston Rockets (2), Denver Nuggets (4), Golden State Warriors (7), Portland Trail Blazers (12), San Antonio Spurs (13)
- East Group A: Cleveland Cavaliers (1), Indiana Pacers (4), Atlanta Hawks (8), Toronto Raptors (11), Washington Wizards (15)
- East Group B: Boston Celtics (2), Detroit Pistons (6), Orlando Magic (7), Brooklyn Nets (12), Philadelphia 76ers (13)
- East Group C: New York Knicks (3), Milwaukee Bucks (5), Chicago Bulls (9), Miami Heat (10), Charlotte Hornets (14)
The round-robin group play games will be starting a little earlier than usual this season and will run from October 31 to November 28. Each team will face the other four clubs in its group once, with the winners of each group and one wild card team from each conference advancing to the eight-team, single-elimination knockout round.
The full schedule of group play games can be viewed right here.
The quarterfinals will be played on December 9-10, with the semifinals and final to follow on Dec. 13 and Dec. 16, respectively, in Las Vegas. The knockout round games will all be aired by one of the NBA’s new broadcasting partners, Amazon Prime.
The Bucks won last season’s NBA Cup, with star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo earning MVP honors after leading Milwaukee to a victory over the Thunder in the championship game.
Nuggets Sign Bruce Brown To One-Year Deal
July 9: Brown has officially signed with the Nuggets, according to a press release from the team.
June 30: The Nuggets have agreed to a deal to bring Bruce Brown back to Denver on a one-year deal, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link).
Sam Amick of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that the deal will be worth the veteran’s minimum.
Since leaving the Nuggets as a free agent in 2023, Brown has spent time with the Pacers, Raptors, and Pelicans. He averaged 8.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game in 2024/25 over 41 games split between Toronto and New Orleans before being held out of action down the stretch with a right knee injury.
The versatile 6’4″ wing spent time with the Pistons and Nets before his first stint in Denver, which culminated in him playing a key role off the bench for the championship team in 2022/23. After averaging 12 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 1.1 steals per game in the playoffs that year, Brown left the team for a two-year, $45MM offer from the Pacers that Denver didn’t have the ability to match.
Brown now returns to a Denver team that is making aggressive moves to position itself for another title run, including trading longtime starter Michael Porter Jr. and a first-round pick for Cameron Johnson.
James Borrego To Remain Pelicans’ Top Assistant
Pelicans associate head coach James Borrego will remain in his current position on Willie Green‘s staff, Ian Begley of SNY TV tweets.
One of the finalists for the head coaching job in New York, Borrego was rumored to be a prime target for the Knicks as they seek an associate head coach under new head coach Mike Brown. He was also targeted by the Nuggets to be their lead assistant under David Adelman but the Pelicans denied Denver’s front office permission to interview him.
The 47-year-old Borrego has served as associate head coach under Green in New Orleans for the past two seasons. He has previous head coaching experience, compiling a 138-163 record in four seasons with the Hornets.
Borrego has worked in the league since 2010, spending time as an assistant coach with the Hornets, Magic and Spurs before getting the head coaching opportunity in Charlotte. He also served as the interim head coach in Orlando during the 2014/15 season, compiling a 10-20 record in 30 games.
Rick Brunson, who was Tom Thibodeau‘s lead assistant last season, reportedly will have a lesser role under Brown.
Nets Notes: Fab Five, Durant, Thomas, Wolf
The Nets made the unprecedented move of drafting five rookies in the first round. Could they have their own version of the ‘Fab Five,’ the celebrated all-freshman lineup for the University of Michigan in the early ’90s?
“We’re gonna have to prove ourselves,” said Danny Wolf, who played for Michigan last season. “The Fab Five arguably is one of the best college teams of all time, so if we can consider ourselves the Fab Five of the NBA at some point in time, that would be pretty cool. But I’ll leave it up to you guys [in the media] to give us a nickname.”
The highest of those draft picks was the No. 8 selection, BYU guard Egor Demin.
“This is special,” Demin said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “Obviously no other team ever did the same thing in the draft. I think for me and the other guys it’s important to be really as close as we can be to each other, not just to compete, which obviously is a big part of it, but also to learn from each other on the court and off the court and learn from the older guys on the team and try to find ways to be together and play together as fast as we can.”
Here’s more on the Nets:
- Has time made Kevin Durant more wistful about his days with the Nets? Durant and former coach Steve Nash discussed their Brooklyn experiences during LeBron James‘ ‘Mind the Game’ podcast (hat tip to Collin Helwig of Nets Daily). “I felt like we had great intentions. I felt like we cared enough. I feel like every day we were trying to push towards winning the champ. It was a great vibe in there. Some of the best times,” KD said. “That first year? That’s why I signed that deal. That first year, man, most fun ball I had. Some of the most fun ball I had playing my whole life. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Brooklyn a lot. I love playing for Brooklyn, but it’s just so much stuff happened around the guys that were committed to the situation. It felt like we were committed, but everybody else wasn’t.”
- The Nets made a number of their offseason moves official on Tuesday but there’s still no resolution on Cam Thomas, who remains a restricted free agent. There have been no rumblings regarding another team preparing an offer sheet for him and the Nets apparently don’t want to overpay to keep him, according to Nets Daily. In an interview with Connor Long on the ‘Brooklyn Boys’ podcast, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon suggested the Nets might be playing hardball with Thomas. “I would say Cam Thomas wants to be paid and apparently the Nets aren’t eager to pay him.”
- With his offensive skills, Wolf plays like a guard in a center’s body. Wolf slipped to the No. 27 pick and might be a steal. “Danny, we talked about the high IQ and a skill set that’s very unique for a person his size,” GM Sean Marks said, per Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscriber link). “So, to see him out there, other teams continue trying to figure out, well, ‘How do we stop him? Who do we guard him with? What system do we put around him?’ And that’s a unique problem to have, right?”
Wizards Trade Kelly Olynyk To Spurs
July 9: The trade is official, according to announcements from the Spurs and Wizards (Twitter link).
July 8: The Wizards and Spurs have agreed to a trade that will send big man Kelly Olynyk to San Antonio, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania, in return for Olynyk, Washington will acquire former first-rounders Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley, along with a 2026 second-round pick. That pick will be the last favorable of Dallas’, Philadelphia’s, and Oklahoma City’s second-rounders.
Olynyk, 34, spent last season with the Raptors and Pelicans. He was limited to 44 games (22 starts) for health reasons, but was solid when he played, averaging 8.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 2.9 assists in 20.3 minutes per game, with a strong shooting line of .500/.418/.769.
A forward/center who can stretch the floor (.371 career 3PT%), Olynyk will become part of a Spurs frontcourt led by Victor Wembanyama. San Antonio will also be incorporating another new center, Luke Kornet, who finalized a four-year, $40.7MM deal with the team earlier this week.
Olynyk was just traded two days ago from New Orleans to Washington in the three-team deal that included CJ McCollum and Jordan Poole, but he clearly wasn’t part of the Wizards’ long-term plans. He can be flipped immediately because his salary isn’t being aggregated with another player’s salary as part of this trade.
Branham and Wesley – who were drafted 20th and 25th, respectively, in 2022 – didn’t establish themselves as reliable rotation players during their three years in San Antonio, as their playing time declined each season. Still, they’re both just 22 years old, and Branham has shown some promise as a shooter (.405 3PT% last season), while Wesley has shown he’s a stout on-ball defender.
It’s unclear whether the duo will get a shot to make the team and earn rotation spots in Washington or whether the Wizards made the deal primarily for the second-round pick and the cap savings.
Olynyk is on an expiring $13.45MM contract in 2025/26, while Branham ($4.96MM) and Wesley ($4.72MM) will earn less than $10MM total in the final year of their rookie deals. By taking Branham and Wesley into an existing trade exception, Washington will also be able to create a trade exception worth Olynyk’s $13.45MM salary.
The Wizards have a growing roster crunch they’ll have to address at some point in the coming weeks or months. As a result of this trade, they’ll have 15 players on guaranteed salaries, and that total doesn’t include Richaun Holmes (small partial guarantee), Justin Champagnie (non-guaranteed), or Anthony Gill, who is considered a strong candidate to re-sign with the club.
The Spurs, conversely, will have just 12 players under contract once the trade is official and will have plenty of flexibility below the luxury tax line to fill out the three openings on the standard 15-man roster.
Atlantic Notes: R. Brunson, Celtics, Edgecombe, Edwards
Rick Brunson, Jalen Brunson‘s father, will remain on the Knicks‘ coaching staff but he’ll have a reduced role under new coach Mike Brown, Stefan Bondy of the New York Post reports.
Brunson has been on the staff of 2022, the same year that Jalen Brunson joined the Knicks as a free agent. He was Tom Thibodeau‘s top assistant last season, but Brown will hire his own associate head coach.
Darren Erman, Maurice Cheeks and Mark Bryant, who were also members of Thibodeau’s staff, are also expected to return under Brown, Bondy confirms.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Offering transparency regarding the team’s offseason moves, Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens admitted the trades he’s made — including deals involving Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis — were designed to get the team under the second tax apron. “We’ve known for a long time that hard decisions were coming,” Stevens said, per Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press. “The second apron is why those trades happened. I think that is pretty obvious. And the basketball penalties associated with those are real. … So that was part of making the decision to push and put our chips on the table and go for the last two years.” However, he won’t call next season a rebuilding year. “That’s not going to be part of the lexicon in our building, and that’s the way we’re going to focus moving forward,” he said.
- It didn’t take long for the snake-bit Sixers to deal with another injury, though this one is minor. Lottery pick VJ Edgecombe is dealing with a left thumb contusion, which is affecting his Summer League status, Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports tweets.
- Sixers forward Justin Edwards earned a new three-year contract after going undrafted last year. Edwards is proud of what he’s accomplished. “Going undrafted, I didn’t let it determine the rest of my basketball life,” Edwards told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I just worked hard and did what I was able to do and got a contract out of it.”
Heat’s Larsson, Johnson Headline All-California Classic Team
A pair of players from the Heat‘s 15-man standard roster earned spots on the All-California Classic Summer League team after the four-team event wrapped up on Tuesday night, with second-year wings Pelle Larsson and Keshad Johnson both making the cut (Twitter link).
The full five-man team of California Classic standouts is as follows:
- Pelle Larsson (Heat): 16.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, +17 (two games)
- Keshad Johnson (Heat): 12.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 2.5 BPG, .563 FG% (two games)
- David Jones-Garcia (Spurs): 22.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.3 SPG, .471 3PT% (three games)
- Jackson Rowe (Warriors): 9.3 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 2.0 SPG, 1.7 APG, 1.3 BPG, .579 FG% (three games)
- Cole Swider (Lakers): 19.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 1.3 BPG, .455 3PT% (three games)
The Heat and Lakers each went 2-1 at the four-day, round-robin tournament, with the Spurs and Warriors posting 1-2 records.
While both Larsson and Johnson are on standard contracts in Miami, Rowe is on a two-way deal with Golden State and Jones-Garcia and Swider don’t currently have contracts in place with their NBA teams beyond the Summer League.
The California Classic, which took place at the Chase Center in San Francisco, is a prelude to the NBA’s main Summer League event in Las Vegas — all 30 teams, including the Heat, Lakers, Spurs, and Warriors, will compete in the Vegas Summer League, which tips off on Thursday.
Alex Ducas To Sign With NBL’s Brisbane Bullets
Former two-way Thunder guard and NBA champion Alex Ducas is heading overseas at the conclusion of Summer League, as he’ll sign a one-year contract with the Brisbane Bullets of Australia’s National Basketball League, according to ESPN’s Olgun Uluc.
Ducas appeared in 21 games last season for the Thunder on a two-way contract, totaling 36 points in 125 minutes. Oklahoma City signed Ducas last offseason after he went undrafted following five seasons at Saint Mary’s, where he averaged 9.0 points per game and made 40.6% of his three-pointers over his collegiate career.
The 6’6″ guard is with the Thunder this month, but received a DNP in Tuesday’s final game of the Salt Lake City Summer League.
The Thunder have 2025 draftee and former Northwestern guard Brooks Barnhizer currently on a two-way deal and they reportedly agreed to one with Branden Carlson. That would leave Oklahoma City with one two-way contract to fill, although players can be swapped at any time.
The only remaining free agent from the Thunder’s championship-winning team is Adam Flagler, who spent last season on a two-way contract himself.
Tyus Jones Talks Signing With Magic
The Magic prioritized adding high-level shooting and play-making to complement their core of young and talented players this offseason. They accomplished the first part of that plan in their blockbuster trad for Desmond Bane, then added more play-making by signing Tyus Jones, who spent last season with the Suns.
According to Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel (subscriber link), the Magic are thrilled to add a high-character and talented individual for a team looking to contend. Jones explained why Orlando was such a strong fit for him in free agency.
“Everything’s on the up-and-up,” Jones said. “They’re continuing to get better each and every day. Playing against them year in and year out, you see the camaraderie the team has, the togetherness the team has, you see how coach (Jamahl) Mosley coaches them and how they play hard for him … You want to be a part of those types of situations, so I’m excited to be here.”
While his lone season in Phoenix didn’t play out quite like he’d hoped, Jones averaged 10.2 points and 5.3 assists per game while appearing in 81 games (58 starts) with the Suns. He also knocked down 41.4% of his three-pointers for a second straight season and continued to take care of the ball better than virtually any other point guard in the NBA — his 1.1 turnovers per game were a career high.
“I feel like I play the game the right way, trying to be unselfish, trying to set that tone, that brand of basketball — which (the Magic) already play extremely unselfishly and together,” Jones said. “So, that should be a perfect match.”
Other teams were in the mix for Jones, per Beede, but Orlando was happy to land the 10-year pro after having expressed interest in him in the past.
“The talent’s through the roof,” Jones said. “This team has everything you need to win a championship, honestly. For me, they’re making my job easy, not trying to over-complicate it. All of the pieces are going to flow together and I’m excited to see it all come together.”
Mavericks Sign Matthew Cleveland, Moussa Cisse
The Mavericks have officially signed guard/forward Matthew Cleveland and center Moussa Cisse, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link). Both players went undrafted in June.
While the terms of their deals weren’t disclosed, Cleveland and Cisse almost certainly signed Exhibit 10 contracts. In fact, Cisse’s Exhibit 10 agreement was reported last month, shortly after the draft ended.
Exhibit 10 contracts are non-guaranteed minimum-salary deals that entitle players to bonuses worth up to $85,300 if they’re waived before the regular season and spend at least 60 days with their team’s G league affiliate. They can also be converted to two-way deals before the regular season begins, and Cisse, at least, is expected to have the opportunity to compete for a two-way spot in Dallas.
Cleveland played his last two college seasons at Miami after spending his first two years at Florida State. In 2024/25, he averaged 17.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game with a .511/.382/.776 shooting line in 29 outings for the Hurricanes.
Cisse, meanwhile, started and ended his college career at Memphis, sandwiching stints with Oklahoma State and Ole Miss. The Guinean big man blocked 1.7 shots per game in 150 career college contests despite averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game.