NBA Cup: Did Knicks Draw East's Toughest Group?

The New York Knicks' NBA Cup group stage opponents were revealed on Saturday.

With the Vegas Summer League underway, the NBA officially introduced its NBA Cup in-season competition which will run through December.

There are six five-team groups in the opening stage, with three in each conference. In the East, the New York Knicks were placed in Group B, where their opponents include the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and Washington Wizards. Four games, two each at Madison Square Garden (Charlotte, Miami) and on the road (at Milwaukee and Washington), await during November before the championship in Vegas during the holiday season.

Each team with the best record in their group will advance to the quarterfinals, and the teams with the top two records that didn't advance will join the quarterfinal play as wildcards. Quarterfinal play will take place on Dec. 4-5 before the final four teams travel to Las Vegas to determine a winner.

The Knicks' toughest opponent, is undoubtedly the Heat, who is coming off an NBA Finals appearance at New York's expense, as South Beach took a six-game series in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Another tough challenge for the Knicks will be the Bucks: Milwaukee still holds most of the core that won the 2021 NBA Championship, that group headlined by Giannis Antetokounmpo.

As things stand now, the Knicks should be able to handle both the Wizards and Hornets, as those are two teams currently going through a rebuild. But sitting in the same group as each of three of the past four Eastern champions presents an interesting, if not somewhat scary, challenge for a Knicks group trying to build a sense of sustained success.

Miami is dangerous enough with conference champion cornerstones like Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo in tow but the Heat could be downright horrifying if they land Damian Lillard, who is said to be dreaming of South Beach as he ends his long-standing relationship with the Portland Trail Blazers. 

Critics of an in-season tournament argue that it'd mean nothing in the grand scheme of legacies and impacts, but a team like the Knicks, one in desperate need of any sort of championship vibes, could certainly benefit from an NBA Cup title. Alas, the random draw for groups wasn't kind to the Manhattanites. 

The Knicks would be one of the undisputed top two of the East's Group A, which is headlined by Cleveland (their first postseason victim since 2013) and Philadelphia, a perennial playoff disappointment. Group C features the Boston Celtics joined by four companions that could either be described as rebuilding (Orlando, Toronto), mediocre (Toronto), or both (Brooklyn). Even so, the Knicks went 3-1 against Boston last season, making Group C a desirable setting in terms of NBA Cup glory.

Group A, on the other hand, may be the World Cup-style "group of death" as the NBA embarks on this new endeavor. 

Milwaukee was the East's top team this spring but fell to the eighth-seeded Heat. Miami's quest for Lillard is ongoing, but the Bucks have already Malik Beasley from the Los Angeles Lakers.

While the Wizards, having dealt away Bradley Beal and Kristaps Porzingis, won't be much of a challenge this season, the Hornets could provide a pesky challenge for the Knicks and their fellow postseason contenders. They've equipped current franchise face LaMelo Ball with talent and depth through the drafting of Brandon Miller and re-signing of Miles Bridges, who is back after a year-long absence due to a domestic violence investigation. That trio will cause issues for the Knicks' defense as it seeks to make a statement.

With three tough games among the Cup's four, the Knicks will have to play some perfect basketball to get out of their group play and advance to the quarterfinals. Doing so will definitely require besting either Miami or Milwaukee while handling business against the Hornets and Wizards.  

A fun aspect of the NBA Cup is the unknown. So much can change for a franchise in a matter of months, and a roster can be completely reshaped between the time the groups' reveal and the season's tip-off. Time will tell if the Knicks can add to that unpredictability in a fresh concept.

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You can follow Kade Kimble on Twitter @KadeKimble.

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