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When the Toronto Raptors released their 2026-27 schedule, they also unveiled their NBA Cup schedule and opponents. Since the in-season tournament’s inception during the 2023-24 season, the Toronto Raptors’ track record has been – uninspiring.

To their credit, last year’s team managed to navigate itself into uncharted waters before running into its Big Apple kryptonite.

Raptors NBA Cup historic records:

• 2023: 1-3
• 2024: 1-3
• 2025: 4-1 (lost to the New York Knicks 101-117 in the Knockout stage)

The Raptors’ newfound success in the tournament mirrors a change in perception, particularly with how players and fans view the NBA Cup. The tournament, which was initially met with relentless criticism, particularly during its launch, has slowly garnered credibility and respect. It helps that teams are using it to showcase their long-term ambitions.

It doesn’t get any better than when the New York Knicks played the San Antonio Spurs in the 2025 NBA Cup championship. The high-profile matchup ultimately foreshadowed the NBA Finals, both its participants and eventual winner. This means the 2026 NBA Cup championship has a bit of prestige now. There’s an expectation that the absolute best teams should be there fighting for the crown.

It’s not even about winning the title either. Simply being a participant in the tournament’s endgame sets teams up to be major players in the ensuing playoffs. In 2024, the Oklahoma City Thunder fell in the NBA Cup championship, but ultimately finished as the top seed in the Western Conference before defeating the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals. Before that, the Pacers reached the 2023 NBA Cup championship and battled all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It’s clear: the NBA Cup is now a litmus test, and it’s something the Raptors must take seriously. If anything, it’ll help the front-office speed up its evaluation of the current roster. The window that Kawhi Leonard creates grants a genuine peek at a Larry O’Brien title that awaits on the other side, but it’s also a small opening that requires urgency.

This year’s group also sets the stage for a manageable road to the NBA Cup championship game. It’s arguably the least competitive collection of opponents, at least according to win percentage. Toronto shouldn’t have a problem dispatching the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks. The Orlando Magic have a competitive team that could push the Raptors, but Leonard should push them over the top. The Detroit Pistons obviously present a problem, but if the Raptors are serious about a deep playoff run, then this will be a great opportunity to prove it.

Previous Records

• 2023: Boston (57-25), Orlando (34-48), Chicago (40-42), Brooklyn (45-27) – 0.553 win%
• 2024: Milwaukee (49-33), Detroit (14-68), Miami (46-36), Indiana (47-35) – 0.475 win%
• 2025: Cleveland (64-18), Washington (18-64), Indiana (50-32), Atlanta, (40-42) – 0.524 win%
• 2026: Pistons (60-22), Orlando (45-37), Milwaukee (32-50), Brooklyn (20-62) – 0.478 win%

The Dallas Mavericks have had a real roller coaster ride over the last few years. First, there was the shocking trade of Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers.

This did not go over well at all, leading to a near-revolt by Mavs fans.

Then, lightning struck, and Dallas won the lottery and drafted Duke’s Cooper Flagg. Coach Jason Kidd saw greatness in Flagg, and helped him to a superb rookie season, even in the absence of the All-Star point guard, and fellow member of the Brotherhood, Kyrie Irving, who missed last season while recovering from a knee injury.

Dallas hired Masai Ujiri, who fired Kidd and hired Michigan’s Dusty May, and the team set about rebuilding as much as possible, despite limited options.

And now, Irving is set to return, and that changes a lot of things, especially for Flagg.

The two have been working out this summer, and for Dallas, that should be exciting. Irving will obviously be the point guard, but with everything that Flagg learned last year, the Mavericks will functionally have two points.

From the team’s point of view, having these guys work together in the preseason is great. Assuming Dallas doesn’t trade Irving – there’s a solid argument for doing it, but the Mavericks have said that they aren’t interested – they’ll be the fulcrum of the team.

And now, Irving is picking up where Kidd left off, essentially tutoring Flagg on the finer points of NBA play.

With a new coach and up to nine new players, Dallas still has a lot of work to do, but there should be a lot of energy and excitement, and with Irving and Flagg as leaders, things are really looking up.

• Cooper Flagg Trains With Kyrie Irving Ahead of Second Season
• INTERVIEW: John Poulakidas on Shooting Mechanics, Fitting in w/Kyrie Irving, Cooper Flagg & More
• Cooper Flagg NBA patch reaches $3m bid but owner won’t sell one-of-one card
• “Been able to get in the gym with Kyrie this summer!”
• Flagg’s reflect on ‘super fun’ Family Feud experience
• Cooper Flagg Reveals 3 Things He’s Worked on Entering Second Season With Mavericks
• Mavericks Receive Encouraging Update On Dereck Lively II Heading Into Training Camp

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Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Washington Wizards fans and fans across the country.

In this week’s survey, we ask whether you think AJ Dybantsa will be the 2026-27 NBA Rookie of the Year. Vote in our survey below!

Welcome to Volume I of our “Choose Your Own Adventure” starter series, where we explore the Milwaukee Bucks’ options at each position. Read along, make your choice, and share your pick in the comments—if you dare!

As we all know, the Bucks are stacked—overflowing—with guards, but don’t necessarily have many point guards, which could be an issue for a bunch of guys who have no continuity with each other. This group in particular—with it being so young and new—will sorely need guys who can control the pace, get the team into the right sets, and not turn it over. There are interesting cases to be made both for and against basically all of the candidates in terms of how well they will be able to perform not only the role of a guard, but a point guard.

Then again, you can make a case that the classic “point guard” is a position that either doesn’t exist or isn’t valued anymore, and that actually, it is better to have an abundance of combo guards who can pass-dribble-shoot; you know, the jack-of-all-trades type of guys. For this exercise, though, I will narrow this down to who I believe can perform “point guard duties” the best.

Go on to OPTION 1.

1. The ice man: Ryan Rollins

Rollins would be most people’s first choice for who should be the Bucks’ starting point guard on opening night—dude’s just a baller, man. While he definitely profiles as more of a combo guard, there is a certain equilibrium of competence in all facets of the game that I feel a player has to reach for them to start—he’s reached that and then some. To my earlier point, Rollins really typifies what the modern point guard has become in the NBA as a guy who, first and foremost, is a threat to shoot and score, which then opens up his ability to pass.

Of course, the argument against Rollins starting at point guard is that he turns it over too much—2.6 per contest last season—but I think that comes with the territory considering how much of an offensive load he had/has to undertake. Like, don’t get me wrong, he has to clean it up, but if that’s his sole focus, it could inadvertently zap the rest of his game. And finally, you at least have to consider that if the Bucks want Rollins—who is surely going to opt out of his player option next summer and become a free agent—to stick around, I’m not sure bringing him off the bench sends the greatest message.

If you need someone with a steady hand, choose Rollins. If not, turn to OPTION 2.

2. The Boy Wonder: Tyler Herro

Herro is, of course, the other guard who most folks would presume starts alongside Rollins. And like Rollins, he too is certainly no traditional point guard. To me, while Herro can handle the ball and be a primary option, he possesses fewer point guard attributes than Rollins. Now, Herro did turn it over less than Rollins last year (1.9 to 2.7), so that’s a feather in his cap, but he also recorded fewer assists (4.1 to 5.6), while both had virtually the same usage (right around 25%).

But for the sake of this exercise, let’s say the Bucks do trade Rollins in a deal for Peyton Watson—which I’m not advocating for, to be clear—and you wanted to make Herro the starting point guard, then you’d have to really simplify the offence and remove layers. If not, I think Herro is clearly behind Rollins in the pecking order, and he can be a scoring guard, which seems like the role that suits him best anyway.

If you can take a punch, choose Herro. If not, turn to OPTION 3.

3. The divisive one: Kevin Porter Jr.

Assuming Kevin Porter Jr. is actually on the team by the time camp starts, he looms as a smoky to start at PG. You see, KPJ is much more of a natural passer than Rollins and Herro. I alluded to neither of those aforementioned players being “wired to pass” and make instinctive reads; well, Porter can make those reads. He can come off a pick-and-roll, draw the low man as his big rolls to the rim, and hit the opposite corner. He can eyebrow fake to the corner and hit the roller. I mean, 7.4 assists to 2.9 turnovers per game last year isn’t nothing.

Now, none of this means KPJ is a more valuable player than those two. He is way less lineup-malleable because of his shooting concerns—both from an efficiency standpoint and a “that was a really dumb shot” standpoint. He’s also way worse at controlling pace and tempo. Overall, Porter’s game needs to be catered to for it to sing, and that is why I’d bet against him starting.

There is no fence with Porter, so if you’re on his side, pick him. If not, turn to OPTION 4.

4. The haggle point: Kasparas Jakucionis

OK, coming off a poor Summer League outing, Jakucionis is clearly the rank outsider in this race. I mean, the 20-year-old first needs to prove he can play consistent minutes and find his niche as an NBA player. But from what he showed in college and from what you hear, I’d bet on him finding that niche in the near future. And think about it: when stacking Jakucionis’ game—or the idealised version of it—up against these other three names, is there not a pretty realistic chance that he actually has the best chance to thrive as a point guard out of all of them?

Maybe not this season, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility that in a year or two, Jakucionis is locked in as the Bucks’ point guard of the future. Sure, he lacks explosion, but he showed advanced passing chops at Illinois. On top of that, he’s got a nice stroke and great size, which should allow him to hold up on defence. The template of a productive starting point guard is there—he just doesn’t have the runs on the board as of yet.

If you refuse to leave without getting what you want, choose Jakucionis.

QUICK! Make a decision, you’re near the end! If you don’t like these options and have a point to prove to the contrary, pull a rabbit out of your hat and tell us who it is in the comments.

THE END

We continue our journey through the Phoenix Suns archives, once again searching for statistical anomalies hidden throughout the organization’s 58-year history.

Two weeks ago, it was free throws. The Suns sit atop the all-time leaderboard with 61 made free throws in a regular-season game and rank second with 80 attempts. For good measure, we also noted that they are tied for first in free throws made in a playoff game with 57.

Today, we’re heading to the other end of the spectrum.

Make no mistake about it, the Phoenix Suns are not an organization with a long history of elite rebounders. If I asked you to name the top three rebounding seasons in franchise history based on rebounds per game, could you get all three right? Probably not. It’s something I wrote about three summers ago, and it remains true today. Among the NBA’s 30 teams, the Suns rank 25th in the highest single-season rebounding average in franchise history.

To find the game in which the Phoenix Suns grabbed the most rebounds in franchise history, you have to go all the way back to December 10, 1969, when they defeated the Baltimore Bullets, 137-107. This was before offensive and defensive rebounds were tracked separately, so only total rebounds were recorded. The Suns finished with 77 of them, led by franchise great Paul Silas, who corralled 16. Jim Fox added 15, Neal Walk had 13, and Connie Hawkins finished with 11.

Phoenix grabbed 76 rebounds against the Seattle SuperSonics in March 1972 and reached 75 a couple of times in 1971. What’s interesting is that 29 of the 30 best rebounding games in franchise history occurred between 1968 and 1973. The lone exception came in December 1988, when the Suns grabbed 70 against the Denver Nuggets.

Yes, the NBA was much different back then. It still shows that the Suns haven’t been an elite rebounding team in more than 50 years. That’s right. If you rank every franchise by its highest single-season rebounding average, the Phoenix Suns come in 26th, thanks to Paul Silas’s performance in 1971.

That isn’t necessarily the statistical anomaly, though. What further fortifies the point is where the best rebounding game in Suns history ranks among every game ever played. The NBA record is 112 rebounds, set by the Boston Celtics on Christmas Eve in 1960. Bill Russell grabbed 29 himself.

So where do the Suns land? Their franchise record of 77 rebounds ranks 405th all time. Take that in for a second. There have been 404 games in which a team grabbed more rebounds than the best rebounding performance in Phoenix Suns history. Point fortified.

The anomaly isn’t that the Suns once grabbed 77 rebounds in a game. It’s that 77 stands as their best ever. For a franchise that has existed for nearly six decades, the absence of dominant rebounding seasons is almost as remarkable as any individual record. Some organizations become known for defense, others for shooting or star power. Historically, rebounding has never been part of the Suns’ identity, and the numbers tell that story better than any memory ever could.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — The Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen feud felt so distant and settled that the announcement that they would introduce their 2008 championship head coach Doc Rivers at his Hall of Fame induction didn’t immediately stand out as significant. That’s until the visuals of them arriving, joining together and sitting in a row behind Rivers emerged from the ceremony over the weekend. That’ll last forever, along with the lasting memory of the four as Celtics champions.

“It’s everything. I wouldn’t be here without Boston, without coming to Boston, without Danny Ainge believing in my coaching from the start,” Rivers told CLNS Media/CelticsBlog in Connecticut on Friday.

“There’s no way I would be here. Kevin and Paul and Ray and all those guys. Listen, you see all these great teams being put together and most people don’t win with them. You need guys to buy in, and I had the greatest group, those guys in particular, they were the Big Three, they bought into me and I really believe that’s why we had such quick success. When that all got together, people said we’re gonna have to wait a year and then you’ll have a chance. None of them believed that and neither did I.”

As inevitable as Saturday’s reunion felt following the thawing of the rift between Garnett and Allen in particular which began when Allen attended Garnett’s Celtics jersey retirement in 2022, the likelihood of them all returning to Boston feeling so connected to the Celtics and each other wasn’t certain before that.

Rivers’ own Boston exit didn’t happen cleanly before up-and-down stints between the Clippers and the 76ers, where he battled the Celtics head-on in the playoffs. We all remember Rivers and Daryl Morey’s lament over the 2023 playoff officiating trying to gain favor going into Game 7. A controversial rise to the head coaching position in Milwaukee after that marked the end of the Giannis Antetokounmpo era there. Rivers, whose coaching record became more scrutinized in recent years, always found love in his return to Boston.

The same goes for Pierce, who’s faced personal challenges and a castoff from the ESPN spotlight across the last decade. He found his way home after traveling through Brooklyn, Washington and LA when Joe Mazzulla began prioritizing having Celtics legends around the team more regularly early in his coaching tenure.

Garnett, whose legacy splits between Minnesota and Boston, will receive a long overdue ceremony to retire his Wolves uniform this season when the Celtics visit on Feb. 28. Debate remains about retiring Allen’s No. 20 in Boston, since worn by Gordon Hayward, Jabari Parker, Mo Wagner and JD Davison, but few critique his Celtics credentials anymore. The TD Garden crowd showered Allen in adoration during a BYU-UConn game there last fall before telling CLNS he doesn’t think about the jersey retirement anymore.

Nonetheless, Saturday’s reunion seemed to put all that individual history aside. “It was a goal, I could tell you that,” Rivers told CLNS/CelticsBlog. “I’m a big believer, and I’m gonna say this in my speech, but I think when you win it, you do have a blood transfusion. You should be together for life. Those three in particular have had their ups-and-downs, and the fact that they all three agreed to be together on the stage and have dropped the BS, is the way I’d like to put it, is just absolutely amazing. It may be my last great coaching feat, getting them together, but it wasn’t hard. That’s what was so shocking. All three of them, immediately, I called separately, and they all were quick to be added.”

Rivers focused on relationships in his speech, the bond that 2008 team shared beginning with an expletive-laced reaction by Garnett to their preseason duck boat ride starting at 8 a.m., where they manifested the championship. He continued to reflect on the importance of the training camp in Rome and how it created chemistry early.

Rivers managed the Big Three feud, his own up-and-down relationship with Rajon Rondo, who also attended on Saturday after spending recent seasons on Rivers’ Milwaukee coaching staff and increased scrutiny of his coaching record through playoff disappointments with the Clippers, 76ers and Bucks. Yet he put the spiel about about his excuses, which have become infamous, aside to focus on the people around him. His coaching staffs which included Tom Thibodeau and Sam Cassell in attendance, his wife, children and brother Grady, who emotionally sat on camera while Rivers neared tears remembering their late parents. De’Andre Jordan and James Harden also attended the ceremony.

That, more than any coaching feat, gained Rivers the endearment that expanded far beyond the basketball world. His famous voice, massive personality and spirited outspokenness on social issues made him an American icon as much as a basketball one. He became one of the league’s leading voices through the George Floyd protests, the Bubble and Kobe Bryant’s death. Rivers’ final trip as a head coach to Boston this spring fittingly featured his passionate defense of his criticism of ICE.

“Back to basketball,” he quipped after the back-and-forth with a reporter about the subject. “But life is more important, as you guys know.”

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony takes place at Symphony Hall in Springfield, a tiny downtown with the Hall at its heart. Watching Harden stroll down a side street to shock and applause, women’s basketball royalty lining the sidewalk and Garnett walking out of the 2,600-seat venue like he, Allen Iverson and Dwyane Wade were leaving a high school graduation was a basketball dream. These figures, Joey Crawford among them, helped shape 2000s basketball and anyone who grew up watching them.

They’re now history, Carmelo Anthony headlining last year’s class and Rivers predicting Rondo will join one soon. It struck me for a moment what the venue, with a sparse group of reporters present and many empty seats in the balcony, would look like when LeBron James enters one day.

Amar’e Stoudamire also entered the Hall of Saturday, as did Mike D’Antoni, Elena Delle Donne, the 1996 US Women’s national team that featured Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie. Mark Few, Chamique Holdsclaw and Candace Parker also received inductions, Parker and Rivers sharing their love for their native Chicago throughout the weekend. The list raised annual debates about the standard for reaching Springfield, but when the memories began flowing and the magnitude of what some of the names meant to the game, and the feeling around it, nobody complained in attendance.

And the huddle Pierce, Garnett, Allen and Rivers shared after will live forever.

“My mom was right, I’m right where I’m supposed to be,” Rivers wrapped. “Ubuntu.”