{"id":875352,"date":"2026-11-03T22:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T22:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/875352\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T22:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T22:03:12","slug":"and-ones-nba-cup-2027-draft-rookies-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/875352\/","title":{"rendered":"And-Ones: NBA Cup, 2027 Draft, Rookies, More"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the start of this year\u2019s NBA Cup group stage on Friday, Mavericks star Kyrie Irving<\/a> admitted that he \u201cwasn\u2019t that excited\u201d by the idea of the in-season tournament when the league first introduced it a few years ago, but he has come around on it since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I understand the concept of it now and what it means for the fandom of basketball,\u201d Irving said, per Christian Clark of The Athletic<\/a>. \u201cAnd just getting your legs up underneath you. \u2026 The Knicks and the Spurs last year, we saw them in the (NBA Cup and NBA) Finals. I think there is some correlation to playing well early in the season and that leading to success later on down the line.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 It\u2019s a good pressure environment to have early in the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas picked up a key victory in its first NBA Cup game on Friday, upsetting the Rockets to get off to an 1-0 start in West Group A.<\/p>\n

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:<\/p>\n

Noting that sophomores and juniors who aren\u2019t locks to be first-round picks are increasingly inclined to return to school due to their NIL earning potential, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report<\/a> has left out several \u201cdraftable\u201d second- or third-year college players in his latest 2027 mock draft, since he doesn\u2019t expect them to go pro. Kansas forward Tyran Stokes<\/a> remains atop Wasserman\u2019s mock, followed by Arkansas guard Jordan Smith Jr.<\/a> at No. 2 and Arizona guard Caleb Holt<\/a> at No. 3.
\nAs Wasserman looks ahead to the 2027 draft, John Hollinger of The Athletic<\/a> shares his early impressions of the 2026 rookie class, writing that it looks like it will be a special group. While it often takes time for first-year players to emerge as rotation regulars, many of this year\u2019s rookies are already making a significant impact for their respective clubs, as Hollinger details.
\nWith the Thunder\u2019s roster decimated by injuries, the Knicks off to a slow start, and the Spurs not yet playing their best basketball, the 2026\/27 title race looks more wide open than it did a few weeks ago, according to ESPN\u2019s Zach Kram<\/a>, who observes that injuries and slow starts could also reshape the MVP race.
\nBobby Marks of ESPN<\/a> put together a 12-man roster consisting of his \u201cContract Year All-Stars,\u201d identifying a dozen veterans who have the ability to reach free agency next summer and could be in line for big paydays. Marks\u2019 12-man group doesn\u2019t include All-NBA caliber players and consists instead of impact role players, such as Bucks guard Ryan Rollins<\/a>, Pistons big man Paul Reed<\/a>, Raptors forward RJ Barrett<\/a>, and Hornets center Moussa Diabate<\/a>. Grizzlies guard Ty Jerome<\/a>, who is putting up All-NBA type numbers in the early going, also earns a spot on Marks\u2019 list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the start of this year\u2019s NBA Cup group stage on Friday, Mavericks star Kyrie Irving admitted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,39561,8749,967,6357,6,12,2617,1041,2763,1201,19276],"class_list":["post-875352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-basketball","tag-caleb-holt","tag-jordan-smith","tag-kyrie-irving","tag-moussa-diabate","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-paul-reed","tag-rj-barrett","tag-ryan-rollins","tag-ty-jerome","tag-tyran-stokes"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117554774222904870","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}