Anytime somebody talks about the NBA Cup, inevitably someone will claim that it is a junior cup. It is a prize not worth pursuing or not worth talking or caring much about.
That is fine and understandable.
This is a manufactured trophy the league created with the express purpose of drawing eyeballs early in the season. This is a made-for-TV event meant to create stakes early in the season.
Of course, it feels a bit contrived.
Still, put the most competitive people in the world and give them a trophy to fight for and put that trophy in reach, and they will go for it. The group-play games can be hit or miss. But by the time the knockout rounds begin, the intensity ramps up.
This experiment entering its fourth year has had its benefit.
And those benefits go well beyond just the TV ratings and attention and interest.
The NBA's creation of the NBA Cup came at the perfect time for a young team like the Orlando Magic. They were the exact kind of team that could take advantage of this competition. The exact team that needed this competition.
They might be made-up stakes, but if a team embraces them, they could learn how to win. It could be a launch pad for their rise as a team, giving them confidence that they can win under pressure.
The Magic used that on their way to becoming an established Playoff team.
This year's team is a more seasoned team. The Magic have bigger goals they are chasing.
They want to graduate from the realm of the NBA Cup as a stepping stone. This team needs to be in the hunt for the big trophy in June, not the little one in December.
Still, the NBA Cup will serve a purpose for this Magic team. Orlando's goals may have graduated from this early-season competition, but the tournament will be a vital proving ground for a team hungry to establish itself again and learning from a new coach.
This will be a proving ground to see how quickly the team is buying into their new coach and whether the team can launch into something greater.
The NBA Cup is not the goal. But Orlando can still get a lot from the NBA Cup this year. It is still important.
A tournament for those on the rise
The NBA Cup is still a weird creature.
It begins only a week into the season this year! It hardly feels like it is a good measure of who is the best team for the entire season. That will likely always be its flaw.
It is more about which team has its ducks in a row the earliest. Who is operating efficiently early in the season.
That played into the Orlando Magic's hands during the last three years because of the continuity on the roster and with the coaching staff. The Magic knew who they were earlier in the season. That caught other teams a bit by surprise.
This is a tournament for energy. It is a tournament for teams that have that chip on their shoulder and are eager to prove something.
For teams that have not won much of anything, having the chance to play games with even simulated winning pressure is valuable for their growth and development.
The Magic embraced that from the beginning of this thing.
They failed to advance out of group play in the first year after a 3-1 record, holding first place and suffering the point-differential defeat after some last-day shenanigans from the Boston Celtics. But even in that defeat, needing to rally to have a chance to advance simulated the pressure they would face in their playoff chase and in the Playoffs.
Even if it is not exactly the same, it meant something in their growth. And it still did in subsequent years.
They advanced out of their group to the knockout rounds in each of the last two years, winning their group last year and reaching the semifinals in Las Vegas.
Orlando found value in this tournament. It has been instrumental in their rise.
Sweeney's proof of concept
The Orlando Magic's goals have graduated frm the NBA Cup.
Winning the tournament -- the team has advanced further and further in each season -- would be a nice feather in the cap. But it is not the main goal. Orlando should be eyeing the trophy at the end of the season.
But this is also a new day for the Magic.
They have a new coach in Sean Sweeney. There is a new way of doing things.
There is some trepidation about how the team will start the season because they will be running a new offense and defense. Nobody knows how the team will react or interact with it.
If the goal is ultimately to win a championship at the end of the season and go deeper in the Playoffs, knowing how the team performs under pressure and how bought in they are early will be valuable.
The NBA Cup steps in just a few weeks into the season. It will give the Magic a look at where the team stands and how the team plays under pressure early. The Magic will have a sense of where the pressure points are and what the team trusts early in the season.
In other words, the same reasons why the NBA Cup was important for the team on their rise as a proof of concept that they could win pressure games and play with high-intensity stakes exist with a new coach too. The Magic will want to see how much they trust the basics of what Sweeney has installed.
Orlando has a chip on its shoulder too. It was unsatisfied with its season last year. It has played the last two NBA Cups with at least one of its stars on the injured list.
If the Magic want to make an early statement that they are a factor in the Eastern Conference, this is where they will make it. It can still be that launching pad for this team.
That is all the NBA Cup was supposed to be. It is good for the teams that succeed in it and irrelevant to those who are out early.
The NBA Cup still matters for the Magic. They need that launching pad. They need that early season confidence and proof of concept for their new coach.
Those games against the Toronto Raptors (Oct. 30), Milwaukee Bucks (Nov. 13), Brooklyn Nets (Nov. 20) and Detroit Pistons (Nov. 24) will be vital for this team early in the season.
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