The Brooklyn Nets now know who stands between them and the knockout stage of the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup. Brooklyn was drawn into a challenging East Group A featuring the Pistons, Raptors, Magic, and a retooled Bucks squad.
The Brooklyn Nets now know their path in the 2026 Emirates NBA Cup.
The NBA officially announced the group-stage draw for this season's in-season tournament on Tuesday, placing Brooklyn in East Group A alongside the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, and Milwaukee Bucks.
The groups were determined by each team's finish in the 2025-26 regular season, with every conference divided into five tiers before teams were randomly drawn into three groups of five. Brooklyn entered the draw from the conference's fifth tier after finishing 13th in the East.
For the Nets, the group presents a challenging mix of young, ascending teams and familiar Eastern Conference opponents. Detroit enters after finishing with the East's best regular-season record, while Orlando continues to build around one of the conference's talented young cores. Toronto is coming off a strong 2025-26 campaign that earned the Raptors the fifth seed in the conference. Milwaukee, meanwhile, enters a new era after its blockbuster offseason trade of Giannis Antetokounmpo, leaving the Bucks with a significantly different roster than the one that won the NBA Cup in 2024.
Group play begins on Friday, Oct. 30, with games scheduled primarily on Fridays through Nov. 27, along with additional NBA Cup nights on Nov. 24 and Nov. 25. Each team will play the other four members of its group once, with the winner of each group and one wild-card team from each conference advancing to the single-elimination knockout stage.
The quarterfinals are set for Dec. 4-5, followed by the semifinals on Dec. 8 or 9. This year's championship game will be played on Dec. 11 at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, marking the first time the NBA Cup Final won't be held in Las Vegas. Unlike previous years, the semifinals will also be hosted by the higher-seeded teams rather than at a neutral site.
The NBA also continues to emphasize the growing significance of the tournament. Over the first three editions, several teams that made deep NBA Cup runs later found postseason success. The Indiana Pacers reached the inaugural championship game before advancing to the NBA Finals the following season, while the Oklahoma City Thunder followed their 2024 runner-up finish by winning the NBA championship later that year. Last season, the New York Knicks defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup Final before the same two teams met again in the 2026 NBA Finals, with New York completing the rare NBA Cup and NBA championship double.
The Nets have yet to advance to the NBA Cup knockout round since the tournament debuted in 2023. They'll look to change that this fall as they begin another season under head coach Jordi Fernández and continue building around one of the NBA's youngest rosters.
East Group A
- Detroit Pistons
- Toronto Raptors
- Orlando Magic
- Milwaukee Bucks
- Brooklyn Nets
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