Pacers View NBA Cup Group as Early Test of Eastern Conference Strength

The Indiana Pacers looked at their NBA Cup group as a barometer for how hard the Eastern Conference will be this season, assistant general manager Ted Wu said Thursday. Indiana's group includes the reigning NBA and NBA Cup champion New York Knicks, along with Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Miami.

New York went 53-29 last season, Cleveland 52-30, Philadelphia 45-37, and Miami 43-39. Indiana finished 19-63.

Group play runs from Oct. 30 through Nov. 27. The Knicks visit the Pacers in a Cup Night game on Prime Video, the first NBA Cup meeting between two teams that have met nine times in the playoffs, most recently in 2024 and 2025. The Cup final is Dec. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Indiana reached the championship game of the inaugural in-season tournament in 2023, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Wu said a lot of Indiana's moves were made last season rather than this summer.

"We're excited for that challenge," Wu said at the Pacers Foundation golf outing. "I think as we keep seeing the moves happen, we understand that the East has gotten better. I think the league as a whole, East and West, have gotten a lot better. There's a lot of great teams across all 30 organizations. But when I saw that NBA Cup group, kind of as like a barometer of kind of how challenging some of the East could be, at first you look at it and you're [like], 'It's gonna be pretty tough.' But then when you think and reflect on it, I think you have to go through the gauntlet no matter what, and I think our guys are prepared for that."

"A lot of teams have made significant moves, but a lot of our moves were done last season, and we're excited to integrate those parts," Wu continued. "Ty coming back, integrating Zu, acquiring additional depth with Kelly and Larry. And I think we're up for that challenge. So everybody plays 82 games, and we're ready for that this year."

Tyrese Haliburton returns after missing all of 2025-26. Ivica Zubac arrived from the LA Clippers on Feb. 5. Kelly Oubre Jr. and Larry Nance Jr. both signed in July, Oubre for two years and Nance for one. Oubre spent the previous three seasons in Philadelphia, one of the four teams in Indiana's Cup group.

Cleveland re-signed James Harden to a three-year, $97 million deal in August and acquired Peyton Watson in a four-team trade that sent Max Strus to the Clippers. The Detroit Pistons finished first in the East last season at 60-22, four games ahead of the Boston Celtics.

Wu, who joined the Pacers from the NBA league office in December 2020, spoke alongside general manager Chad Buchanan at the Pacers Foundation event, five days before training camp opens.

Buchanan said getting back to the NBA Finals may take a different path than the last one did.

"[I] try not to think about it too much, this little painful memory," Buchanan said. "But I think it does drive and push a lot of our players and our staff to think back to where we are at. Can we get back to that spot again? It's a challenge, like Ted was touching on and Jamal asked. The East is really — this could be really challenging this year. But you've got to take it day by day, game by game, opponent by opponent, and hope to see where you're at the end of the year and get some momentum like we had going into the playoffs that run and try to get back there again."

"It's never gonna be exactly the same again," Buchanan continued. "And maybe it's a different path to try and get back there. But that is the ultimate goal, to get back there and put ourselves in that position again. And having a taste of it, I think, really drives our players each and every day."

Indiana reached the 2025 Finals as the East's No. 4 seed and took the Oklahoma City Thunder to Game 7. Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon in the first quarter of that game. It was the franchise's first Finals trip since 2000. Indiana eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks and top-seeded Cleveland in five games apiece before beating New York in six in the conference finals.

Wu said he expects the regular-season home opener to be "one of the loudest, if not the loudest" at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Indiana's schedule opens with a road game in New Orleans on Oct. 21. The home opener follows two nights later against the Dallas Mavericks.