Friday isn't just Halloween. It also marks the opening day of the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup as the league's in-season tournament kicks off its third iteration.

Thus far, the Cup's single-elimination bracket has yielded tricks for favorites and treats to underdogs. Although the eventual NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder reached last year's final in Las Vegas, neither of the first two winners (the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023 and Milwaukee Bucks in 2024) won more than a single game the next postseason, indicative of how different the NBA Cup sprint is from the playoff marathon.

All of that is to say: Predicting the NBA Cup is a spooky proposition. Still, we look at which teams are best positioned with the help of projections using ESPN's Basketball Power Index (BPI) , which accounts

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