Coming off three losses in a row from the Raptors, victory is not exactly at the forefront of the minds of the Toronto faithful. The NBA Cup knockout game against New York could look very different, especially
if RJ Barrett makes a comeback. What if the boys in red take it all the way and win the Cup? Let’s take a look at what victory in the In-Season Tournament could mean for this Raptors team.
Change from past champions?
For the two previous winners, the Lakers and the Bucks, the NBA Cup had not made a significant impact on conversations surrounding either team. Granted, it didn’t help that both franchises were taken out in the first round of the playoffs in their winning years, but the relevance of the NBA Cup must be understood in the context of its past wins not generating more than momentary hype.
While taking home the NBA Cup gets your team’s name in the news, the lack of any added advantage for the regular season or the postseason has been detrimental to making players and fans alike really care about the winners of the Cup. However, despite the playoff woes of both teams, the Lakers and Bucks were both laden with superstars when they won, something that the Toronto Raptors are decidedly not. Rather than a veteran roster, the Raptors are young and scrappy this season, with a half-decade since winning a round in the playoffs. This means that a small victory means much more relatively, and could serve as a rallying point for a young team chasing a first taste of postseason success.
All about the money
With youth comes (relatively) small salaries, and the financial incentive of the Cup could mean a lot for some players newer to the league, and on smaller contracts. While the Raptors’ starters are all on eight-figure deals, the bulk of the bench players are making between 5 million and 2 million. With the NBA Cup rewarding its winners with upwards of half a million dollars, and runners-up with more than $200,000, the cushion of cash right before the holidays is a meaningful incentive for players to leave everything out there on the court. Someone like Jamison Battle, on the salary of just under two million dollars, would receive a roughly 25% Christmas bonus, no chump change for a player on a smaller deal.
Indeed, before winning the In-Season Tournament, LeBron James dedicated his play to the younger Lakers, knowing what a difference that kind of money makes for someone not on a massive contract. With the team chemistry as good as it is this year, Scottie and Brandon Ingram giving it their all for their teammates not getting paid as much is a narrative I can see arising as the Raptors make it closer and closer to a taste of real victory.
The future of the NBA Cup, and the role the Raptors play
The NBA is a living, changing organism that does things like introduce a tournament for money after decades of no such thing existing. I believe that the NBA Cup, in its infancy, little more than a chance for some fast cash, could become a cornerstone of the NBA season if given some postseason or draft lottery weight. The potential for the Cup is limitless, and if the Raptors were to be one of its early winners, the bonus to the franchise’s legacy could mean a lot for the next generation of Toronto basketball fans.
With the Raptors’ top four in the East, and the first post-rebuild postseason appearance looking more and more likely, winning an NBA Cup could be a great highlight of the 2025-26 season for the Raptors: a benchmark from which to look back upon as an early moment of this roster’s growing legacy.
Tune into the Toronto Raptors’ first NBA Cup QF appearance Tuesday night at 8:30pm ET
