Now that LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers are out of the way, we can see how basketball fans really feel about the NBA Cup, formerly known as the In-Season Tournament, which will crown its second-ever champion on December 17th in Las Vegas.

Response to the first year of the tournament was skewed due to the LeBron factor. The world’s most polarizing athlete had the audacity to go out and win the first edition of the NBA’s radical experiment to make its pre-Christmas portion of the regular season more interesting, which sparked (not-credible) allegations of the tourney being rigged and dismissals of the tourney having zero significance — a common stance from LeBron critics whenever he accomplishes something noteworthy — amid counterpoint claims from LeBron’s fans that winning the NBA Cup did in fact boost his legacy as arguably the greatest player of all time.

That was 2023. With the Lakers having been eliminated from the 2024 NBA Cup, the reaction to this year’s winner should be more honest and less agenda-driven. Plus, the four semifinalists — Oklahoma City, Houston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta — enter the next stage with intriguing storylines and narratives of their own. Who’s going to win the whole thing?

Oklahoma City Thunder

It’s self-admittedly and undeniably petty, but I still don’t watch OKC play often. Especially their home games. It’s the bitter former Supersonics fan in me that can’t let it go, even though hardly anyone currently in the Thunder organization had anything to do with the franchise being taken from Seattle in 2008.

There’s also part of me that refuses to acknowledge the Thunder as a legit NBA championship contender, even though they clearly are.

This team currently owns the best record in the West (19-5), putting them on track to earn the top playoff seed for the second straight year. Point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is one of four players in the league averaging 30-plus points right now (30.2 ppg); he’s also top-20 in assists (6.3 apg), top-10 in steals (1.8 spg), and very much in the MVP discussion. As much as I subconsciously avoid the Thunder, it only takes a few stumbled-upon highlighs to see that SGA has taken over James Harden’s title as the game’s most creative scorer and the most frustrating guy to guard. He had 39 points, 5 assists and 3 steals in OKC’s tournament quarterfinal win over Dallas, and despite missing big man Chet Holmgren, the Thunder are rolling into the semifinals while getting the little-things contributions they expected from offseason pickups Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso, plus improved production from Jalen Williams.

I’m not sure how long I can keep up this quasi-boycott of OKC, because I do intend to watch the 2025 NBA Finals — and they just might be there.

Houston Rockets

If you find yourself falling for the “nobody plays defense” narrative that lingers around basketball circles, it might help to watch the NBA Cup semifinal showdown between Oklahoma City and Houston. They rank No. 2 and No. 3 in the league, respectively, in fewest points allowed this season; first and second in lowest field-goal percentage allowed; and fourth and sixth in blocked shots. (OKC also ranks No. 1 in steals and forced turnovers.)

But while the Thunder’s defensive prowess is overshadowed by Gilgeous-Alexander’s offensive exploits, the Rockets don’t have an elite bucket-getting superstar — no one on the team is a 20-point scorer this season — allowing second-year coach Ime Udoka’s defense-first game plan to become the team’s public identity.

Houston’s offense is led by Jalen Green (19.5 ppg) and Alperen Sengun (18.5 ppg), and a total of seven players on the team are averaging double-figure scoring. The defense is similarly a team effort in which everyone pitches in. The Rockets held Stephen Curry and the Warriors to 90 points in the NBA Cup quarterfinals, tied for Golden State’s lowest output of the season. To go all the way and win the Cup, the Rockets would need to similarly slow down Gilgeous-Alexander in the semis, and then handle another explosive scorer in either Giannis Antetokounmpo or Trae Young in the final.

Milwaukee Bucks

Just about a month ago, the Bucks were looking ripe for a teardown/rebuild situation. On November 16th, Milwaukee was 4-9, coach Doc Rivers’ job seemed to be in jeopardy, and the Giannis/Damian Lillard experiment was failing. But then they went on a run — the NBA is a league of runs, they say — and now the 13-11 Bucks are two wins from taking the NBA Cup (for whatever that’s worth. Again, we’ll get a clearer picture this year).

Giannis is back in the MVP discussion where he belongs, leading the NBA in scoring at 32.7 points per game to go with 11.4 rebounds and 6.0 assists. Lillard’s stats and shooting percentages are up across the board from last season (his first in Milwaukee), and the Bucks are thriving even with a limited Khris Middleton, who would be their third-best scorer but just recently made his season debut after an ankle injury. Middleton was scoreless in 20 minutes in Milwaukee’s quarterfinal win over Orlando.

You’ll never be able to convince some people that the Bucks are winning because of Doc Rivers rather than in spite of Doc, but he’s got them in a good spot going forward.

Atlanta Hawks

In the Eastern Conference final of the 2024 NBA Cup, we have a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals of the actual 2021 playoffs — a Bucks-Hawks series that will inevitably be forgotten 10 years from now. It’s still hard to believe Trae Young led those Hawks to the brink of the NBA Finals, and it’s kind of hard to believe he’s led these Hawks this deep into a tournament.

After being the walking definition of mediocre since that improbable 2021 run, the Hawks landed a low-key but big-impact acquisition this past offseason in Dyson Daniels. While almost no one would argue that Daniels is an overall better ballplayer than All-Star guard Dejounte Murray — the headliner in the Hawks-Pelicans trade that brought Daniels to Atlanta — Daniels might be helping the Hawks more than Murray did. He’s leading the NBA in steals with 3.2 per game, and there’s now no question that this is Young’s offense to run. Rookie forward Zaccharie Risacher, the No. 1 pick in a draft that most experts swore wasn’t good, has been … pretty good. Jalen Johnson is finally playing up to the potential he was burdened with in high school, and Young has been the All-Star he’s supposed to be. This team could make another splash next spring.

Predictions

Semifinals: Thunder beat Rockets, Bucks beat Hawks

Final: Bucks beat Thunder.