The best players in the short history of the NBA Cup
· Yahoo Sports
The NBA Cup, originally known as the In-Season Tournament, has been around for three years now, and although fans weren’t originally sold on the idea, it has proven to be an entertaining, high-level competition, giving the early-season doldrums some higher stakes.
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Some of the best players in history have won NBA Cup MVP awards so far, giving the accolade prestige, and the competition has even proven to be a spoiler of how the NBA playoffs would eventually go, particularly last year when the NBA Cup championship game (and result) mirrored the 2026 Finals.
With the competition set to start its fourth installment on Friday, we’re going to rank the Top 10 players in NBA Cup history. Check out the results below.
1. Giannis Antetokounmpo
Stats: 30.2 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 7.7 apg, 1.5 spg, 1.7 bpg, 64.6 FG%, 31.9 3P%
Accolades: One NBA Cup title, one NBA Cup MVP, two All-Tournament Team selections
One of three NBA Cup MVPs, former Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo really seems to wake up for this event, despite the fact that many fans still don't seem all that into it. Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to the second NBA Cup championship ever, and the first when it was named the NBA Cup and not just the In-Season Tournament. The Greek Freak was also named NBA Cup MVP that year, a well-earned honor that was capped by his performance in the final, a 97-81 Bucks win over the eventual NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. Antetokounmpo went off for 26 points, 19 rebounds, 10 assists, two steals and three blocks on 10-of-19 shooting in the win, dominating an elite Thunder squad on both ends of the floor. All in all, Antetokounmpo deserves kudos for stepping up in the NBA Cup, giving the event more validity at a time when many fans questioned its existence.
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Stats: 31.4 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 5.8 apg, 2.4 spg, 0.8 bpg, 54.4 FG%, 37.4 3P%
Accolades: Two All-Tournament Team selections
Although he hasn't won an NBA Cup to this point, purely looking at the raw stats, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander makes a strong case to be the competition's best player ever. The Canadian superstar ranks second all-time in points per game in the NBA Cup, and first in steals per contest (among players who have participated in the event all three years). The Thunder have reached at least the semifinal in each of the last two years of the NBA Cup, getting to the final in 2024-25, where they fell in the championship game against Antetokounmpo and the Bucks. To get to the 2025 final against Milwaukee, Oklahoma City had to get past the Houston Rockets. Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder to do just that, dominating Houston to the tune of 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, five steals and one block to give the Thunder a shot at the trophy in 2025.
3. Luka Doncic
Stats: 32.8 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 7.3 apg, 1.6 spg, 0.5 bpg, 50.1 FG%, 43.4 3P%
Accolades: One All-Tournament Team selection
Slovenian star Luka Doncic leads the NBA Cup in points per game, which was enough for us to rank him third in this exercise despite never advancing past the quarterfinal stage. Doncic continued his on-court statistical dominance in the In-Season Tournament and NBA Cup, hitting ridiculously tough shots from all over the floor in the event, while rebounding and playmaking at a high level and knocking down an impressive 43-plus percent of his three-point attempts. Most recently, Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers fell in the NBA Cup quarterfinals to the eventual NBA Cup finalist Spurs, 132-119, but the six-time All-Star went down swinging, going off for 35 points, five rebounds, eight assists and one steal in the losing effort.
4. Jalen Brunson
Stats: 28.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 5.8 apg, 0.6 spg, 0.3 bpg, 50.9 FG%, 39.6 3P%
Accolades: One NBA Cup title, one NBA Cup MVP, one All-Tournament Team selection
In what proved to be a preview of the NBA Finals, Jalen Brunson led the New York Knicks to an NBA Cup championship in 2025-26, even doing so against the same team New York would take down in the Finals: San Antonio. Brunson earned NBA Cup MVP honors for his efforts last season, averaging 33.2 points and 5.8 assists per game on 53.1 percent shooting from the field and 46.2 percent from three. In the final against the Spurs, Brunson had 25 points, four rebounds and eight assists and was a plus-15 in the 124-113 win for the Knicks. Simply put, when the stakes get highest, Brunson seems to elevate his game to another level. When a player is as masterful as he is at getting to his spots, drawing fouls and hitting tough shots, and he's able to lock in with bigger stakes on the line, he becomes extremely tough to stop, as is the case with the southpaw bucket-getting floor general.
5. Nikola Jokic
Stats: 30.2 ppg, 13.4 rpg, 9.7 apg, 1.5 spg, 0.9 bpg, 59.1 FG%, 53.5 3P%
Newfound Nikola Jokic detractors, who have started to cling to his lack of team success since the Denver Nuggets' 2022-23 championship, aren't going to love this, but we ranked Jokic among the five best NBA Cup performers ever despite the fact that he's never been able to lead Denver past the group stage of the competition. And can you blame us? Just look at his numbers. Jokic ranks fifth all-time in NBA Cup points per game, second in rebounds and third in assists, as his typical statistical dominance has translated to the league's three-year-old mid-season tournament. Alas, Jokic hasn't gotten enough help from teammates to get further in the competition as of yet, though that could very well change this season.
6. LeBron James
Stats: 22.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 8.1 apg, 1.0 spg, 0.4 bpg, 52.4 FG%, 42.1 3P%
Accolades: One NBA Cup title, one NBA Cup MVP, one All-Tournament Team selection
Had LeBron James kept up his pace from his first NBA Cup appearance, back when it was called the In-Season Tournament in 2023-24, he'd be the unquestioned best player in the competition's history. That NBA Cup, James led the Lakers to the championship, was named MVP of the tournament and made the All-Tournament Team after averaging 26.4 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.6 assists and 1.6 steals. After that, James' NBA Cup run dwindled, as the four-time league MVP would average just 17.8 points in the competition in 2024-25 and 19.0 points in last year's edition, which hurt his place in this ranking. James and Co. didn't get past the group stage of the NBA Cup in '25 and were eliminated in the quarterfinal in '26, so after James' fiery start in the competition's history, his output wasn't the same the next two times he participated. Even then, James will always be remembered as the first MVP and the first champion in the Cup's history. James had a 24-point, 11-rebound, four-assist outing in L.A.'s championship game win over the Pacers back in 2024, a 123-109 Lakers victory.
7. Damian Lillard
Stats: 28.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 7.7 apg, 0.9 spg, 0.3 bpg, 49.3 FG%, 48.5 3P%
Accolades: One NBA Cup title, one All-Tournament Team selection
The 2025 NBA Cup proved that, at least for a bit, the Antetokounmpo partnership with Damian Lillard did work, as the Bucks won their three knockout-round games that year by a combined 29 points, including an impressive 97-81 demolition of the eventual champion Thunder in the championship game. In that contest, Lillard went off for 23 points on 12 field-goal attempts, four rebounds and four assists. Overall in that NBA Cup run, Lillard averaged 27.3 points and 8.3 assists on 45.9 percent shooting from three. It's too bad Lillard got injured in that subsequent NBA playoff run, as he and his Greek counterpart could have made some noise that postseason, based on how well they performed together in the NBA Cup.
8. Anthony Davis
Stats: 23.4 ppg, 13.3 rpg, 4.3 apg, 1.0 spg, 2.8 bpg, 54.5 FG%, 70.5 FT%
Accolades: One NBA Cup title, one All-Tournament Team selection
Former No. 1 pick Anthony Davis was still at his two-way peak in 2024 when he and James led the Lakers to the In-Season Tournament championship. Davis was an absolute force on both ends of the floor, finishing explosively around the basket offensively and using his 7-foot-5 wingspan to block just about everything on the other end of the floor. Although James won NBA Cup MVP that year, Davis was the best player in the championship game win over the Pacers, going off for 41 points, 20 rebounds, five assists and four blocks on 16-of-24 shooting in the 123-109 victory over Indiana. Only two players have put up such a stat line in a regular-season game: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Joe Barry Carroll — which speaks to how dominant Davis was that night.
9. De'Aaron Fox
Stats: 28.9 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 7.3 apg, 1.7 spg, 0.5 bpg, 47.0 FG%, 38.3 3P%
Accolades: One All-Tournament Team selection
De'Aaron Fox's most dominant Cup days came with the Sacramento Kings in 2023-24 and 2024-25. In those NBA Cup campaigns, respectively, Fox averaged 34.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game, followed by 33.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.5 assists, although he was only able to lead Sacramento out of the group stage once, in 2024, when the Kings fell in the quarterfinal, 127-117, at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans. Once he was with the Spurs, Fox's numbers fell to a more humble 22.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, 7.7 assists and 2.0 steals per game in last season's NBA Cup. Fox helped lead San Antonio all the way to the championship game, where the Spurs fell 124-113 to the New York Knicks. In what proved to be a preview of the NBA Finals, Fox struggled against New York in the championship game, scoring 16 points and dishing out nine assists while going just 5-of-13 from the floor and giving away five turnovers.
10. Karl-Anthony Towns
Stats: 22.1 ppg, 11.9 rpg, 3.1 apg, 0.8 spg, 0.9 bpg, 47.9 FG%, 39.9 3P%
Accolades: One NBA Cup championship, one All-Tournament Team selection
The Knicks swept the main team awards last season, winning both the NBA championship and the NBA Cup title, and big man Karl-Anthony Towns had a lot to do with that, performing at a high level in both competitions. Towns is a fantastic face-up scorer for a big man, a pretty much elite three-point shooter and a high-level rebounder, making him a problem on both ends of the floor. Towns has also done a great job of figuring out his role on the Brunson-led Knicks, becoming hyper-efficient by choosing his spots well. In the Knicks' NBA Cup semifinal win over the Orlando Magic last year, the victory that got them to the championship game, Towns had a huge outing, scoring 29 points on nine-of-11 shooting, securing eight rebounds and hitting two three-pointers. Brunson gets a lot of the credit for New York's recent success, but people shouldn't sleep on what a high-level player Towns is.
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This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: The best players in the short history of the NBA Cup