The NBA officially released the schedule for this year's Emirates NBA Cup this past week, and the Phoenix Suns can expect to face some familiar foes in their quest to win a first trophy ever. The snazzier name replacing the in-season tournament of 2023, although the format remains the same.
After a summer spent winning a gold medal with Team USA, it is unclear how much Kevin Durant or Devin Booker are going to care about this tournament. After all, they're not going to be judged on how many cups they win together, but rather if they can hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy into the air just once.
Fans should still be excited though, because there are some fun matchups to look forward to.
If the Suns can navigate these four games - no easy feat - and top their group then they will have three elimination games between them and victory. The semi-final and final taking place in Las Vegas in December, with the Los Angeles Lakers having beaten the Indiana Pacers in its inaugural season last time out.
4. Utah Jazz - Tuesday November 12th
Look, it's hard to try and jazz (sorry...) this fixture up, but luckily the meeting between the Suns and Utah is the first of the four group play games. This in theory allows the Suns to get a win on the board early, and look towards the rest of the competition.
The Jazz are in rebuild mode right now - and even with Lauri Markkanen going nowhere - this is the hardest game to get excited about. These two faced off in group play last season, so the prospect of coming up against a new opponent doesn't even exist here.
Luckily for the Suns this will be played away from home, meaning it is not on them to generate excitement and ticket sales for the game. In 2023-24 the Suns swept the regular season series between the two, winning all four games. Nestled in there was a double-overtime meeting in November, but that was as exciting as it got.
Excitement Rating - 3/10