Emirates NBA Cup 2026: East Group A Preview — Teams, Schedule, Odds & Prediction

DraftKings can barely split them: +155, +230, +250. Three teams, three prices, one group — East Group A is the tightest betting race of the entire 2026 Emirates NBA Cup, and it comes with a 60-win favorite, a Raptors team that just added Kawhi Leonard, and two franchises starting over from scratch. Trying to follow it raises the same questions every fan asks: which five teams are actually in this group, when do they play, where can you watch, how does anyone advance, and who is really going to win it?

The Race in One Table

The numbers behind the three-team race, side by side. Group-winner odds via DraftKings, as carried by ESPN on September 24, 2026.

The draw put the East’s top seed and its 13th seed in the same four-game group — one of the widest spreads of any group. How the other five groups were drawn is its own story.

Three Teams, Three Paths

Detroit is the favorite because Detroit earned it: the East’s No. 1 seed, Cade Cunningham running the offense, and a front office that paid its young core instead of breaking it up — $200 million for Jalen Duren, $155 million for Ausar Thompson. The playoff exit stung (a Game 7 home blowout to Cleveland), which is exactly why a November sprint suits them: four games, no time to overthink. Third-year coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been here before; 3–1 in Cup play two years ago is the standard to beat.

Toronto is the variable. The Kawhi Leonard trade — Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and a stack of picks to the Clippers, frozen for two and a half months by a league investigation, official September 14 — turns a 46-win team into something nobody has seen yet. Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley stay; Darko Rajaković stays. The Raptors went 4–0 in this exact group last year, and the team that ended that run was the Knicks, 117–101 in the quarterfinals. Follow the defending champions — New York keeps crossing paths with these contenders.

Orlando is the grudge pick. Up 3–1 on Detroit in last spring’s first round, then Franz Wagner went down in Game 4 and the series — and the season — collapsed. Out went Jamahl Mosley; in came 41-year-old Sean Sweeney, San Antonio’s defensive coordinator, plus a homecoming for Nikola Vučević. Paolo Banchero, a healthy Wagner, Desmond Bane and Jalen Suggs remain. Nobody in this group has a better recent Cup record: 4–0 in group play last year, then a semifinal run — the best in franchise history — ended by the Knicks in Las Vegas.

The Spoilers

Milwaukee begins life after Giannis Antetokounmpo. The June trade to Miami, the firing of Doc Rivers, the hiring of Taylor Jenkins — everything about this season is new except the building. Tyler Herro, Myles Turner and Kyle Kuzma lead; rookies Brayden Burries and Nate Ament learn on the job. But write off the 2024 champions at your own risk: this core knows short tournaments, Herro can win a November night by himself, and 2–2 in last year’s group play says they weren’t pushovers even at 32–50.

Brooklyn has the league’s youngest rotation, zero expectations, and a brand-new star who wants the ball. The Julius Randle trade was the splashiest move of the Nets’ summer; around him are Michael Porter Jr., Keon Ellis, Moritz Wagner and No. 6 pick Mikel Brown Jr. under third-year coach Jordi Fernández. Brooklyn has never escaped the group stage — 1–3 last year — but four games with house money is precisely when a 20-year-old announces himself.

Night by Night: The Four-Game Sprint

Each team plays four group games — two at home, two on the road — between October 30 and November 27. Here is the whole sprint in order, with what is actually at stake each night. The full tournament schedule covers the other five groups.

Times are from the NBA’s official schedule; one outlet tags the November 20 Raptors–Pistons game for Prime Video, so check listings closer to tip-off. League Pass blacks out games in each team’s home market — local fans should plan on the regional network instead.

The Tiebreaker Problem

All Cup games except the final count in the regular-season standings, so nobody coasts. The group winner advances, and the best runner-up across the East’s three groups takes the wild card. Track the standings as Cup Nights unfold — then do the math below.

Level records are split by head-to-head first, then point differential across the four group games. Now apply that to this group: imagine Detroit, Toronto and Orlando all finish 3–1. Their mini round-robin is Magic at Raptors (Oct 30), Raptors at Pistons (Nov 20) and Pistons at Magic (Nov 24). If each goes 1–1 in those three games, head-to-head is useless — and the group comes down to differential. In that world, a 20-point win on November 27 is worth more than it looks, and running up the score in a decided game stops being bad manners. The full tiebreaker order lives in the rules guide.

The One Night to Circle: November 20

The pick is Detroit to win East Group A — 60 wins, the deepest rotation, the shortest price, and a core built for November. But the group runs through one night: November 20, Raptors at Pistons. If Detroit wins it, the group is theirs to close out at home on November 27. If Toronto wins it — Kawhi announcing the new era in the favorite’s building — the race goes to differential and the final Friday becomes chaos, with Orlando lurking one game back and a wild-card spot softening the fall for the runner-up.

• December 4–5: quarterfinals, hosted by the higher-seeded teams
• December 8: semifinals, also in team markets
• December 11: championship at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis — the first final ever played outside Las Vegas

The winners also take home Cup prize money, which grows every year under the labor deal — the 2023 champions collected $500,000 per player, and the 2026 figure will be higher.

Roster Reference

Every player and position, exactly as the league’s site lists them (G = guard, F = forward, C = center). Coaches and trainers follow.

Detroit Pistons

Toronto Raptors

Orlando Magic

Milwaukee Bucks

Brooklyn Nets

Head Coaches, Assistants and Trainers