Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart will look to help the New York Knicks advance to the knockout stage of the NBA Cup when they take on the Orlando Magic at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. While Brunson and Hart want to win the cup being the competitors that they are, they have two very different additional motivations for wanting to win it too, as per Kristian Winfield.
“Jalen Brunson said he wanted to win the NBA Cup in part to help teammates on min. salaries and 2way deals to get a $500k payday. Asked Josh Hart after practice today about winning the Cup so those teammates could get paid: ‘No. I wanna win cause I want a damn watch. The new AP.'”
The contrast is hilarious. Every player on the team that wins the NBA Cup will get $514,971 each. That’s a sizeable amount even for the top dogs in the league, but it’s absolutely huge for players on smaller deals. Knicks players like Jericho Sims, Matt Ryan, and Tyler Kolek sure would be over the moon to get all that money.
Hart, meanwhile, wants the money to get himself a new Audemars Piguet watch. It’s a Swiss luxury brand and Hart, who does appear to have a love for watches, is hoping to buy one of their new products with the prize money.
Well, if Hart really wants that watch, then he better put in his best performance of the season tonight. The Knicks are 3-0 in the Cup, but a loss tonight against the Magic, who are also 3-0, will see them get knocked out of the tournament.
The winner of this game will top East: Group A and while the Magic could potentially advance as a wildcard even with a loss, the Knicks cannot. Their point differential is plus-15 and it’s lower than that of the Boston Celtics, who finished second in Group C with a 3-1 record and a plus-23 point differential. So, it’s win and make it in or lose and get eliminated.
Brunson’s play will be key to victory as always. The 28-year-old is averaging 25.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, 7.9 assists, and 0.7 steals per game for the Knicks in 2024-25 and has had a fine start to the campaign.
Hart, meanwhile, has averaged 13.9 points, 8.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game this season. The two have helped the Knicks steady the ship after a bit of a rocky start and they now sit fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 12-8 record.
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