Spurs' place in NBA Cup's group from hell is exactly what this team needs

One of the NBA's newest pet projects is the Emirates NBA Cup. The coming season's tournament will be the third year of it, and after some initial hesitance, it's hard to say that the competition hasn't been a massive success. How do you know that? The players actually played hard during those games, and that's exactly what fans want to see—an elevated effort.

As the Spurs have improved from Victor Wembanyama's rookie year to his sophomore campaign, so has their record in the Cup. They went winless the first time, but improved to 2-2 last season. Naturally, fans and I'm sure the entire organization would like to see another improvement, but that's going to be difficult to achieve this season, solely based on the group the NBA slid San Antonio in.

The Silver and Black have been dropped into West Group C, so they'll have to play the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, and Portland Trail Blazers. Three of those four teams are going to hunt for top seeds in the Western Conference. It's the toughest group in the tournament, but fans should look at that as a good thing.

The Spurs should relish the tough challenges

West Group C is the only set fielding four teams that can all realistically reach 48 games. Portland has no shot, but the other squads do. While we don't know the rest of the schedule yet, we do know that the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup starts on October 31. The players will have to be ready to play in hostile games with high intensity fairly early on in the season.

That's exactly what a team like San Antonio needs. Good teams have established roles that the players are all comfortable with, and there's no better way to get acclimated than to battle through tough games with your teammates, who are all working toward the same goal. The early tests will force them to stay together if they want a chance to win.

If the Spurs get off to a hot start, it could be a "you're trapped in here with me" scenario for the other teams in the group. They're the sneaky team looming with the potential to wreck everyone's projections. Remember, De'Aaron Fox and Wembanyama only played a handful of games together after he was traded to Alamo City.

The time they get together in training camp, combined with the revenge tour both guys should be on, will be the foundation of a strong season for the Silver and Black. They'll need the others, as Shaq calls them, to show up to the party as well, or everything will fall apart. But I have a feeling nobody on that roster wants to be the reason this talented team is held back from achieving their goals.