Paul Pierce wasn’t especially impressed with the New York Knicks victory in this year’s NBA Cup Championship and he certainly doesn’t think that the team’s success in the early-season tournament will be an indicator of future success. In fact, he believes the opposite.
“This is the only championship that the Knicks are ever going to win,” Pierce said of the Knicks on a recent episode of the No Fouls Given show. “Let’s just keep it 100 … They won’t win an NBA title in my lifetime.”
Pierce pointed to the fact that previous NBA Cup champions have been unable to replicate their success when it matters most at the end of the season.
“Every team that has won the NBA Cup has never went to the Finals,” Pierce said. “That’s a fact.”
It’s true. It is a fact that no Cup champion has gone on to win the NBA Finals the same season that they won the cup. But, there are only two previous cup champions, as the NBA Cup was just introduced two seasons ago, so there’s not a very big sample size for Pierce to point to.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the inaugural NBA Cup in 2023 and their season ultimately came to an end in the first round of the playoffs at the hands of the Denver Nuggets. Last year, the Milwaukee Bucks claimed the Cup crown and they also eventually lost in the first round of postseason play to the Indiana Pacers.
In order for the pattern to continue, the Knicks would have to lose in the first round later this season. But, while both previous Cup winners lost in the first round, the two prior Cup runners-up enjoyed some legitimate playoff success.
After losing to the Lakers in the Cup Championship in 2023, the Indiana Pacers made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals that same season, while the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA Championship last season after losing to the Bucks in the Cup.
So, if the pattern continues, it would mean that the San Antonio Spurs should make it to the conference finals, at least, this season after losing to New York in the Cup championship earlier this week.
Who knows though, maybe the Knicks will be the team to buck the trend and become the first team to win the NBA Cup and the NBA Finals in the same season and prove Pierce wrong in the process. Fans in New York are certainly hoping that will be the case.