NBA Announces Houston Rockets 2025-26 Emirates Cup Group

The winning team of the Emirates NBA Cup is awarded the NBA Cup trophy, and a prize pool is distributed among the players. Specifically, each player on the winning team receives $500,000.

Groups for the 2025-26 season were announced on Wednesday afternoon, with the Houston Rockets drawing the West Group C, a seemingly competitive group featuring the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, and Portland Trail Blazers. This will mark back-to-back seasons that the Rockets and Trail Blazers are in the same group.

During the 2024-25 season, the Houston Rockets were the winners of their West Group A and even advanced to the Emirates Cup playoff semi-finals, where they met the Oklahoma City Thunder, eventually losing despite putting together a solid run.

Golden State will also look to make it out of their group once again, as they were the winners of the West Group C last season, the same group featuring the Denver Nuggets. As for the Spurs, they will seemingly look to put last year's Emirates Cup performance in the rearview as they came in fourth in the West Group B.

Matchups with both the Spurs and Warriors this upcoming season were already anticipated games, but now that the Rockets are also grouped with them for a chance at $500,000, this will definitely add fuel to the players' fire.

As Houston prepares to enter this season with a revamped look to their already talented roster, the Rockets will look to spearhead their group once again and make another run for the Emirates Cup Championship.