Teams are competing and not blatantly exercising organizational priorities, and in a culture where we’re waiting for the next “trades we want to see” piece to drop, I like that NBA Cup games take place just after the glorified feel-out games that mark the opening weeks of the season and wrap up just before all of those new contracts become tradeable.

After climbing back to .500, the Miami Heat have jumped up a spot in this week's power rankings on NBA.com. Last week, the Miami Heat stood at 18. They have on