Here's everything to know about the NBA's new In-Season Tournament

On Saturday, the NBA unveiled detailsof the league's In-Season Tournament, a new annual competition forall 30 teams that will debut in the 2023-24 regular season.

The inaugural In-Season Tournamentwill tip off on Nov. 3 in NBA team markets and culminate with theplaying of the Semifinals (Dec. 7) and Championship (Dec. 9) atT-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“We are excited to introduce the NBAIn-Season Tournament as an opportunity to further enhance andinnovate around our season structure,” said Joe Dumars, NBAExecutive Vice President, Head of Basketball Operations. “With theaddition of this new marquee event on the NBA calendar, we arefocused on providing players and teams with another competition towin, engaging fans in a different way and driving further interestin the early portion of the regular-season schedule.”

The In-Season Tournament will consistof two stages: Group Play and the Knockout Rounds.

Group Play: As revealed today on ESPNand outlined below, all 30 teams have been randomly drawn intogroups of five within their conference based on win-loss recordsfrom the 2022-23 regular season. Each team will play fourdesignated Group Play games – one game against each opponent in itsgroup, with two games at home and two on the road – on “TournamentNights,” which will take place every Tuesday and Friday from Nov.3-28 (with the exception of Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 7, whenno games will be played). The only NBA games played onTournament Nights will be Group Play games.Knockout Rounds: Eight teams willadvance to the Knockout Rounds: the team with the beststanding in Group Play games in each of the six groups and two“wild cards” (the team from each conference with the best record inGroup Play games that finished second in its group). TheKnockout Rounds will consist of single-elimination games in theQuarterfinals (played in NBA team markets on Monday, Dec. 4 andTuesday, Dec. 5) and Semifinals and Championship (played in LasVegas on Dec. 7 and Dec. 9, respectively). The Knockout teamswill compete for a prize pool and the new In-Season Tournamenttrophy, the NBA Cup.

The 67 games across both stages of theIn-Season Tournament will count toward the regular-season standingsexcept the Championship. Each team will continue to play 82regular-season games in the 2023-24 season, including those gamesthat are part of Group Play and the KnockoutRounds.

Fourteen Group Play games (two gameson each Tournament Night) and all seven Knockout Round games willbe televised nationally. The game and broadcast schedule for theIn-Season Tournament Group Play stage will be announced in August.An overview of the Group Play schedule is available here.

More details about the In-SeasonTournament are below.

Group Play Draw

To determine each team’s opponents inthe Group Play games, the 15 teams in each conference were dividedinto three groups of five teams via a random drawing. Thegroups are below:

Before the drawing, each team wasplaced into a “pot” based on its record from the prior regularseason (2022-23). In each conference, one team from each potwas randomly selected into each of the three groups in thatconference. The pots were as follows:

Pot 1: The teams with the threebest prior-season records in a conference.Pot 2: The teams with thefourth- through sixth-best prior-season records.Pot 3: The teams with theseventh- through ninth-best prior-season records.Pot 4: The teams with the10th- through 12th-best prior-seasonrecords.Pot 5: The teams with the13th- through 15th-best prior-seasonrecords.

Knockout Rounds

In each conference, Quarterfinal gameswill be hosted by the two teams with the best record in Group Playgames, and the team with the best record in Group Play games willhost the wild card team.

During the Knockout Rounds on dayswhen In-Season Tournament games are not scheduled (Wednesday, Dec.6 and Friday, Dec. 8), the 22 teams that do not qualify for theKnockout Rounds will each play two regular-season games. Thefour teams that lose in the Quarterfinals will each play aregular-season game on Dec. 8.

Prize Pool

For the 2023-24 season, the In-SeasonTournament prize pool will be allocated to the players on the teamsthat participate in the Knockout Rounds as follows:

Players on winning team of Championship: $500,000eachPlayers on losing team of Championship: $200,000eachPlayers on losing team of Semifinals: $100,000 eachPlayers on losing team of Quarterfinals: $50,000each

League Honors

At the conclusion of the In-SeasonTournament, the NBA will name the Most Valuable Player of theIn-Season Tournament and the All-Tournament Team. Selectionwill be based on the players’ performance in both Group Play andthe Knockout Rounds.