NBA In-Season Tournament: Format, participating teams, and prizes / News - Basketnews.com

The tournament will feature two stages. The teams eliminated in the group stage will get scheduled two additional games that will be played concurrent with the in-season tournament. All players of the winning team will get $500,000. The tournament finalists will play 83 regular season games instead of 82.

Credit: AP Photo/Abbie Parr - Scanpix Credit AP Photo/Abbie Parr - Scanpix

The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the NBA and the NBPA opened up a path for an in-season tournament, a plan that's long been in the mind of NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. The format of the competition is now clear.

According to Ben Rohrbach from Yahoo Sports, 30 NBA teams will be divided into six intraconference pools, or groups, consisting of five teams each.

Each of the five pool teams will then play four games against the opponents from their respective pool - two at home and two away.

The winners of the six groups will be joined by two wild-card teams. The eight squads will then compete in a single-elimination tournament. The semifinals and the final will be held at a neutral site. Each player on the winning roster will receive $500,000.

The NBA will schedule 80 regular season games at the start of the year, including the games in the in-season tournament. The teams that get eliminated after the first round, i.e. after the 5-teams group stage, will get scheduled two additional games in the regular season to fulfill the 82-game quota. The two games will be played concurrently with the in-season tournament.

The quarterfinals and the semifinals will count toward the regular season, but the final will not. As a result, the teams that play in the in-season tournament's final will play 83 games in the regular season.

The criteria to determine the two wild card teams have not yet been determined. The league is discussing a wide range of possibilities to incentivize teams to field their best rosters, such as giving an extra draft pick, Rohrbach writes.

Including G-League teams and international teams such as clubs from the EuroLeague also remains a possibility in the future.

Subscribe to BN+ and get access to exclusive content.