Groups for NBA in-season tournament revealed

The tournament will include all 30 NBA teams. Unlike the postseason, the NBA Cup will feature group play and a knockout round, much like in Olympic tournaments. Each conference includes three groups of five teams selected by a random draw based on win-loss records from the 2022-23 campaign.

Teams in each group will play each other once, home and away, with eight teams moving on to the single-elimination knockout rounds. The six group winners and the two highest-finishing second-place teams from each conference will advance to the knockout rounds. 

Games throughout the tournament will count for the regular season and all teams that advance to the knockout rounds will receive allocated prize pool money, which increases depending on how deep a team progresses. 

An in-season NBA tournament has been rumored for a while now and became official for the 2023-24 season after the NBA and NBAPA agreed tentatively to a new collective bargaining agreement in April. 

It's still unclear how NBA players will receive the in-season tournament or if the promise of a lucrative prize is enough to get the competitive juices flowing for what amounts to a glorified regular-season game. Furthermore, the NBA has to cater the tournament to fans as well, who, last time we checked, didn't ask for trumped-up stakes in November.