NBA In-Season Tournament
What is it, and what is the schedule?
The NBA has released the schedule for the group stages of its (soon-to-be) inaugural in-season tournament, which will see the NBA Cup awarded for the first time in sunny Las Vegas on December 9th.
So what, is this new NBA Cup? How does the NBA In-Season tournament work, and why is it now a thing?
Here’s what we now know about the NBA’s In-Season tournament…
Why was the In-Season Tournament introduced?
The Commish, Adam Silver has wanted to make this a thing for a long time now.
However, much like the NBA Playoffs Play-In Tournament, it has taken some time for our fearless bald leader to convince others to give it a whirl.
The first hope for the NBA is that it brings in revenue, and the league believes the tournament can become a moneymaking machine over time due to the ability to sell off the television rights to the highest bidders.
The other goal is to draw more viewers to the NBA. The dates that the tournament is set to run (November 3rd – first week of December) might be the least viewed part of the league’s schedule. The stretch of the calendar where the Mid-Season Tournament sits is after the excitement of the start of the season starts to peter-out, and is played during the college football and NFL seasons.
If the tournament can bring more eyes to the NBA during its least relevant time on the yearly sporting calender, the league will call that a victory.
What are the Groups and the schedule?
The groups are split by conferences, with the league placing the 15 teams within each conference into 5 pots, allocated by their finish in last season’s ladder standings.
Pot 1 – the teams that finished 1-3 in regular-season record.
Pot 2 – the teams that finished 4-6 in regular-season record.
Pot 3 – the teams that finished 7-9 in regular-season record.
Pot 4 – the teams that finished 10-12 in regular-season record.
Pot 5 – the teams that finished 13-15 in regular-season record.
As a result, these groups were created:
WESTERN CONFERENCE
| Group A | Group B | Group C |
| Memphis Grizzlies | Denver Nuggets |
Sacramento Kings
|
| Phoenix Suns | LA Clippers |
Golden State Warriors
|
| L.A. Lakers | New Orleans Pelicans |
Minnesota Timberwolves
|
| Utah Jazz | Dallas Mavericks |
Oklahoma City Thunder
|
| Portland Trail Blazers | Houston Rockets |
San Antonio Spurs
|
EASTERN CONFERENCE
| Group A | Group B | Group C |
| Philadelphia 76ers | Milwaukee Bucks | Boston Celtics |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | New York Knicks | Brooklyn Nets |
| Atlanta Hawks | Miami Heat | Toronto Raptors |
| Indiana Pacers | Washington Wizards | Chicago Bulls |
| Detroit Pistons | Charlotte Hornets | Orlando Magic |
KNOCKOUT STAGE
How will this impact the regular-season?
Usually, the league sends out the full 82-game schedule in mid-August each year.
This season however, the NBA will only be sending each team 80 games. Why is this? This is because each team’s last two regular-season games will be determined by how their in-season tournament plays out.
The 22 teams that do not qualify for the knockout rounds of the tournament will have their remaining two regular season games scheduled (1 at home, 1 on the road) on December 6th and 8th against the other teams that were knocked out during the group stages.
Eastern Conference teams that lose in the quarterfinals and Western Conference teams that lose in the quarterfinals will play each other on December 7th.
The teams that lose in the semi-finals in Vegas will have played their full schedule of 82 games, while the teams that make the championship game will end up playing 83 games, with the In-Season Championship Game not counting toward the regular-season standings.
