What Is the NBA In-Season Tournament?
by Joseph King | by Joseph King
The first ever NBA midseason cup competition
Dubbed the NBA Cup, the in-season tournament is the National Basketball Association’s answer to the FA Cup in England or the Copa del Rey in Spain. It is the first time the NBA has attempted to implement a second competitive event during the season. It’s an idea that commissioner Adam Silver has been contemplating as far back as 2019 and we finally see the debut of the competition in the 2023/24 campaign. This is meant to be an annual competition and not just a one-off event. The NBA is marking the new competition with all new court designs for all 30 NBA teams when they play their cup matches. So, what exactly is the NBA Cup and how does it work?
The structure of the event is as follows: teams are placed into groups of five where they will play a round robin format to decide who moves on. Teams play their group members only once and each team will have two home games and two away games in this stage.
After the four group stage matches are played, the teams that finished first advance to the quarter finals along with two additional Wild Cards. The Wild Cards are determined by the second-place finishers with the best record in each conference. That means that eight total teams of the 30 participants advance to form the quarter-finals. Each game is single elimination from the quarter-finals on, a marked difference from the NBA Playoffs which sees each series as a best-of-seven.
See the latest NBA Cup odds at bet365!
What effect will the NBA Cup have on the regular season?
What’s interesting about this format is that the NBA has decided to make the NBA Cup games count towards teams regular season records. Games are played on Thursday nights in the month of November which are now referred to as “tournament nights.”
It’s important to note that teams will not be playing extra games in the 2023/24 season. Essentially, the NBA Cup will weave itself into the already scheduled regular season games. Select games (Thursday night) will thus carry added value as they will also count towards the teams NBA Cup results.
The NBA has likely made the decision to structure the tournament this way to deter teams from resting their entire starting five and playing the reserves. It’s certainly the correct decision in our eyes as the NBA is a league that has been dealing with a load management problem over the years. Any extra games added to the already grueling 82-game NBA regular season would likely just result in team’s playing the bench and resting the star players.
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What are the groups for the NBA Cup?
Western Conference
| West Group A | West Group B | West Group C |
|---|---|---|
| Memphis Grizzlies | Denver Nuggets | Sacramento Kings |
| Phoenix Suns | LA Clippers | Golden State Warriors |
| LA Lakers | New Orleans Pelicans | Minnesota Timberwolves |
| Utah Jazz | Dallas Mavericks | OKC Thunder |
| Portland Trail Blazers | Houston Rockets | San Antonio Spurs |
Eastern Conference
| East Group A | East Group B | East 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 |
As you can see, the groups for the NBA Cup have already been established. It was a random draw to determine the participants of each group, with the pots they were assigned to being based on the team’s records in the 2022/23 season. Taking a quick look at the group composition, it’s even more apparent how much parity currently exists in the West. All three Western Conference groups look set to be closely contested. The East, on the other hand, looks to be a bit more defined as to which teams will top their respective groups. The 76ers and Celtics, in particular, appear to have received very favorable draws. You’ll be able to find out experts’ opinions on the NBA Cup games all season on our NBA betting tips page.
The NBA has allocated a prize pool that will be awarded to the players that participate in the event based on how well their team performs. The further a team goes in the tournament, the more money the players will receive.
The prize pools are as follows
- Each player on the NBA Cup winning team will receive $500,000
- Second-place team sees each player earn $200,000
- Semi-finalist finishers sees $100,000 to each player
- Quarter-finalist finishers take home $50,000 per player
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Who are the favorites to lift the inaugural trophy?
Below we’ve listed the current betting odds for the top-15 teams to win the first ever NBA Cup. You can find the latest odds for all NBA action this season over at our NBA betting odds page:
- Milwaukee Bucks - 8.50
- Denver Nuggets - 9.50
- Boston Celtics - 10.00
- Phoenix Suns - 11.00
- Golden State Warriors - 13.00
- LA Lakers - 13.00
- Cleveland Cavaliers - 15.00
- Philadelphia 76ers - 15.00
- Miami Heat - 17.00
- LA Clippers - 19.00
- Atlanta Hawks - 21.00
- Dalla Mavericks - 21.00
- Sacramento Kings 23.00
- Minnesota Timberwolves - 23.00
- New York Knicks - 23.00
- OKC Thunder - 23.00
You can see the full list of odds by visiting bet365.
With the NBA Cup games also tying in with the regular season games, bettors shouldn’t expect too much to change. It might be advisable to monitor the first round of games just to see if the coaches alter their gameplans or take a different approach for these matchups. However, we expect that they will play out similarly to any other regular season game, at least in the group stage. You can consult our NBA Livescore tool to help you gain new information and track the results of all 30 teams in the league.
