With the 2023 NBA Summer League now officially behind us, the 2023-24 NBA Season will be here before we know it. And in this go around, the league will be instituting its first-ever In-Season Tournament. With that in mind, here is a brief post outlining everything you need to know about the league’s newest addition to the NBA season.
For starters, the tournament will begin on Friday, November 3rd, and end on Saturday, December 9th. The tournament is split up into two stages: Group Play and the Knockout Rounds (kind of similar to the format of the World Cup in soccer).
The Group Play stage will take place from November 3rd to November 28th. There are six different groups in the tournament, made up of five teams. Each group is comprised of teams from the same conference. That means that we have three groups for the Eastern Conference and Three Groups for the Western Conference.
The New Orleans Pelicans will be in West Group B alongside the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, and Dallas Mavericks. Each team plays every team in their group once. So, the Pelicans will play four games (two at home and two on the road) against the four teams we just listed.
After the Group Play stage has concluded, we move on to the Knockout Rounds stage. To get to this stage, you need to have the best record in your group or be one of the two wildcard teams (the team from each conference with the best record in Group Play games that finished second in its group).
There are three parts to the Knockout Rounds stage: the Quarterfinals, the Semifinals, and the Championship. The Quarterfinals (aka the round of eight) will be played on Monday, December 4th, and Tuesday, December 5th. The Semifinals (aka the round of four) will be played on Thursday, December 7th. And the Championship (aka the championship!) will be played on Saturday, December 9th.
As for prize money, the players on the winning team will get 500,000 dollars each. The players on the second-place team will get 200,000 dollars each. And the players on the third- and fourth-place teams will get 100,000 dollars each.
At the end of a tournament, the league will name the Most Valuable Player of the competition and the All-Tournament Team.