The NBA In-Season Tournament is a new annual competition for all 30 teams, designed to stop players from skipping games and to increase the number of fans. The NBA has decided to do this tournament in 6 groups of 5 teams. The format is similar to the World Cup, so they will play within their own group, with 2 games at home and 2 games away, and then the winners of their respective groups will advance to the knockout rounds. However, 8 teams will advance to the knockout stage, so there will be 2 wild cards. This is determined by teams with the best record in the conference, that didn’t win their group stage. Knockout rounds are single elimination, played in the NBA market teams’ home, which gives certain teams unfair advantages. The qualifying teams will compete for a prize pool and the brand-new NBA cup. The prize pool amount has not been announced yet, and players will be fatigued, depending on how far they go in the tournament. These games DO COUNT toward the 82-game NBA season, and could determine if a team makes the playoffs or not!