Originally billed as simply “the seasonal tournament,” the NBA Cup was ushered in during the 2023-2024 season as a way to add extra stakes to early-season play in the association. Die-hard Minnesota Timberwolves fans are probably familiar with the tournament at this point, but let’s review some basics.

The games played in the context of the NBA Cup count as regular season games. It is four regular season games played by each team in the league in November and December, all on Tuesdays and Fridays and all of which count towards the tournament standings. At the end of this “group play” phase, the winners of each group and a wild card team from each conference will advance to the knockout round.

All eight teams that make it this far will travel to Las Vegas to compete against each other in a single-elimination round, where a champion will ultimately be crowned on December 17. As for the remaining 22 teams in the association, two more matches will be added. Each team’s schedule and regular season play will continue as normal.

The introduction of the NBA Cup means that when the schedules for each team are released in August of each year, only 80 games are put on the schedule, allowing two more to be added later: either through that team coming to Vegas for the knockout round, or by adding one extra home and away match after the end of the group play.

The NBA’s official website offers a handy guide to help fans track the NBA Cup standings specifically. At the time of writing, the Orlando Magic and New York Knicks are tied in East Group A, the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons both lead East Group B, and the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks lead East Group C. The Houston Rockets , Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors currently top the West Groups A, B and C respectively.

On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves will host the Houston Rockets with a big opportunity on their hands. With Houston currently leading West Group A, they will essentially be in the driver’s seat to win the group if they come out of Target Center with a win. Minnesota can rectify their previous Cup loss to Portland by eliminating the Rockets and putting themselves back in first place.

After Tuesday, the Timberwolves’ last cup match is next Friday against the LA Clippers at home. If they win the next two, the Trail Blazers would be the only team that can beat Minnesota on a tiebreaker for first place.

When all is said and done, the NBA Cup champion will receive the official NBA Cup trophy and the players on the winning team will receive prize money. The players on the winning team will each receive a total winnings of $514,970. In addition, players from the teams that made it to the knockout round but did not win the championship will also receive a fair share of the prize money.

The runners-up will each win $205,988, while the players from the losing teams in the semifinals will receive $102,994, and the losing teams in the quarterfinals will receive $51,497. For some players, this money wouldn’t be considered much, but winning the NBA Cup could certainly be a game-changer for some of the less highly paid players at the end of the bench on various teams.