To determine which teams would be in the six groups, the NBA split the league into conferences and then further divided them by winning percentage. Then, they randomly selected teams from each of those sets and assigned them to the actual groups for the tournament.

Each of those groups, as well as their predicted winners, can be found below

East A: Brooklyn Nets, Charlotte Hornets, New York Knicks, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia 76ers

The New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers are probably the better teams, but the Orlando Magic fit the profile of a successful in-season tournament squad a bit better.

Orlando has multiple rising stars in Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero, as well as a handful of others on rookie contracts (which makes that monetary bonus for the winning players mean a little more).

East B: Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors

The Miami Heat have a pair of superstars with multiple deep playoff runs in Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, but they also have some intriguing young talents who should be taking on more responsibility next season.

Tyler Herro will take a slight step forward next season, while Jaime Jaquez Jr. will take a big one. And their performance in this tournament will be a big part of that.

East C: Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards

This sort of flies in the face of the factors already discussed. The Boston Celtics are a veteran team that just won the NBA title. Seeing them take it easy during the in-season tournament wouldn’t be all that surprising.

But Boston is also a very real juggernaut with a three-point-heavy attack that can beat anyone, even if one or two Celtics are out. The “well-oiled machine” cliche doesn’t apply to any team quite like it does Boston right now.

West A: Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings

You could probably count 2023-24 as the Houston Rockets‘ breakout. They smashed their preseason over/under and went 41-41. But there are a couple more organizational steps for them to take, and the in-season tournament gives them a place to take them.

Alperen Şengün has All-Star potential. Jabari Smith Jr. and Jalen Green might, too. And incoming rookie Reed Sheppard was one of the best players at the Las Vegas Summer League. Houston may have more youthful exuberance than any team in the league, and it will carry it to the top of this group.

West B: Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz

Speaking of youthful exuberance, the Oklahoma City Thunder have that and 2023-24’s MVP runner-up in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

This roster is absolutely loaded. After SGA, it has Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams on rookie contracts. And this offseason, the Thunder juiced their rotation with perhaps the league’s best perimeter defender in Alex Caruso and one of its most versatile energy bigs in Isaiah Hartenstein.

West C: Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Pelicans

The Denver Nuggets are another team that doesn’t really fit the previously described mold for good in-season tournament teams. They won the 2023 championship, and their second-best player (Jamal Murray) is often injured during the regular season.

But they still have the best player in the world in Nikola Jokić, and they could use the beginning of the 2024-25 campaign as a means to prove they’re still among the league’s top-tier title contenders.

Plenty of fans and media are out on the Nuggets, following the loss of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but Christian Braun has the potential to fill his shoes, and Russell Westbrook could be the Bruce Brown replacement Denver never had in 2023-24.