The NBA’s playoff pool money has increased to $20MM this season, up from $15MM for the last two years and $14MM for the two years before that, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. This pool represents money awarded to teams for certain achievements, which is then divvied up among the club’s players.
According to Zillgitt, the breakdown for 2018’s playoff pool money is as follows:
Regular season achievements:
- Best record in NBA (Rockets): $576,843
- No. 1 seeds in each conference (Rockets, Raptors): $504,737 each
- No. 2 seeds (Warriors, Celtics): $405,684 each
- No. 3 seeds (Trail Blazers, Sixers): $302,843 each
- No. 4 seeds (Thunder, Cavaliers): $238,001 each
- No. 5 seeds (Jazz, Pacers): $198,317 each
- No. 6 seeds (Pelicans, Heat): $135,263 each
Postseason achievements:
- Teams participating in first round (all playoff teams): $298,485 each
- Teams participating in Conference Semifinals (Rockets, Warriors, Jazz, Pelicans, Celtics, Cavaliers, Sixers, Raptors): $355,159 each
- Teams participating in Conference Finals (Rockets, Warriors, Celtics, Cavaliers): $586,898 each
- Losing team in NBA Finals (TBD): $2,346,947
- Winning team in NBA Finals (TBD): $3,541,896