There has been a lot of chatter here in Louisville about the NBA expanding, and the Louisville Metro Council even passed a resolution in support of it. Seattle of course has been trying to get a team back since before the Sonics left.

Has anyone outside Seattle and Louisville heard anything?

First I have heard of the NBA even remotely looking for new cities.... heck, I don't even recall any talk of franchises relocating.

Speculation (not even enough to rise to the level of rumor) is that now that the collective bargaining agreement has been taken care of, the NBA will, after Seattle gets an arena project going, add an expansion team there, and presumably another one in another city where someone is willing to pay a ginormous expansion fee.

If they get an arena underway in Seattle, then we'll move from speculation up to rumor.

(02-11-2017 06:38 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Speculation (not even enough to rise to the level of rumor) is that now that the collective bargaining agreement has been taken care of, the NBA will, after Seattle gets an arena project going, add an expansion team there, and presumably another one in another city where someone is willing to pay a ginormous expansion fee.

If they get an arena underway in Seattle, then we'll move from speculation up to rumor.

I could almost believe that but the NBA is already evenly divided with 6 5 team divisions and I don't see any reason to undo that but then again, what self respecting owner would turn down some expansion fees. I don't see any real reason to reallign if teams get added.

(02-11-2017 06:51 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 06:38 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Speculation (not even enough to rise to the level of rumor) is that now that the collective bargaining agreement has been taken care of, the NBA will, after Seattle gets an arena project going, add an expansion team there, and presumably another one in another city where someone is willing to pay a ginormous expansion fee.

If they get an arena underway in Seattle, then we'll move from speculation up to rumor.

I could almost believe that but the NBA is already evenly divided with 6 5 team divisions and I don't see any reason to undo that but then again, what self respecting owner would turn down some expansion fees. I don't see any real reason to reallign if teams get added.

Yeah, hard to resist expansion fees. They would be astronomical. Forbes guesstimates the average NBA franchise value is $1.25 billion.

They wouldn't need to realign conferences. 32 teams is easy to align into four 8-team divisions. Eight 4-team divisions would be a bad way to go IMO, but they could do that as well.

(02-11-2017 07:26 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Yeah, hard to resist expansion fees. They would be astronomical. Forbes guesstimates the average NBA franchise value is $1.25 billion.

They wouldn't need to realign conferences. 32 teams is easy to align into four 8-team divisions. Eight 4-team divisions would be a bad way to go IMO, but they could do that as well.

4x8 makes the most sense, but who wants to lose their division and who would be accomodating to move/get split up? That would be a HUGE CBA stumbling block IMO.

I say: move Memphis to the East, put team in:

Missouri
Las Vegas
San Diego

(02-11-2017 07:30 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  4x8 makes the most sense, but who wants to lose their division and who would be accomodating to move/get split up? That would be a HUGE CBA stumbling block IMO.

Pacific (6) - Portland, LAL, LAC, Sacramento, Golden State, Seattle
Southwest (5) - Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans
Northwest (5) - Memphis, Oklahoma City, Utah, Denver, Minnesota

Central (6) - Chicago, Milwaukee, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland, Louisville
Southeast (5) - Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Miami, Washington
Atlantic (5) - Toronto, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia

For the 6 team divisions, you play everyone in the other conference twice (32 games), everyone in your conference 3 times (45 games), and then a fourth game each against your division mates (5 games) for a total of 82 games.

For the five team divisions, the only difference is you'll have a fourth game against one opponent from a team in the other five team Division such as Memphis-New Orleans, Phoenix-Utah, Washington-Philadelphia, etc.

(02-11-2017 06:51 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 06:38 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Speculation (not even enough to rise to the level of rumor) is that now that the collective bargaining agreement has been taken care of, the NBA will, after Seattle gets an arena project going, add an expansion team there, and presumably another one in another city where someone is willing to pay a ginormous expansion fee.

If they get an arena underway in Seattle, then we'll move from speculation up to rumor.

I could almost believe that but the NBA is already evenly divided with 6 5 team divisions and I don't see any reason to undo that but then again, what self respecting owner would turn down some expansion fees. I don't see any real reason to reallign if teams get added.

NBA divisions are meaningless, they'd be better off with three 10 team conferences and an open field for the playoffs. The West has been so good for so long, it's time to break it up.

(02-11-2017 08:24 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 06:51 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 06:38 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Speculation (not even enough to rise to the level of rumor) is that now that the collective bargaining agreement has been taken care of, the NBA will, after Seattle gets an arena project going, add an expansion team there, and presumably another one in another city where someone is willing to pay a ginormous expansion fee.

If they get an arena underway in Seattle, then we'll move from speculation up to rumor.

I could almost believe that but the NBA is already evenly divided with 6 5 team divisions and I don't see any reason to undo that but then again, what self respecting owner would turn down some expansion fees. I don't see any real reason to reallign if teams get added.

NBA divisions are meaningless, they'd be better off with three 10 team conferences and an open field for the playoffs. The West has been so good for so long, it's time to break it up.

Open field for playoffs (ie best 16 teams seeded 1-16) won't happen because the eastern teams won't give up their 8 guaranteed playoff spots and their guaranteed spot in the finals. The last point isn't as much of an issue with LeBron in Cleveland, but before that there were seasons in which the 3 best teams were in the western conference, and an open playoff field might have meant an all-western finals matchup that would displease TV execs based in New York or Bristol.

The NBA is a star driven, it's possible for a big star to garner ratings than a big market team. The NBA would rather see the Spurs versus Warriors in the Finals than the Knicks and Nets unless the latter two were really good.

(02-11-2017 07:30 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 07:26 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Yeah, hard to resist expansion fees. They would be astronomical. Forbes guesstimates the average NBA franchise value is $1.25 billion.

They wouldn't need to realign conferences. 32 teams is easy to align into four 8-team divisions. Eight 4-team divisions would be a bad way to go IMO, but they could do that as well.

4x8 makes the most sense, but who wants to lose their division and who would be accomodating to move/get split up? That would be a HUGE CBA stumbling block IMO.

NBA divisions are unnecessary in any event. The number of games a team wins is important. Making the playoffs and advancing in the playoffs is important. Winning the southeast or northwest division is a big fat Who Cares. Most NBA fans couldn't correctly name the teams in each division.

The NBA could just have two 15-team conferences (or 16 if they add two expansion teams) with the top 8 advancing to the playoffs, and keep separate playoff brackets in each conference, as they have now, to ensure the NBA finals continue to have one western and one eastern team.

I could see the NBA jump to 32 if Seattle gets an arena. Not sure who team 32 would be, Kansas City or St. Louis make the most sense

(02-12-2017 10:43 AM)bluesox Wrote:  I could see the NBA jump to 32 if Seattle gets an arena. Not sure who team 32 would be, Kansas City or St. Louis make the most sense

Or San Diego or "Sin City".

KC has a nice arena. As does Vegas.

Obviously Louisville does too. But wouldn't the same "black balling", that is often cited as for why Louisville can never gain an NFL franchise, apply here too? No Cincy or Nashville, in this case, but definitely Indy.

Louisville's arena was built with a clause that no NBA team could move in. It was for University of Louisville.

(02-14-2017 11:37 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  Louisville's arena was built with a clause that no NBA team could move in. It was for University of Louisville.

This article says it's not impossible for an NBA team to use Yum Center, but the lease with the university is a significant obstacle because the school controls all of the suites in the arena at ridiculously low rental rates -- it's basically a giant subsidy given to the university.

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/spo.../97398558/

If an NBA franchise can't realize revenue from the suites in Louisville, that might be a deal-breaker, given that there are other cities wanting an NBA team (e.g. Las Vegas), and those cities' arenas would not prevent the franchise owner from making big bucks off of suites and premium seating.

That's more or less what I was getting at. It was such a sweetheart deal that luring an NBA team would be tough.

Well anyhow, KC, STL, and Nashville all have nice arenas.

(02-11-2017 07:41 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  

(02-11-2017 07:30 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  4x8 makes the most sense, but who wants to lose their division and who would be accomodating to move/get split up? That would be a HUGE CBA stumbling block IMO.

Pacific (6) - Portland, LAL, LAC, Sacramento, Golden State, Seattle
Southwest (5) - Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, New Orleans
Northwest (5) - Memphis, Oklahoma City, Utah, Denver, Minnesota

Central (6) - Chicago, Milwaukee, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland, Louisville
Southeast (5) - Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Miami, Washington
Atlantic (5) - Toronto, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia

For the 6 team divisions, you play everyone in the other conference twice (32 games), everyone in your conference 3 times (45 games), and then a fourth game each against your division mates (5 games) for a total of 82 games.

For the five team divisions, the only difference is you'll have a fourth game against one opponent from a team in the other five team Division such as Memphis-New Orleans, Phoenix-Utah, Washington-Philadelphia, etc.

It seems like Phoenix is more naturally linked to the west coast teams, Washington DC more naturally linked to the east coast. Maybe the answer is to split into 5 conferences of 6-7 teams apiece

West
LAL, LAC, GS, Sac, Por, Phoenix, Seatle

Southwest
SA, Hou, Dal, OKC, Utah, Den

North
Mil,Chi, Det, Cle, Indy, Minn

East
Bos, NYK, NYN, Philly, Tor, Wash

Southeast
Miami, Orlando, Atl, Memphis, NO, Louisville