Not actually sure how this would work, or if it's even necessary. Wouldn't mind seeing our resident realignment expert chime in and get us started

Wouldn't there be some expansion before re-alignment?

Add teams to:
Seattle
Kansas City
St Louis
New Jersey
Las Vegas
????

Expansion would water down the product, there's already enough issues with quality of play beyond the superstars.

(02-08-2016 04:55 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  Expansion would water down the product, there's already enough issues with quality of play beyond the superstars.

agreed, expansion is not the answer for a league that is so top heavy

The NBA is the most geographically correct league around. The only complaint might be the northwest division of the west, which is the "leftovers" division. But there's not much that can be done and still have even divisions.

The T'Wolves are on such an island. The best thing that can happen for them is for someone to move in either direction (which would either push the Bucks west or the T'Wolves to the east, where they'd have any opponents that are driveable).

The NBA could probably do with fewer teams. At best the Association has teams in bad markets that could go somewhere else. Lets be honest, once Durant and Westbrook leave, OKC is going to end up like Sacramento. And they need to get back into Seattle.

IDK, the Jazz, Spurs and Blazers have done really well for a long time in markets that were barely large enough to support teams.

Plus Sacramento did just fine when they had a real team. They just had he same issues every other California professional team has: public money for stadiums are a tough sell. Thus constant relocation threats erode the fanbase.

Seattle wants the Supersonics back really bad.

(02-10-2016 03:02 PM)adcorbett Wrote:  Plus Sacramento did just fine when they had a real team.

Did all right at the box office when they had a team in the conference finals. Believe it or not, the Kings claim to have 12,000 season-ticket holders -- I'd guess that number includes partial season-ticket plans. And probably it's so high because their new arena opens next season and fans want priority for season tickets in the new building.

Also, to your point, even that wouldn't be happening in Sacto without more than $250 million in public money. The Kings' new ownership was supposed to have plenty of their own money, but apparently not, based on this item in that article:

Quote:To be repaid over 35 years, the bonds replace a short-term loan the city executed in mid-August, when the Kings needed the city’s money quickly to avoid a potential cash shortage and loan default.

Oh they definitely ended up getting public money, thanks in large part to my favorite player,
mayor Kevin Johnson, and hopefully future hall of farmer. I just meant the lack of public money for an arena lead to relocation threats, which eroded the fanbase from where it was, not that he city itself couldn't support them:

KJ may have dunked on Hakeem but who got the last laugh?

How I would do it:

1) Move Memphis to the East
2) Pick 2 of:
St. Louis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
San Diego
Seattle
Honolulu

If you move Memphis to the east, who are you moving west? Due to the geographic layout of the country, even cities just east of the Mississippi would end up in the "west"

Did you read the rest of the post!?

(02-14-2016 07:14 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Did you read the rest of the post!?

Yes. But if by "pick two," you meant you wanted to add two teams, you left that part out. So it appears you had an incomplete thought about moving teams.

Corbett: Memphis makes 16 EC tams, leaving the WC with 14. Which 2 cities west of the Mississippi get teams?

How about not? The product is watered down enough. Heck, some teams probably need to go away, what have the Bucks contributed to the NBA in the last quarter century? One good playoff run in a watered down conference? There probably should only be about 16-20 teams. The Bobcats/Hornets? Most of the major sports leagues learned that they overexpanded in the 80's and 90's as their popularity zenithed.

C2: How 'bout this idea

Move Memphis to the East, contract Toronto and Charlotte.