The NFL is really the only national sport.

I didn't see the article on expansion mention who would come East.

Pacific - Seattle*, Portland, Lakers, Clippers, Golden State, Sacramento
Mountain - Las Vegas*, Utah, Denver, Phoenix, Oklahoma City
Southwest - Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Memphis

Central - Minnesota*, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland
Southeast - Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Washington
Atlantic - Toronto, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia

This would lend itself to a 4/3/2 scheduling format for the six-team divisions for 82 games. The five-team divisions would have an extra game against the other five-team division in their conference.

(01-06-2021 03:37 AM)AllTideUp Wrote:  The NBA has been making a concerted effort to tap international markets. Unlike American football, basketball is actually fairly popular in most of the world. There are numerous pro leagues around the globe. I'm assuming a little bit, but it seems to be second only to soccer as far as worldwide popularity of a team sport.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/what...world.html

I don't know exactly how accurate this is, but it looks like there are some other contenders for #2 in the world. Just counting team sports, cricket, hockey, and volleyball seem to be up there.

(01-06-2021 08:01 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  Pacific - Seattle*, Portland, Lakers, Clippers, Golden State, Sacramento
Mountain - Las Vegas*, Utah, Denver, Phoenix, Oklahoma City
Southwest - Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Memphis

Central - Minnesota*, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland
Southeast - Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Washington
Atlantic - Toronto, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia

This would lend itself to a 4/3/2 scheduling format for the six-team divisions for 82 games. The five-team divisions would have an extra game against the other five-team division in their conference.

I don't know why you would have unequal divisions when you can have equal divisions. The NBA wouldn't have the issue of the NFL where a divisional champ with a losing record gets home field advantage over a team with a far superior record so IMO it's not as big a deal that they have four team divisions.

But I'll play along.

In the Western Conference, I'd definitely make the Southwest the six team division and have Oklahoma City with the Texas Triangle teams and Memphis and New Orleans. As for the remaining teams, Seattle, Portland, Utah, Denver, and Las Vegas would be the Northwest and the Pacific Division would be unchanged. Unfortunately someone has to be stuck in the Northwest. You don't want to split the California teams and Las Vegas is further north plus they are the newer franchise so they should be happy to be in the NBA at all.

I don't like having Toronto in the 76ers division but I don't see any other way they would fit. Washington should be in the Atlantic with the other I-95 teams. But you got to put a fifth team in the Southeast and Washington is the closest and Toronto is the furthest East of the remaining non Northeast teams. That's another reason why I would prefer four divisions of four teams, Toronto would be out of our division.

Schmolik: what do you think of my alignment?

(01-08-2021 05:22 PM)Erictelevision Wrote:  Schmolik: what do you think of my alignment?

I don't know if the NBA would go back to two divisions in a conference. I think they'd more likely go to four (like the NFL) than two (like the NHL). Since the NBA doesn't care as much about divisional champs as the NFL or NHL, it doesn't really matter as much.

One disadvantage of larger divisions is you would want more divisional games so there could potentially be fewer games between non divisional teams in the same conference. In your divisions the 76ers would be in the same division as the Florida teams and would likely be playing them more often than Cleveland or Detroit who are closer in distance.

But if they went to two divisions in each conference and Seattle and Las Vegas, I'd probably set it up that way.

I'm really not an NBA fan, but just playing with the geography...

I think they will be interested in Seattle most certainly. I will go out on a limb and say the other franchise is not going to Las Vegas. I actually think Cincinnati is a good market. There's only one NHL team in the state...Columbus. The Cavaliers control Cleveland, but that's the other end of the state. Louisville, a basketball hotbed, is not far away.

---

Pacific: LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Golden State, Sacramento, Portland, *Seattle, Phoenix, Utah

Central: Denver, Minnesota, Chicago, Milwaukee, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland, *Cincinnati

East: Boston, Toronto, New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta

South: Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Miami, Orlando, Memphis, New Orleans

(01-08-2021 06:08 AM)schmolik Wrote:  

(01-06-2021 08:01 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  Pacific - Seattle*, Portland, Lakers, Clippers, Golden State, Sacramento
Mountain - Las Vegas*, Utah, Denver, Phoenix, Oklahoma City
Southwest - Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, Memphis

Central - Minnesota*, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Detroit, Cleveland
Southeast - Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Washington
Atlantic - Toronto, New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia

This would lend itself to a 4/3/2 scheduling format for the six-team divisions for 82 games. The five-team divisions would have an extra game against the other five-team division in their conference.

I don't know why you would have unequal divisions when you can have equal divisions. The NBA wouldn't have the issue of the NFL where a divisional champ with a losing record gets home field advantage over a team with a far superior record so IMO it's not as big a deal that they have four team divisions.

But I'll play along.

In the Western Conference, I'd definitely make the Southwest the six team division and have Oklahoma City with the Texas Triangle teams and Memphis and New Orleans. As for the remaining teams, Seattle, Portland, Utah, Denver, and Las Vegas would be the Northwest and the Pacific Division would be unchanged. Unfortunately someone has to be stuck in the Northwest. You don't want to split the California teams and Las Vegas is further north plus they are the newer franchise so they should be happy to be in the NBA at all.

I don't like having Toronto in the 76ers division but I don't see any other way they would fit. Washington should be in the Atlantic with the other I-95 teams. But you got to put a fifth team in the Southeast and Washington is the closest and Toronto is the furthest East of the remaining non Northeast teams. That's another reason why I would prefer four divisions of four teams, Toronto would be out of our division.

The divisions are effectively meaningless as it is now anyway, aside from scheduling. I just went with the current divisions (save renaming the Northwest to Mountain) since it better lends itself to an 82 game schedule. If you have 4-team divisions, a 4-3-2 setup only makes for 80 games, and there would be no symmetry in assigning the extra 2 games. Having divisions with 4 teams also increases the odds of a division champion finishing below .500, as only 12-14 games out of 82 would be against division opponents.

Four team divisions are actually more awkward than five team divisions:

Seattle, Portland, Golden State, Sacramento
LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Las Vegas, Phoenix
Utah, Denver, Oklahoma City, Dallas
Houston, San Antonio, New Orleans, Memphis
Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana
Toronto, Boston, Cleveland, Detroit
Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, New York
Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte

The only way the five I-95 corridor teams stay together is to move Memphis or New Orleans to the East, go back to four divisions, or put another expansion team in the Eastern Conference:

LA Clippers, LA Lakers, Golden State, Sacramento, Las Vegas
Seattle, Portland, Utah, Denver, Phoenix
Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Memphis, Minnesota
Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit
Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, New York
Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, New Orleans

Pacific - LA Clippers, LA Lakers, Golden State, Sacramento, Phoenix
Northwest - Seattle, Portland, Utah, Denver, Minnesota
Southwest - Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Memphis, New Orleans
Central - Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Toronto, Cleveland, Detroit
Atlantic - Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, New York
Southeast - Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Charlotte, Louisville/Virginia/Nashville

4 divisions with Seattle and Eastern expansion team
Pacific - LA Clippers, LA Lakers, Golden State, Sacramento, Phoenix, Utah, Seattle, Portland
Midwest - Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Memphis, New Orleans
Central - Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, Charlotte, Louisville/Nashville/Toronto
Atlantic - Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, New York, Orlando, Miami, Toronto/Virginia

4 divisions with Seattle and Las Vegas
Pacific - LA Clippers, LA Lakers, Golden State, Sacramento, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland
Midwest - Denver, Utah, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Memphis, New Orleans
Central - Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana, Cleveland, Detroit, Minnesota, Atlanta, Charlotte
Atlantic - Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Brooklyn, New York, Orlando, Miami, Toronto/

Charger: we have same alignment if Seattle and Vegas get teams

To me Pittsburgh isn't a basketball market. I'd much prefer to see Pittsburgh go the MLS route.

Vegas and Seattle make the most sense to me.

As for the NBA going more international, I kinda like the growth of those leagues. Especially in Spain. I wouldn't mind seeing a Premiership set up sometime in the future where the top 8 NBA teams play Europe's top 8 in a tournament. Obviously the NBA teams would dominate at first but the interest in basketball in Europe is growing rapidly.