Great realignment plan actually. Unrealistic, but definitely interesting. For those saying "they should've done this five years ago" well, uhh...did you read what Hansen has to pay for?? He really bent over for the city/county. Plus I don't think he had that much money just five years ago.
Seattle Kings for sure. Then Sacramento will approve a new arena in a few years and then then we'll have the new Sacramento Bobcats under a new ownership group minus MJ.
Cities that could hold an NBA team: St. Louis, Cincinnati, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, San Diego, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Monterrey, Honolulu, San Francisco, Vancouver, New Jersey, Austin, Little Rock.... List goes on
San Francisco has a team already. San Diego had a team, but I think San Diego is too much under the shadow of the Lakers. Similar to New Jersey and Austin. Honolulu is too far for teams to travel. The Grizzlies in Vancouver never had fan support and Little Rock is too small. Monterrey is in a soccer obsessed country, a country where most NBA fans could not afford NBA tickets. Montreal, Kansas City, St. Louis, Seattle, maybe even Pittsburgh would be good spots.
I am very happy for Seattle fans; I was upset when their team was taken away, as they have some great history in the NBA. I am all for expanding the league to 32 teams, because I'd hate for a team like Sacramento to be snatched away from their die-hard fans and the history they have there. It'd be the Sonics 2.0. A rebirthing of the Seattle Supersonics, as well as a team in the East, would be great in my opinion. Eastern Conference: Atlantic Division: Boston Celtics New York Knicks Philadelphia 76ers Brooklyn Nets Great Lakes Division: Detroit Pistons Cleveland Cavaliers Indiana Pacers Toronto Raptors Southeast Division: Atlanta Hawks New Orleans Hornets Miami Heat Orlando Magic East Central Division: Washington Wizards Memphis Grizzlies Charlotte Bobcats Louisville/Kansas City/Virginia Beach/Little Rock Western Conference Pacific Division: Los Angeles Lakers Los Angeles Clippers Golden State Warriors Sacramento Kings Northwest Division: Seattle SuperSonics Portland Trailblazers Utah Jazz Denver Nuggets Southwest Division: Houston Rockets Phoenix Suns San Antonio Spurs Dallas Mavericks West Central Division: Chicago Bulls Milwaukee Bucks Minnesota Timberwolves Oklahoma City Thunder Though, I think an easier and much less hectic/difficult/controversial route would be to simply move the Bobcats to Seattle, (They have no history, c'mon) rebrand them the SuperSonics, and move the Hornets to the Eastern Conference, either as the NOH or the Charlotte Hornets. Finally, move the OKC Thunder to the Southwest Division. Fixes some errors, and we keep it at 30 teams.
I don't think the NBA should be adding teams right now, but Seattle certainly needs to stand in line behind cities like Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Omaha, Birmingham, Boise, Casper, Des Moines, Fargo, Madison . . . Okay, some of them are kind of small. But Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Omaha are bigger than Miami, for example. And five times as big as Green Bay, to cite another immensely successful professional sports town. And they didn't recently fail dismally as the site of an NBA franchise. We can feel badly for the fans from Seattle. But not as badly as for the fans from, say, Albuquerque. But should the NBA expand? When all these franchises just want to tank because LeBron James doesn't play for them? The bottom five teams should have a round-robin playoff, with the winner getting the number one draft pick. And the other teams being contracted for some period of time. Maybe just a year, and then they could challenge some member of the bottom five for their franchise spot the year after. Might add a little excitement to the tanking life.
I've seen it listed from some posters here but I'm in agreement: I want to see the NBA back in Seattle, and in Albuquerque as well. Both cities love their basketball. Plus, ABQ has no pro sports teams. Could we see a surge of support like we did with OKC?
At one point the league wanted to add like 6 teams in Europe (my source is NBA 2k12 broadcasting btw) so I think Honolulu is reasonable.
I've heard that ridiculous idea too, but I think a lot of that was Stern just trying to get european fans. However, at least the european teams would be playing each other (they're relatively close enough) but Hawaii would be on it's own. Even if it did all of it's away games on one big stretch- they'd have an unfair advantage at their home games since the opposing teams would be gassed. On a semi-related note- where were you doing my expansion challenge? I have a felling you would have enjoyed it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/seattle-arena-investor-now-shop-232353687--nba.html Hai guys, Seattle can window shop for a new Team. Hello Seattle Kings
that's dope. with this, barclays, and the new warriors arena going up soon I really think Toyota Center needs some kinda aesthetic improvements to the exterior in the not-too-distant future
