After my last visit in May, it's: Cigarette Stink mar1juana Stink Sad, degenerate gamblers Sad homeless people screaming obscenities Desert heat . . . the other stuff you mentioned
Kansas City/St. Louis seems to be a massive hole that won't ever be filled after Las Vegas gets an NBA team. Really nice to see the ABA legacy still hold strong with SLC, SA, and Phoenix all getting teams decades in advance, and Indiana having a team at all. Not so nice to see the legacy of stadium deals with OKC, NO, and Sacramento all moved to tiny markets for the sole purpose of real estate speculation.
not sure i'm too happy about this. in fact i think the nba should compress the league to 10 teams per conference so everybody makes the playoffs (or at least play-in)
Both of course make a ton of sense and are basically a given. KC has a really nice basketball arena but not the growth prospects of Vegas, nor the money of Seattle. once Vegas/SEA get teams, then you can move Memphis and New Orleans (since both are east of the MS River) to the east (or replace Minny with NO). personally think the league made a mistake doubling down on New Orleans because they didn't want the fallout from moving away after Katrina. The Pelicans would be better off in Kansas City or even Nashville.
The time is right for expansion, the league is deeper than it's ever been in my opinion. If it is Seattle and Vegas, obviously both would be West. So Memphis would move East? Potential Divisions Northwest Seattle Portland Las Vegas Sacramento Pacific Golden State LA Clippers LA Lakers Phoenix Southwest Houston San Antonio Dallas New Orleans NEW Midwest Minnesota Denver Utah Oklahoma City Northeast Boston New York Brooklyn Philadelphia Southeast Memphis Atlanta Orlando Miami Central Milwaukee Chicago Indiana Detroit NEW Who knows what they'd call it? Cleveland Washington Toronto Charlotte
If the expansion draft happened as soon as next year and it still has 8 protected spots, Rockets should be fine: Green Smith Sengun Thompson Whitmore Eason Tate with the 8th spot being a flex (Landale, Van Fleet, etc)
Sounds about right but I thought they would push Houston and New Orleans to the Eastern Conf, like they were previously but I like this scenario too.