that was lebrons return to cleveland for the first time 

I assume there is gonna be a draft? Seattle gonna get some guys from OKC lol.

minnesota. they’re pretty far from everyone in the northwest division.

Very clearly Minnesota based on travel distances amongst all West teams

Memphis is technically the most east of those teams geographically, but I think Minnesota makes the most sense given that all the other Midwest teams are in the East.

I’m also curious if this will cause a realignment of the divisions into equal numbers or the league will just do away with divisions altogether.

Minnesota. They’re the most inconvenient team for the West teams to travel to.

We’re not booing them lol

But when OKC goes there oh boy the boos will beincredible

No, Seattle is getting opening game in their arena. No possible way they don’t.

Ant in the east would draw numbers lol

NFC North in the NBA.

Except Bulls are so ass i always find myself rooting for the Bucks, Pacers, Pistons when theyre in the playoffs. Wolves would rise to the top of the east if Ant keeps improving and they keep building

MIN current division includes OKC, DEN, POR and UTA

To put that into comparison, the distance between POR and MIN is 1450m and the farthest team they have from the east (MIA) is 1500m

Minnesota belongs with its NFC North brethren.

Can’t wait for Gobert getting mobbed by the Pistons frontcourt whole Ant is supporting him via trashtalk.

I was thinking Memphis made more sense

That aside, it should primarily be a factor of “proximity to division teams”, and Minnesota is very isolated from the rest of their division, while being much closer to all the East teams located in the geographic NorthEast.

Despite being geographically more eastern, New Orleans and Memphis have less travel to divisional teams than Minnesota does.

People might do that, but Minny makes the most sense because every city near them is in the East, and all of the Great Lakes cities could be in the same division.

“Why the Memphis Grizzlies should play in the Eastern Conference” about to be the new “solution to tanking in the NBA”

Divisions are completely meaningless now anyway, they need to just get rid of them

I loved watching it for the NHL with Vegas and Seattle. Gonna be a blast to see how the NBA does it.

Even before that, the team-by-team protection debates will be fantastic. Do the Spurs leave the remaining 2 years, $118.5 million of De’Aaron Fox’s contract unprotected? Do you sign and then leave Bronny or Bryce unprotected, hoping the Las Vegas LeBrons leave your other players alone? Do you consolidate assets the year before, trading 3 bench players for a starter, so you can avoid losing asset value?

Shit, can you imagine how many threads they’ll be on here with people coming up with their list of who they would protect?

Wolves, pels and grizz make the most geographic sense.

As a bucks fan, my vote is minny. We need that nfc north competition in bball.

Wolves, put us with our natural geographic rivals finally.

Minnesota

I feel like the way the divisions are shaped, it should be Minnesota so they can have their natural Great Lakes region. MIN belongs with MIL/CHI/IND/CLE/DET

Memphis is further east geographically, but it’s close enough to the Southwest region that the travel isnt bad and far enough from the Southeast teams that it doesnt make anything easier to move them to the East.

Grizzlies

I hope they sign KD since they will initially suck anyway so why not have Old Man KD leading the tank.

Basketball always seemed to be the one that makes the most sense in Vegas and I never woudlve guessed the NBA would be the last one to go there.

Yeah, a buddy of mine who lives in Vegas has mentioned that there is less appetite for the Raiders and (eventually) the A’s as they are existing franchises moving to Vegas. An expansion NBA team shouldn’t have that “stink” to it like the Knights didn’t.

The Knights rallied around the community after that horrible shooting, and have already won a championship while only missing the playoffs once so far.

They’ve won the hearts of the locals.

It’s a fun and easy trip for literally every team. Every NBA city has a direct flight to Las Vegas and it’s a city built for ease of tourism.

As someone who lives in kc and sees how much kc loves college basketball and supports college basketball, I don’t understand why we’re never considered for an NBA team.

The metro area of Vegas is over 2 million people, should be fine for a team. Plus the tourists.

The vast majority are still in the central or eastern time zones. Of the later ones Utah, Denver, and Suns(pre DST) are only a hour behind.

was the rivalry heated back in the day?

Timbers-Sounders is crazy

Palantir Palace or we riot privately

It’s Climate Pledge Arena, and the naming is paid for by Amazon.

Actually, it adds up to 80 games. 3*4 + 12*3 + 16*2 = 12 + 36 + 32 = 80.

The NBA is story driven. They should increase the prevalence of rivalries

Yeah for sure they already know they have the votes (and likely who the front-runners are to submit bids). You don’t fuck around with $10-15 billion dollar transactions.

Dolan lost his shittiest NYC person crown to the orange dude but he’s still trying to get back to contention

The issue would be further splitting revenue share money but $10B bidding price and potential increased revenue from more teams is probably enough for most to consider it worth it

It’s still so annoying to me that the Red Sox have become the ignored red headed stepchild of the FENWAY Sports Group. Like guys you don’t get your fancy Premier League team or LeBron affiliated NBA team without Sox fans paying for $18 beers to watch a mid to slightly above average baseball team. Long live the interest kings!

Even if it’s just one year, it would be so dope

Current KD sure but a retirement run where he’s just hooping for hoops sake?

Not at all man. Just a “love of the game” tour with no expectations, just middies and celebration that we have basketball here again. It would be super poetic to have our last memory of Sonics basketball be part of the next chapter of Sonics basketball

I agree. Tanking will still exist, but the “repeat offender” teams wont be as big an issue because they wont be screwed by the lottery. Utah wouldn’t be tanking this year if they had gotten to pick Flagg

Yes, the city retained all of the trademarks and I imagine the NBA would let them keep the history, stats, retired jerseys, etc. if/when they ask.

Edit to add, from Wikipedia: “Settlement terms of a lawsuit between the city of Seattle and Clay Bennett’s ownership group stipulated SuperSonics’ banners, trophies and retired jerseys remain in Seattle; the nickname, logo and color scheme are available to any subsequent NBA team that plays in Seattle subject to NBA approval.”

I believe the deal is in place for them to retain all of it.

OKC has never claimed any of their history.

Yes, there is precedent for this, Charlotte Hornets (originally Bobcats) received all of the records and history of the original franchise which moved to New Orleans and became the Pelicans.