NBA enlargement is coming, with the league reportedly planning for 2 new groups within the 2027-28 season. With the NBA going to a 32-team setup, it will need to vary the construction of the conferences and divisions. Listed below are some seemingly choices.
Cities
The 2 main cities competing for the most recent NBA workforce are Seattle and Las Vegas. Seattle misplaced the Supersonics to Oklahoma Metropolis in 2008, however has remained a basketball hotbed, with the Storm profitable 4 championships within the WNBA. Town has a brand new NHL franchise, the Kraken, and a newly renovated area that hosts the Kraken and Storm. In the meantime, Las Vegas has added NFL and NHL groups within the final seven years, and already hosts NBA Summer season League and the finals of the Emirates Cup in-season event.
The NBA has talked about different cities, particularly Mexico Metropolis and Vancouver, however these really feel much less seemingly. Basketball do did not so properly in Vancouver when the NBA added the Grizzlies there, plus it is solely three hours from Seattle. As for Mexico Metropolis, it boasts an enormous inhabitants, however like Vancouver, it provides an added obstacle of worldwide journey, trade charges and tax variations.
Conferences
Given the probability of including two groups within the West, one current Western Convention workforce must transfer to the Japanese Convention to maintain them at 16 groups every. There’s three logical candidates: The Memphis Grizzlies, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Whereas the Pelicans and Grizzlies are nearly the identical distance to the east (the arenas are .0315 levels of longitude aside), additional than the Timberwolves, it’d make extra sense to maneuver Minnesota.
In spite of everything, the Pelicans and Grizzlies proximity to at least one one other is a cause to maintain them collectively. Minnesota is way from its Northwest Division neighbors — Portland and Minneapolis are over 1,400 miles aside — whereas the Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons are all inside 600 miles. It appears simpler for journey functions to make the T-Wolves an Japanese workforce, saving the gamers journey time and the groups cash.
However it additionally is determined by what the NBA decides to do with their five-team, six-division construction.
Divisions
The NBA has de-emphasized the significance of divisions in recent times. In 2007, division champions had been not assured a top-three playoff berth, solely a top-four place. In 2016, the NBA did away with even that, seeding the playoffs solely by win-loss file. Other than the flexibility to hold a banner, divisions now solely matter as a result of groups play their divisional opponents 4 instances yearly, whereas there’s 4 convention opponents annually they play simply 3 times.
Primarily, groups play divisional opponents two extra instances than non-divisional groups each 5 years, a particularly small schedule distinction. Whereas it has been a bonus that the Miami Warmth get to play the Charlotte Hornets 4 instances a season, over 5 years, each Japanese Convention workforce nonetheless performs Charlotte at the least 18 instances, in comparison with Miami’s 20.
So would the NBA change to four-team divisions just like the NFL, or return to the pre-2005 days when every convention had two divisions? If it is eight-team divisions, the brand new Western Convention can be pretty simple, including the 2 Pacific Northwest groups to the 4 California groups, plus Las Vegas and Phoenix. Denver, Utah and OKC would be part of Memphis, New Orleans and the three Texas groups.
The Japanese Convention is barely extra difficult, given the groups are concentrated within the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. Including Minnesota and Toronto to the present Central Division is smart geographically, as does grouping Washington and Charlotte with the New York groups, Boston and Philadelphia. However would Atlanta and Charlotte have to affix the Midwest groups, whereas the Florida groups stayed with their Atlantic brethren? Every variation on that alignment has its points, as does making an attempt to create eight four-team divisions, which invariably makes some workforce’s journey a nightmare.
What is the reply? As a lot as Memphis and Atlanta are pure rivals, shifting the Timberwolves might be the best name. However the NBA might so one thing much more radical.
Whereas geographical groupings matter for the needs of journey and rivalry, what if playoff seeding was leaguewide? We have seen numerous NBA Finals the place one convention was far stronger than the opposite, resulting in blowouts. Final season, 5 of the highest six data belonged to Western groups — and 7 of the highest 10. In the meantime, a 39-win workforce and a 36-win workforce every made the play-in event within the East,
Realignment goes to occur when the NBA provides new franchises in three years. However it’s additionally an ideal alternative to revamp the playoffs and be sure that crucial a part of the season really options the NBA’s greatest groups.
