The NBA may have earmarked Seattle and Las Vegas as potential expansion locations. According to John Canzano of 750 The Game, the league is eyeing both cities if it adds expansion teams, though no further details have been made available. Canzano made his comments on Seattle radio station 93.3 KJR (Twitter link).
It’s worth noting that a similar report was shot down by the league in March, as Chris Daniels of King5.com wrote at the time. However, several players and league officials hold Seattle in high regard, and Las Vegas is currently used by the NBA for its annual summer league, which will be held July 7-17 this year.
Here are some other odds and ends from the basketball universe:
- The Thunder have received a summer league commitment from Robert Baker, his agent Jerry Dianis told Hoops Rumors. Baker, a 6’10” forward, played with the Kings’ G League affiliate this year. The 23-year-old also played collegiately at Harvard from 2017-20.
- Celtics star Jayson Tatum would like to see some changes to the All-NBA Team voting, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. Tatum received All-NBA First Team honors, but he was left off last year’s three teams — costing him tens of millions on his current deal, as Bontemps notes. Among Tatum’s adjustments would be making the teams positionless. He used Joel Embiid as an example, since Embiid finished second in Most Valuable Player voting this season, but was relegated to the All-NBA Second Team because the MVP winner, Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, made the First Team. Tatum also voiced his concerns about the process back in February.
Gross. Stay away from Vegas, its been a total disaster for the Raiders, who are likely not going to stay there long. Its not a pro sports town no matter how bad it wants to be. Also the whole gambling thing is particularly on the nose.
What are you talking about? As someone who knows multiple raiders employees, they are raking in the dollars. Bitter Raiders fan much?
No kidding. There’s a lot of golden knights merchandise kicking around too.
I understand your sorry excuse of a baseball team has been scouting the city but that doesn’t mean you have to talk bad about the entire city and potential other teams they get.
I knew it was going to be a bad take when he said Las Vegas has “been a total disaster for the Raiders”, but somehow he managed to be wrong 4x using under 50 words.
Either MEM, NO, or MIN will be moving into the East. NO has precedence as they were Eastern Conference when they were the Jazz.
Tatum isn’t bigger than the league. All NBA has been done that way for decades. Either he needs to play even better or not be dumb enough to put those bonuses in his contract and focus on other statistical success measures.
booooo
Do you really think one of these attention seeking NBA reporters should determine whether or not a player makes $30 million, let alone a penny?
Then don’t put such incentives into the contract. Simple.
Who do you want deciding it?— fans?— making it more of a popularity contest. Making the teams positionless does not even address who votes. And it will take votes.
The objection raised in February never made sense. He mentioned somebody’s criticism of him which was valid but did not make him richer so he cried. Tatum offered no improvements, only boo hoo.
The allstar teams are positionless in effect, so there is a tradeoff already going on.
Mama’s boy. He lost a bonus, and is late to the party with the positionless position.
Doesn’t expansion seem like a bad idea? NBA has a real issue, with stars not wanting to play in smaller markets. It happens in all leagues but seems much worse in the NBA.
There’s alot of talent, not many startering positions. Expansion is an easy decision in the NBA.
How about there’s not enough players in this league willing to accept a smaller role? From a competitive standpoint, all you’re doing is adding two more annual lottery teams. However, if Adam Silver can squeeze any kind of profit from these markets, and look creepy in the process, it’s a no brainer.
Seattle is long overdue after having its team stolen. And the league can’t add just 1 team.
Stolen or purchased?
Seattle is a no-brainer. Wonder why Montreal isn’t trying for this. It would seem Canada should be able to support a 2nd NBA team.
Mexico City Vaqueros !!!!
I’d much rather see Utah give back the Jazz name first. Long overdue.
The size of the league is the predominant cause of most of the things Silver has been complaining about over the past few years. But, of course, that won’t stop him from promoting expansion.
Before expanding, the league should figure out how to make the regular season meaningful enough to keep at both the players’ and the owners’ attention, a playoff structure consistent with that, and draft rules that stop rewarding losing. IMO, they should also wait until after a few drafts that permit HS players (since its inevitable), to be sure they have a working evaluation and development model for it.
1970 World Pop’n: 3.7 Billion
1970 NBA Teams: 17 teams (11 in the ABA)
2022 World Population: 7.8 Billion
2022 NBA Teams: 30 teams
You could argue that the NBA was more diluted in 1970 then in 2022. Of course, the game of basketball is now a global phenomenon.
You could, but only in 1970, not previously. 1970 might have been the high water mark of dilution prior to now. For most of the 1960’s (including prior to the ABA) the NBA had 8-10 teams. The population numbers you cite increased only marginally between 1967 and 1970.
In that period (1967-70’s), expansion was done for economic leverage, not basketball proliferation. The NBA was trying to prevent the ABA from gaining a foothold in markets, even if the NBA had to lose money to do it. NOT a great period to use as a baseline for thoughtful expansion.
Espn:
“The irony is that had the league been positionless with its ballot this year, Tatum would’ve been second team and Embiid would’ve been first.
“There just should be some rules in place,” Tatum said. “I don’t know exactly, .. I think it should just be like the 15 best players.””
Nevermind world peace. His mommy could have decided all-league and it would be done and everything fair to baby. As long as those mean knowledgable reporters can’t vote.