Although all 30 NBA governors voted this week to formally explore the possibility of expanding to Seattle and Las Vegas, there are at least two or three owners who have concerns about the financial aspect and aren’t thrilled by the idea of adding two new expansion teams, writes Howard Beck of The Ringer. According to Beck, there are also several front office executives who view expansion as being solely financially motivated and are skeptical about whether it’s a good idea from a basketball perspective.
“Is (expansion) good? I would say no,” one executive from a playoff team told Beck. “I look at some of these rosters and can say some teams have at least one, if not two, players that shouldn’t be in the NBA. There should be a concern about dilution of talent. The two new teams are going to be really bad for a while. Add to it that good players are staying in college for the paydays they are getting (via NIL), and there is even less talent available.”
As Beck notes within his story, the NBA’s decision to approve an “exploration” of expansion is something of a hedge, giving the league an out if the process doesn’t go as planned. For instance, while team owners would surely feel comfortable moving forward with expansion if it can extract fees in the $8-10 billion range for two new franchises, many of those same owners would be less enthusiastic if the bids topped out at, say, $5 billion.
Beck also wonders if the NBA might be willing to turn away from either Seattle or Las Vegas if a prospective ownership group from another city came through with a massive bid, given that the process appears to be driven by money. However, one executive he spoke to predicted that Seattle and Vegas would be “better markets than some we already have.”
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- With the Sweet 16 games set to tip off in a matter of hours, Sam Vecenie of The Athletic shares his thoughts on how the NCAA tournament has impacted his perception of several of this year’s top draft prospects, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report updates his 2026 mock draft, and Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports and Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints each identify several four players – one from each region – whom they’ll be watching on Thursday and Friday.
- Arguing that a single Coach of the Year award isn’t sufficient to recognize the exceptional performances in the NBA’s head coaching ranks, Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports introduces his “All-Coaching team,” headlined by J.B. Bickerstaff of the Pistons, Mitch Johnson of the Spurs, and Joe Mazzulla of the Celtics.
- Elsewhere on the made-up-award front, Fred Katz of The Athletic unveils the 10 players who made his All-Surprise first and second teams this season. The first team consists of Pistons center Jalen Duren, Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Cavaliers wing Jaylon Tyson, Thunder guard Ajay Mitchell, and Celtics center Neemias Queta.
Nobody is forking over 8-10 billion for a new franchise lol. Why wouldn’t they just wait to buy an existing team with existing deals in place if it costs the same?
Exactly..These new expansion owners aren’t buying the Celtics or the Lakers, or even the Suns or Trailblazers. They have to start from scratch to build a brand, rosters and organizational success so why would you pay 8-10 bil, what those teams sold for just a couple years earlier?? Blatant money grab by the NBA if obviously, but it’s good to hear a few executives are already lampooning it 😂 I think Seattle makes sense, but Vegas is a reach imo; didn’t LeBron speak this into existence? Smh
The ego to be the one that builds the franchise from the start is what will drive the sale. These are almost all group sales now like NFL Broncos and Washington.
Seattle is for sure getting a team but Seahawks are also for sale. The groups that look have options.
@ Ancient
Totally. Seattle already has the history, the fan base, and a brand that’s still marketable to this day even though they don’t even exist, so I’d tend to agree it’s a much easier sell, maybe an inevitability, a lot like Charlotte back in ‘04. Easier even since OKC never even took the Sonics name I would think like NO did b4 the Pelicans rebrand
WA_BON … are you then predicting there will be no expansion from 30 to 32? That seems unlikely, no?
31 teams isn’t out of the question as Silver said in his presser yesterday or whenever that was..will the money be there? Or will enough money be there really?? Seattle is a natural fit, in a lot of ways, but I’m skeptical the NBA can get 8-10 billion for a completely fresh franchise in LV unless you have a splashy face like LeBron attached to add value instantly
Then folks’ thinking is there will be no expansion, right??