Imo, there should be 40 teams and split the conferences right down the Mississippi. Boost the rate of international development so that small market teams can stand a better chance landing a superstar through the draft and successfully keeping them.
Imo, there should be 40 teams and split the conferences right down the Mississippi. Boost the rate of international development so that small market teams can stand a better chance landing a superstar through the draft and successfully keeping them.
Silver's gonna have that bytch-ass Clay Bennett come up off the name for a nominal fee or else Clay's car is going to mysteriously hit a pylon and blow up just like Aubrey McClendon's did.
Edit: found the list I made from the last time this topic was discussed and yes, I’m aware that the Vegas team needs a different name.
So let’s sum up some of the ideas
- Expand league, add 3-5 teams to each conference. Split it into 8 divisions of five.
East:
Boston Celtics
NYC Knicks
Brooklyn Nets
Philly Sixers
Washington Wizards
Charlotte Hornets
Atlanta Hawks
Orlando Magic
Miami Heat
Indiana Pacers
Detroit Pistons
Chicago Bulls
Milwaukee Bucks
Toronto Raptors
Cleveland Cavaliers
Add:
Tampa Bay Tigers (Orange/Black/Green)
Baltimore Ballers (Black/White/Navy blue)
Pittsburgh Hammer (Black/Brown/White)
Memphis Blues (Different shades of blue)
New Orleans Jazz (Yellow/Teal/Mauve/White) (Swamp Gator Green alternates)
West:
LA Lakers
LA Clippers
Golden State Warriors
Sacramento Kings
Portland Trailblazers
OKC Thunder
Dallas Mavericks
Houston Rockets
San Antonio Spurs
Phoenix Suns
Denver Nuggets
Utah Outlaws (Utah used to be a haven for bandits in the Old West)
Minnesota Timberwolves
Add:
Las Vegas Aces (Black, Silver, and Gold) (Caesar’s alternates) (Flamingo alternates)
San Diego Sharks (Navy blue, shark gray, sand tan)
Seattle SuperSonics
Kansas City Pioneers (Ruby, Green, Wheat)
St. Louis Sentinels (Sapphire, Aquamarine, and Brown)
Vancouver Grizzles (Old colors)
Oakland Players (Black, Green, Gold)
Divisions:
North Atlantic Division
Boston Celtics
New York Knicks
Brooklyn Nets
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors
South Atlantic Division
Baltimore Ballers
Washington Wizards
Charlotte Hornets
Memphis Blues
Pittsburgh Hammer
Midwest Division
Cleveland Cavaliers
Milwaukee Bucks
Chicago Bulls
Detroit Pistons
Indiana Pacers
Deep South Division
Atlanta Hawks
New Orleans Jazz
Orlando Magic
Tampa Bay Tigers
Miami Heat
West
North Pacific (NorPac) Division
Oakland Players
Seattle SuperSonics
Portland Trailblazers
Sacramento Kings
Golden State Warriors
South Pacific (SoPac) Division
Las Vegas Aces
LA Lakers
LA Clippers
San Diego Sharks
Phoenix Suns
The Plains Division
Vancouver Grizzles
Minnesota Timberwolves
St Louis Sentinels
Utah Outlaws
Denver Nuggets
The Rodeo Division
Kansas City Pioneers
Oklahoma City Thunder
San Antonio Spurs
Houston Rockets
Dallas Mavericks
Rivalry games:
Battle for the North:
Celtics
Raptors
TWolves
Grizzles
Battle of NY
Nets vs Knicks
Penn State Showdown
Sixers vs Hammer
Battle of the Beltway
Ballers vs Wizards
Battle of the Valley
Cavaliers vs Hammer
I-85 Classic
Hawks vs Hornets
Music City Showdown
Blues vs Jazz
Lakeside Classic
Toronto Raptors
Chicago Bulls
Milwaukee Bucks
Detroit Pistons
Cleveland Cavaliers
Indiana Pacers
Have rivalry games fall under the same rules as All Star weekend. If the final point total can’t be reached by the expected time of conclusion then set the game to overtime and have the team with the most points win. It should be set to have each team play at least two different classics/showcase rivalry games at year.
Both conferences split down the middle via the Mississippi. Place more teams in “sports towns” that would support an NBA franchise in their city. Division and conference rivalries can help build viewership across the country and create a competitive league for domestic/global consumption.
With an expanded league, add a 3rd supplemental round in the draft. Winning the Summer and Fall leagues get teams extra picks in the 3rd round which helps teams get more prospects for G-League or the rights to international players overseas.
Preseason starts on Black Friday weekend, regular season starts on Christmas Day, that way those are dates you can clearly remember as dates for when the NBA will kick off. Preseason can be 8-10 games with half being games in major international cities. Then the regular season goes on until April like it is currently.
As someone suggested, have non conference play earlier in the season, and then later on have divisional and conference schedule. Division record determines eligibility and seeding in an end of season divisional tourney which determines division champions. So only playoff teams should be able to compete in the Divisional rounds. As the division tourney is played, non playoff teams can play a single elimination tourney for draft spot. After divisional and draft tourney, the wild card series can begin involving seeds 7 to 10. Wild card champs get the 7th seed and runner up gets the 8th seed. If a non-playoff team so happens to win the division title then they have the right to join the play in with the other wild card teams for a chance at the playoffs.
So:
Summer League in Hawaii and Fall League in Puerto Rico to help further develop young talent and use those locations as gateways to global markets.
Preseason after Black Friday, half games in international cities, other half back stateside.
Regular season from Christmas Day to April
Best of 3 Divisional Tourney to end the season determines Division champs and awards first round bye to winners of the Division tourney.
Wild Card play in for the final two seeds.
Teams that didn’t make the playoffs play a single elimination tourney to determine draft position.
1st round is a best of 5 Wild Card round with Division runner ups vs Wild Card teams
Divisional round becomes best of 7 with Wild Card winners/divisional runner ups vs Division champs
Conference championships are determined later as the playoffs advance. Wildcard champs and Division champs both have a chance to become Conference champs. Conference Champions go on to the Finals.
TV: Make LeaguePass more affordable and accessible. Create more original content and utilize the history of the league to expose new fans to past legends and greats. Try to get the rights to classic basketball films and documentaries. Work with original content creators to help bring fresh new ideas to NBATV.
After football season, have the NBA take over weekends on the major networks with afternoon and evening games:
Weekdays: ESPN/TNT
Saturday Early Afternoon: Fox
Saturday Late Afternoon: CBS
Saturday Evening: ABC
Sunday all Afternoon: NBC
Game: Give defense as much freedom to operate as offenses currently get. Lower the ref whistles and let the game flow more easily. Perhaps add a 4 point line.
Teams: Stronger front offices to prevent constant player movement. Expanding global outreach with more basketball camps and courts in areas of interest or potential growth such as Africa, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Also do more outreach in rural communities in America to win back the heartland and gain the Deep South. I’d also go back to only wearing home and away jerseys when your supposed to.
Promotion: Try to balance how the game is promoted. NBA stars are highly visible so extra marketing towards superstars isn’t as necessary. Team and city emphasis has to be a part of the formula. Promote rivalries and competition between teams and cities instead of search for the next Jordan.
They are not allowed to use the Sonics name. Something something shared history, though, which makes no sense.
Once they get a team, finally get to see Payton and Kemp retire their jerseys. I think Payton said he's not touching foot nor would want OKC to do anything with his number or history.
If two teams go to the West, then only one would need to go to the East to balance things out. If you send two then the East would 17 teams and the West 15.
Minnesota should be the obvious choice. They’re completely isolated away from the rest of the West and have to travel the most every year because of it and their rivals in other sports (Chicago, Detroit, Wisconsin, Cleveland) are all in the East.
Memphis and New Orleans are closer to the East coast but they’re much closer to other West squads like the Texas teams and OKC
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or maybe the Pelicans or both considering their geographical location 
I think Payton said he's not touching foot nor would want OKC to do anything with his number or history. 
I'm not gonna miss the Southwest division (even though San Ant gonna be off for a minute)