As the NBA grows to 32 teams in the coming years, Western Conference team executives hope it will provide an opportunity for the league to continue the idea of seeding playoff teams ranked one through 16, regardless of conference It is said that you have to think about it ESPN's Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps (insider link).
Assuming Seattle and Las Vegas, the presumptive frontrunners, get teams in the next round of expansion, a current Western Conference team — likely one of the Timberwolves, Grizzlies or Pelicans — would have to move east to balance the two conferences. Given the relative strength of the East versus the West, these three clubs may work hard to become the chosen ones, but that battle could potentially be avoided by revising the postseason bylaws, Windhorst suggests.
“It would be the right thing for the health of the league.” a West general manager told ESPN. “It’s not just about fairness, it’s about giving fans the best playoff product.”
A change along these lines, as Bontemps notes, would require approval from at least three-quarters of NBA teams (23 of 30), meaning at least eight Eastern Conference teams would have to agree to the idea and potentially vote against it based on their own interests.
Here you can find more little things from the basketball world:
- Bontemps and Windhorst suggest in the same ESPN story that many scouts and executives in the NBA believe it will take a while for the trade market to get going in the 2024-25 season. Trades this early in the season are already rare, and new CBA-related restrictions related to skirts and hard caps have only made deals more difficult. “We looked at a trade concept the other day and there were three reasons why the other team couldn’t do it.” a manager said to Windhorst. “One of the rules I didn’t even know about.”
- In another inside story for ESPNBontemps ranks the core competencies of all 30 NBA teams and lists the three most important building blocks of each club based on their current and future value. The Celtics (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Derrick White) is at the top of the list, while the networks (Nick Claxton, Noah Clowney, Cam Thomas) come in 30th place.
- Joe Vardon and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic Provide some additional details about this suggested Changes to the NBA's All-Star format, noting that since the league is expected to divide its All-Stars into four teams, the head coaches of each conference's top two teams (four total) will likely be invited to All-Star Weekend Train team. As Vardon and Vorkunov detail, the current collective bargaining agreement calls for players on the winning All-Star team to earn $100,000 while players on the losing team earn $25,000. The NBA and NBPA will have to renegotiate those numbers before officially implementing the new format, which would result in three teams losing instead of just one.
- In a memo to team officials, the NBA urged its players to take extra precautions to secure their homes after a series of break-ins dollar big man Bobby Portis And Timberwolves guard Mike Conleyamong other things. Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press has the story.