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Big Z 1990
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The NBA has been at 30 teams for 15 seasons now. There is increasing sentiment towards bringing the league back to Seattle a decade after the SuperSonics left, and the fact that KeyArena is being renovated (in part to bring the NHL in) is helping, though I highly suspect this is a stopgap measure until a completely new arena is built.
So yeah, coming back to Seattle should happen, but why stop there? 31 is an odd number and creates some scheduling problems, for instance, only having up to 30 teams play on the final day of the season, leaving open the possibility that one playoff team will have an extra day of rest before the playoffs start that the other 15 playoff teams do not (I feel that all the league's teams should play on the final day of the season like the NFL and MLB, the NHL will only be able to get there once they get to 32).
And I know just where to put the 32nd team. I know people have talked about bringing a team to Las Vegas, but for purposes of realignment, I think Vancouver should get the 32nd team (then we can talk Vegas and 3 other cities some time in the future).
Vancouver I propose should be a fan-owned team like the Packers of the NFL, this would ensure the team's survival and avoid a repeat of what happened to the Grizzlies.
In addition, adding both Seattle and Vancouver would allow the NBA to move both Minnesota and Oklahoma City out of the Northwest Division - because that's where Seattle and Vancouver would go.
Minnesota would join the Central Division (and by extension the Eastern Conference), and Oklahoma City would move into the Southwest Division, finally allowing both teams to be with geographical rivals (in Minnesota's case, being in the same division as many of the same cities that Minnesota's other big 4 teams share divisions with).
The regular season schedule format would be overhauled to emphasize division rivalries. Each team would play 2 games (a home-and-home series) with all the teams that are not in their division - adding up to 54 games for most teams, but 52 for teams in the Central and Southwest Divisions.
Most teams would play 7 games against each division rival, adding up to 28 games. Central and Southwest Division teams would play 6 games against each division rival, adding up to 30 games.
This new schedule format maintains the 82-game schedule while minimizing travel.
So yeah, coming back to Seattle should happen, but why stop there? 31 is an odd number and creates some scheduling problems, for instance, only having up to 30 teams play on the final day of the season, leaving open the possibility that one playoff team will have an extra day of rest before the playoffs start that the other 15 playoff teams do not (I feel that all the league's teams should play on the final day of the season like the NFL and MLB, the NHL will only be able to get there once they get to 32).
And I know just where to put the 32nd team. I know people have talked about bringing a team to Las Vegas, but for purposes of realignment, I think Vancouver should get the 32nd team (then we can talk Vegas and 3 other cities some time in the future).
Vancouver I propose should be a fan-owned team like the Packers of the NFL, this would ensure the team's survival and avoid a repeat of what happened to the Grizzlies.
In addition, adding both Seattle and Vancouver would allow the NBA to move both Minnesota and Oklahoma City out of the Northwest Division - because that's where Seattle and Vancouver would go.
Minnesota would join the Central Division (and by extension the Eastern Conference), and Oklahoma City would move into the Southwest Division, finally allowing both teams to be with geographical rivals (in Minnesota's case, being in the same division as many of the same cities that Minnesota's other big 4 teams share divisions with).
The regular season schedule format would be overhauled to emphasize division rivalries. Each team would play 2 games (a home-and-home series) with all the teams that are not in their division - adding up to 54 games for most teams, but 52 for teams in the Central and Southwest Divisions.
Most teams would play 7 games against each division rival, adding up to 28 games. Central and Southwest Division teams would play 6 games against each division rival, adding up to 30 games.
This new schedule format maintains the 82-game schedule while minimizing travel.