Every US-based sports commissioner wants to portray their league as powerful enough to withstand international boundaries, "grow the game," etc.

Bull. The NFL is more likely to give this consideration because they have the money to pull things off. The NBA can't operate in Europe the way they operate here, they know it, they'll give lip service to these expansion promises and never follow through.

Expand marketing opportunities in Europe, sure. Try to enslave Euro leagues, possibly. European teams in the NBA... something would have to drastically change.

Well I would disagree. The reason the NFL couldn't pull it off (NFL Europe) was because the game just isn't that popular in Europe (or anywhere else in the world). And by the end it was basically NFL Germany.

Baseball is gaining some popularity in a few countries in Europe but not to the point where MLB could add teams there (Asia would be far more likely). Basketball however is the sport that could actually do it as it is very popular in Europe.

I don't necessarily want to see the NBA grow larger though (at least not too much more). There are plenty of cities already struggling to support their teams. Maybe 32 teams with 8 in the west, 8 in the central, 8 in the east, and 8 in Europe and possibly up to 40 (10-10-10-10)

The only way for the NBA to work would be for there to be enough teams on the other side of the pond to have a whole division. You could do a 36 team NBA with 6 teams in Europe:

EASTERN CONFERENCE
Europe: pick 6 cities
Northeast: Boston, NY, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington
Southeast: Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, New Orleans, Memphis

WESTERN CONFERENCE
Central: Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota
Southwest: OKC, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Utah
Pacific: Phoenix, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Golden St, Sacramento/Seattle, Portland

The NBA would have to arrange the schedule such that each division would make trips to Europe, play a game against all 6 European teams, and then come home. To make things easier on the European teams they'd have to do the same thing with each division in the states.

Teams could play 4 games against each division opponent (20 games) and 2 games against each of the other NBA teams (60) for a total of 80 games which is only 2 less than the current schedule. This would mean every NBA team would only have to make 1 trip to Europe a year (and stay for maybe a week and a half in order to get 6 games in.)

Love this format idea.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

If the NBA wanted to keep the season at 82 games, the two extra could come from within the conference, either on a rotating basis or based on the previous season's standings like the NFL.

NBA TV would probably love to have some live programming in the middle of the day from Europe. Every sports bar and restaurant with TVs could show live games to their lunch crowds.

Wouldn't the travel (a lot of trans-Atlantic flights) be BRUTAL on the European teams ?

If I ws a free agent, I'd have a strong preference to sign with a team in the western conference, just to lessen my time on airplanes.....

Exactly, which is why they would likely need to follow the NHL model and have 4 conferences. Ensure that the majority of the games are intra conference and there are equal amounts of play between the conferences. If you can ensure that half (say 40/80 games) are in Europe for conference play and of the remaining 40, 20 are home and 20 are away then it could be workable. Maybe you follow the NFL model and play conferences on a rotating basis. Something like Europe hosts the West and Central, while they go to Central and East, etc.

The European teams would be making 5 Transatlantic flights a season and staying in the states for roughly 10 days on each trip.

I actually put some thought into 4 Conferences like the NHL is leaning towards. Granted, it would be hard to have an NBA with 25% of its teams in Europe but I think it would work nicely with the current 30:

North: Boston, NY, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland
South: Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Memphis, New Orleans
Central: Indiana, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minnesota, OKC, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio
West: Denver, Utah, Phoenix, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Golden St, Portland, Seattle/Sacramento

The Central is really more like two 4-team clusters but I think in the grand scheme of things it looks pretty good and the travel would be reasonable for all 30 teams

How about this ideal format for realignment?:

1. – Eastern Conference:
1.1. – Mideast Section: Cleveland, Detroit, Toronto and Washington
1.2. – Southeast Section: Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami and Orlando
1.3. – Northeast Section: Boston, Brooklyn, N.Y. Knicks and Philadelphia
1.4. – Central Section: Chicago, Indiana, Milwaukee and Memphis

2 – Western Conference:
2.1. – Southwest Section: Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and San Antonio
2.2. – Midwest Section: Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and (new franchise)
2.3. – Northwest Section: Portland, Seattle (formerly Sacramento), Utah and Vancouver (franchise)
2.4. – Pacific Section: Golden State, L.A. Clippers, L.A. Lakers and Phoenix

Schedule Format (82 total games):

Conference play; Division play; Intra-Section play: Each team will play six times – three home, three away – for a total of 18 Intra-Division Intra-Section games (3 * 6 = 18).
Conference play; Division play; Out-of-Section play: Each team will play all four teams four times – two home, two away – for a total of 16 Intra-Division Out-of-Section games (4 * 4 = 16).
Conference play; Out-of-Division play: Each team will play all eight teams twice – one home, one away – for a total of 16 Out-of-Division games (8 * 2 = 16).
Out-of-Conference play: Each team will play all 16 teams twice – one home, one away – for a total of 32 Out-of-Conference games (16 * 2 = 32).

Sum that up for a total of 82 games in one season.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

for the new franchise in the midwest section: how about kansas city or st louis?

That would sound very fit and eligible.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

If the Kings move to Seattle they should have the Sonics/Kings swap divisions with Phoenix:

Pacific: Seattle, Portland, Golden St, LA Clippers, LA Lakers
Northwest (probably needs a new name): Phoenix, Denver, Utah, OKC, Minnesota

Sounds very logical to me.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions!

Based on your hypothetical divisions, I think you mean swap Phoenix with Portland. Kings/Sonics and Phoenix are already in the same division. So if they swap, nothing will change. /troll

oh, and I like Midwest instead of Northwest if that were to occur.