David Stern has mentioned that if Charlotte gets an expansion team, that the NBA might consider going to a 6 division format. This will be tough. Here are a few idea out there...

1) Stay at 4:


Boston
New York
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Washington
Atlanta
Orlando
Miami



Indiana
Detroit
Cleveland
Toronto
Chicago
Milwaukee
Minnesota



Charlotte
New Orleans
Memphis
Houston
Dallas
San Antonio
Denver
Utah


Phoenix
Seattle
Portland
Sacramento
LA Lakers
LA Clippers
Golden State

* The toughest division will be the 3rd, which would cover 3 time-zones.






Toronto
Boston
New York
New Jersey
Philadelphia


Washington
Charlotte
Atlanta
Orlando
Miami


Indiana
Detroit
Cleveland
Chicago
Milwaukee
Minnesota

New Orleans
Memphis
Houston
Dallas
San Antonio

Denver
Utah
Seattle
Portland

Sacramento
LA Lakers
LA Clippers
Golden State
Phoenix

*Takes a page form baseball and has 6 teams in 1 division with only 4 in another.

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KingCal, you basically took the words right out of my mouth. ;D

Although let's hope that Charlotte gets its NBA wings back... ::)

Time to bring this one up again with it looking like the Sonics will be moving from Seattle to Oklahoma City:

Toronto
Boston
New York
New Jersey
Philadelphia


Washington
Charlotte
Atlanta
Orlando
Miami


Indiana
Detroit
Cleveland
Chicago
Milwaukee

New Orleans
Memphis
OKLAHOMA CITY
Minnesota
Denver

Houston
Dallas
San Antonio
Utah
Phoenix


Sacramento
LA Lakers
LA Clippers
Golden State
Portland

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It seems like any way you cut this Minnesota is an outlier,

but how about re-arranging the 4th and 5th divisions to:

New Orleans
Memphis
Houston
San Antonio
Dallas (keeping 3 Texas teams together, but with the Miss. River Memphis and N.O.)

Minnesota
OK City
Denver
Utah
Phoenix
(this may span 3 time zones during April - November, if Arizona still refuses to switch to daylight savings time), but Denver really belongs with Utah (and Phoenix (sort of)).

Nothing is perfect here, unless the T-Wolves moved to Albuquerque !!!

The Hornets may well end up in Kansas City.

Pacifc - POR, LAL, LAC, GS, SAC, PHX, UTJ
Midwest - DEN, SA, HOU, DAL, OKC, NOH, MEM, MIN

Central - PHI, CLE, CHI, DET, TOR, IND, MIL
Atlantic - ORL, MIA, ATL, CHA, WAS, NYK, NJN, BOS

with seattle moving to okc being all but official, pending one more lawsuit here is my opinion on realignment

NORTHEAST
New York
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Boston
Washington

MIDWEST
Toronto
Cleveland
Detroit
Indiana
Chicago

SOUTH
Charlotte
Atlanta
Memphis
Orlando
Miami

SOUTHWEST
New Orleans
Houston
Dallas
San Antonio
Oklahoma City

CENTRAL/MOUNTAIN
Milwaukee
Minnesota
Denver
Utah
Phoenix

PACIFIC
LA Lakers
LA Clippers
Golden State
Sacramento
Portland

I think what we can do is keep the Eastern Conference as it is.

And we can realign the Western Conference into 2 divisions as follows:

Midwest:
Dallas
Houston
Memphis
Minnesota
New Orleans
Oklahoma City
San Antonio

Pacific:
Denver
Golden State
LA Clippers
LA Lakers
Phoenix
Sacramento
San Diego (hey if one team from the Pacific Northwest relocates the other should too)
Utah

Playoff format:
5 Division winners plus 11 best runners-up
All seeded 1-16 based on regular season record
Teams reseeded after each round

My bet is that Memphis will go to the East and that the NBA will expand to Kansas City and Seattle within the next 5-10 years.

I would also bet on 4 divisions of 8 teams each although I would prefer 8 divisions of 4 like the NFL.

Minnesota has been whining about having to play in the Western Conference-could the T-wolves be headed to the East:

Western Conference (*expansion team)
Pacific - Seattle*, Golden State, Sacramento, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers
Mountain - Utah, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, Las Vegas*
Southwest - Dallas, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio, Oklahoma City

Eastern Conference
Central - Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana
Atlantic - Toronto, New York, Boston, New Jersey, Philadelphia
Southeast - Atlanta, Washington, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando

While the NBA hasn't been as anti-Las Vegas as the NFL (hosting an all-star game vs banning ads from the Super Bowl), the NBA played the "we'll throw you a bone if you stay off the table" game. I'm convinced the NBA won't go to Vegas.

Memo to pf9- cute. The Blazers just won a sort of sweepstakes. No, not S**ttle leaving, because Sonics fans probably won't tune into Fox Northwest to watch the Blazers (though they will be offered the opportunity). No, it's a third year of what we in Stumptown call "Pritch-slapping," where Indiana gets stuck with Brandon Rush and a little cash while the Blazers have the proto-point guard they need to unleash Hell on the rest of the league. "Pritch-slapped" is named for Kevin Pritchard, who's our GM, and you can't have him. A healthy Greg Oden or no, the Blazers will be contenders this year... and since Paul Allen now owns the Rose Garden, he'd be flippin' stupid to move the Blazers.

NBA history suggests the OKC will be a Northwest team this year while the owners go to war against each other to figure out a more sane arrangement. Of course, that's also a matter of convenience given the Howard Schultz suit against Clay Bennett, which could be a monkey wrench in all this. My gut feeling: think 32. That means I think the league will overall lose revenue this year.

Why not get rid of the conferences and have a 5 division setup?

ATLANTIC:
Boston
Brooklyn
New York
Philadelphia
Toronto
Washington

SOUTHERN:
Atlanta
Charlotte
Memphis
Miami
New Orleans
Orlando

CENTRAL:
Chicago
Cleveland
Detroit
Indiana
Milwaukee
Minnesota

WESTERN:
Dallas
Denver
Houston
Oklahoma City
San Antonio
Utah

PACIFIC:
Golden State
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Phoenix
Portland
Sacramento

Schedule: 82 Games(6 vs. divisional opponents; 2 vs. rest of league; additonal games based on divisional finish)

Playoffs: 5 divisional winners automatically qualify, followed by next 11 teams based on win-loss

Round: Current Revolutonary
1st Round: Best-of-7 2-game; total points
Quarterfinals: Best-of-7 Best-of-3
Semifinals: Best-of-7 Best-of-5
NBA Finals: Best-of-7 Best-of-7

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Do you ahhhhh......realign?

i like it

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At this point with the Sonics move to Oklahoma, there seems like there could be an easy move to remedy the geography problem caused:

Move Portland from Northwest to Pacific
Move Phoenix from Pacific to Northwest
Change the Northwest name to Mountain

The new lineups would be:

PACIFIC:
Portland
Sacramento
Golden State
LA Lakers
LA Clippers

MOUNTIAN:
Denver
Utah
Phoenix
Oklahoma City
Minnesota

Seems fairly simple to me ;)

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Ok, I think I've finally quit retching over my Sonics being stolen away. The one bright side is that the ownership is so bush-league (and hasn't done much of anything to change minds since the move) that there'll probably be another move, this time away from OkC, within 5 years. I'm not saying the NBA can't do well there, but this team will probably end up being so bad that people will lose interest (see KC Kings, San Diego Clippers). But for now, some serious issues.

First, let's look at the current lineups:
ATLANTIC: Boston, New Jersey, New York, Philly, Toronto
CENTRAL: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Milwaukee
SOUTHEAST: Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando, Washington
NORTHWEST: Denver, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Portland, Utah
PACIFIC: Golden State, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Phoenix, Sacramento
SOUTHWEST: Dallas, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio

Everything looks copacetic except for that OkC sitting in the middle of the Northwest. It's been mentioned on here to move Phoenix from the Pacific, but that would take out one of the most heated rivalries in Suns-Lakers, so that won't happen. Secondly, unless Stern has his head up his rear, he KNOWS he needs to move the team to a different division, as playing in the Midwest division back in the 4-Div NBA helped send Vancouver to a fairly quick move (ironically enough, Louisville was the initial choice, however UofL's AD stonewalled that move), so OkC needs to get into a geographically comfortable position, and this means the Southwest, with the Texas teams. This leaves New Orleans and Memphis as the odd men out, and New Orleans is much closer than Memphis, so that would leave them looking for a place to go, and the Northwest looking for a team, however Memphis is definitely not it. Memphis also doesn't really have any main rivals thus far, which also makes them the logical choice for a division change. The move to do would be to send Memphis to the Central, and Milwaukee to the Northwest. Any rivalry the Bucks would have with nearby Chicago really hasn't existed since Jordan was in Red & Black, and they can capitalize on the Minnesota-Wisconsin state supremacy rivalry. This would also help Memphis out, since they would have a serious chance to be competitive for a playoff spot with Cleveland as the only dominant team, rather than being guaranteed last place every year.