Now that the NBA is expanding to 30 teams with the addition of a Charlotte expansion team, its about time the NBA split up into Six Five team divisions.

To provide better balance, I have the LAClippers moving to become the Norfolk Clippers.

Western Conference
Pacific
1.LALakers
2.Seattle
3.Portland
4.Sacramento
5.GoldenState

Mountain
1.Houston
2.SanAntonio
3.Utah
4.Phoenix
5.Denver

MidWest
1.Dallas
2.Memphis
3.NewOrleans
4.Minnesota
5.Millwaukee

Eastern Conference
Central
1.Indiana
2.Chicago
3.Detroit
4.Cleveland
5.Toronto

Atlantic
1.New Jersey
2.New York
3.Philadelphia
4.Boston
5.Washington

Southern
1.Miami
2.Orlando
3.Atlanta
4.Norfolk
5.Charlotte

...jigga please!?

Whats the new team in Charlotte called?

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The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

They are called the Charlotte Bobcats.
The largest TV markets without an NBA team are the Tampa Bay/St. Pete and Pittsburgh. I say move the Clippers to Tampa. The Southern division would be the worst with an expansion team, the Hawks who are the worst team right now, and the Clippers and the Heat who are not that good. Orlando is good but wouldn't deserve a 3 seed in the east.

Wouldn't a team in the Tampa Bay area infringe on Orlando's territorial rights? I have reason to believe that the NBA would be much more apprehensive about a second team in Central Florida than it was about a second team in Los Angeles, especially since the team already in Los Angeles was the Lakers. Has Orlando ever played regular-season games in Tampa Bay area ala Boston in Hartford or Washington in Baltimore? I seem to recall the Tampa Bay Lightning having played regular season games in Orlando some years back.

Is Pittsburgh really one of the larger markets currently without an NBA team (as I recall Pittsburgh has never had an NBA team)? What about Saint Louis or San Diego?

gator guy how about San Diego, St Louis and Kansas City. Is there any other markets out there that need basketball. Cincy is the only one I can think of.

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

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http://hometown.aol.com/bradleyrd/apbr.html

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

St. Louis?

I would attempt something radical and different. It also attempts to address the tremendous imbalance between the current two conferences, by moving a few teams from East to West.

All 13 teams in the Eastern time zone form the Eastern Conference. Two divisions:

NORTHEAST DIVISION:
Boston Celtics
New Jersey Nets
New York Knicks
Philadelphia 76ers
Toronto Raptors
Washington Wizards

MIDEAST DIVISION:
Atlanta Hawks
Charlotte Bobcats
Cleveland Cavaliers
Detroit Pistons
Indiana Pacers
Miami Heat
Orlando Magic

The other 17 teams form the Western Conference. Three divisions:

CENTRAL DIVISION:
Chicago Bulls
Memphis Grizzlies
Milwaukee Bucks
Minnesota Timberwolves
New Orleans Hornets

SOUTHWEST DIVISION:
Dallas Mavericks
Denver Nuggets
Houston Rockets
Phoenix Suns
San Antonio Spurs
Utah Jazz

PACIFIC DIVISION:
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Portland TrailBlazers
Sacramento Kings
Seattle SuperSonics

That works for me but how about 4 conferences how would they align that.

_________________
The Bear may be dead but he still hates Tennessee. Roll Damn Tide

Here is what I think the NBA expansion will look like in 2004:

Eastern Conference:

Chicago Cleveland Detroit Indiana Milwaukee

Atlanta Charlotte Miami Orlando Washington

Boston New Jersey New York Philadelphia Toronto

Western Conference:

Denver Minnesota Portland Seattle Utah

Golden State LA Clippers La Lakers Phoenix Sacram.

Dallas Houston Memphis New Orleans San Antonio

I would like to see the schedule as follows:

30 games interconference (2*15)
30 games same conference not your division (3*10)
20 games same division (4*5)
2 games same division rotation between other four tms
82 games total

I like expansion. I would not mind seeing teams in St. Louis, KC, Pitt, Tampa, Mexico, San Diego, Anaheim or Brooklyn. Here is my suggestion to add to the confusion. Move the Clippers to Anaheim, or back to San Diego. LA is a massive market, and adding to the north south rivalry that the Dodgers/Angels, and Kings/Ducks have is good. The Clippers are the Lakers little cousins. Orange Co. would provide better support to an expansion team, or the Clippers, than sharing their market with the heavily loved Lakers. If I were commisioner, here is what I would do. I would like to see Minnesota in the East because geographically their nearest NBA neighbors are Milwaukee and Chicago. Also, a team in Mexico would provide each conference with an international flavor.

Eastern Conf:


Atlantic
Toronto Boston New York New Jersey Philadelphia Washigton Orlando Miami

Central
Minnesota Milwaukee Chicago Indiana Cleveland Detroit Charlotte Atlanta


Western Conference

Midwest
Memphis New Orleans Dallas Houston San Antonio Mexico Denver Utah

Pacific
Seattle Portland Sacramento Oakland LA Lakers Anaheim San Diego Phoenix


32 interleague games (2*16)
24 other division same conference games (3*8)
28 inter division games (4*7)

Adding teams would make the regular season mean more because only half of the teams would make the playoffs. Also, this would provide consistency so that teams have the same schedule as other teams in their division.

With the coming of NBA realignment in the near future, the powers that be should step back and forget about conferences and concentrate and regional and historic rivalries. Why not split the 30 teams into 5 divisions and have the top 16 make the playoffs. By eliminating the conferences, you can potentially have the best available match-up for the finals, meaning San Antonio could have played Sacramento instead of New Jersey last year.

Atlantic Division: Boston, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, Washington
Southeast Division: Atlanta, Charlotte, Memphis, Miami, New Orleans, Orlando
Central Division: Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, Milwaukee, Minnesota
Southwest Division: Dallas, Denver, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Utah
Pacific: Anaheim (old Clippers), Golden State, LA Lakers, Portland, Sacramento, Seattle

You would still have the 82 game regular season under the following format: play your division rivals 6 times (30 games); play all of the other teams twice (48 games) and then there would be four “free” games based on history (LA Lakers-Boston, Miami-New York), geography (Detroit-Toronto) or possible match-ups (Cleveland-Denver, LeBron-Carmelo).

Playoffs would remain best of 7 all the way through and you would rank the teams 1 through 16 in a straight bracket with no re-seeding.

As for the All-Star game, you could either do East (of the Mississippi) vs. West (of the Mississippi); North (of the Mason-Dixon Line) vs. South (of the Mason-Dixon Line); The United States vs. The World; or have the two best players in the league pick amongst a pool of all-stars.

I can’t take credit for the alignment as I saw it somewhere else a long time ago, but I think this would be a start into making the NBA watchable again.

Don't know about territorial rights Publius. However, I do know that a major problem with Tampa getting the NBA is because the Lightning's owner has control over the St. Pete Times Forum and he can block any NBA from coming in there. Why he would try to block a Tampa NBA team? The Lightning's owner also owns the Detroit Pistons. :o

On the NBA, I might try to put franchises in Tampa, St. Louis, and OKC. OKC has a brand new arena with no tenant, so that interests me a lot. ;) I'm not too sold on Pittsburgh or San Diego right now.