The NBA isn’t planning to expand in the near future, according to commissioner Adam Silver. During his annual press conference prior to Game 1 of the Finals, he shot down a report that the league is targeting Seattle and Las Vegas for expansion in 2024, Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press reports.
“We are not discussing that at this time,” Silver said.
Silver said the league will inevitably expand and called Seattle and Las Vegas “wonderful markets.” However, he cited a lack of top-tier talent as a reason for pumping the brakes on expanding in the next couple of seasons.
“There still are only so many of the truly top-tier super talents to go around,” he said. “That is something on the mind of the other teams as we think about expansion.”
Here are some of the other highlights from Silver’s press conference:
- With many teams moving toward position-less lineups, All-NBA teams may be determined differently in future seasons. “We’re going to discuss that with the players and sit down once again and see if there’s a better way to do it,” Silver said.
- Amid reports that Nike co-founder Phil Knight and Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner Alan Smolinisky made an offer to buy the Trail Blazers for more than $2 billion, Silver stated the Blazers will eventually be sold and he hopes they’ll remain in Portland. The Blazers released a statement on Thursday saying the team is not for sale. “At some point, the team will be sold,” Silver said. “I don’t have any sense of the precise timing. … This is a hugely a complex estate, and although it’s been several years, these things take time.”
- An in-season tournament is still a possibility but “we’re not there yet,” Silver said. With so many teams giving key players nights off during various points of the season, Silver wants to ensure the tournament is competitive. “We want to make sure we have a system where our best players are incentivized to be on the floor,” Silver said.
If the league wants better quality of play, they should contract 2 teams.
Who
That’s not an option, they’d have to pay out two owners and it would cost the league billions
Businesses grow overtime. You don’t get smaller.
Dumb
Is the quality of play lacking in your mind? To me, the league is as talented top to bottom as it’s ever been. Almost everyone on the court can shoot and pass in the current NBA. Couple that with all of the major stars and all of the drama and the viewership numbers, and the NBA is doing great right now.
NBA way behind of the game with the All-NBA position-less!
Even if it changes now, Embiid has lost at least 2 first team nominations, unless they change the past it ain’t much of a comfort for him, right?
“Positionless” gets points this year b/c BOS+GSW are competing but not all teams have their illusions. GSW for instance has three positions: center, wing & Steph, lol.
Bigs are still likely to turn the ball over when they bring the ball upcourt— i.e., Dray last night.
The all-NBA does have positions, the all-star just “frontcourt+backcourt”.
I vehemently disagree with the statement that the NBA doesn’t have enough talent to go around for another 2 expansion teams. Look at the teams that are actively tanking — even they have foundational core pieces to build around. OKC- Shai GA, Dort, Giddey. HOU – Green, Porter. DET – Cunningham, Bey. IND – Haliburton. ORL – Suggs, Isaac, Carter. PORT – Simons, Lillard. There’s not really anybody out there that you could say, “Gosh, there’s no way you could develop your team to be in the playoffs within a couple years!” The parity and smaller roster sizes compared to other sports is what makes the NBA great … Look at it this way. Just from reasonable free agent signings (assuming that all-star types like Zach Lavine would not want to sign), you could compose two teams of:
(1) Gary Payton PG, Malik Monk SG, Caleb Martin SF, Otto Porter PF, Mo Bamba C
(2) Tyus Jones PG, Victor Oladipo SG, Lonnie Walker, SF, Marvin Bagley PF, Nic Claxton C.
That’s not a bad foundation and that’s before even talking about (1) an expansion draft where teams would leave 1-2 players unprotected (2) the ability of an expansion team to absorb a bad contract – ala Westbrook/Wall – in exchange for draft capital.
I agree and most of those teams are about to add more young, top quality talent (or so they hope) in the draft.
Since when is BB about “truly top-tier super talents”? That is a fabrication, depending on the standards used.
It’s about teams. BB includes and shows off individuals, but it’s a team score that gets put up. Teams develop as you watch, and they discover, and the scoreboard notes.
Please fire this clown
Silver should not be responding to Tatum complaining about not meeting his bonus. That’s how he wanted his contract. There is no improvement on media members voting. They follow events as closely as anyone but scouts. Should scouts be the voters?— nobody does that. Every sport argues their methods.
Tatum has had time to think,of a better way and he has not. There’s no system that will support everyone’s preferences. Tatum sounds like a child holding his breath until things are made fair to his mind.
The allstar teams are more positionless so there is balance. My improvement?— 1)The top 20 in four tiers for all-NBA are fine by me.
2)The first team should have positions, so someone can be said to be the best at something, then
3)the last two levels be posionless to arrive the top 20 overall regardless of position.
There you go!
About games played— Dray complained about that and he only played 46!
First step is for a games missed to be a regular stat kept track of, that voters could consult easily on Bas.Ref. or whatever.
I was surprised Silver even acknowledged the concerns of product dilution. It’s usually his m/o to just babble around these things. Maybe it’s so clear that even he can see it. Or others in the league are letting him in on it. Unless he’s blowing smoke, it seems as though it’s unlikely there will be expansion until at least the end of the decade, and that’s a good thing for the game.
Whether one likes or dislikes the skill sets of modern NBA players isn’t directly relevant. Skill sets will always be developed as rewarded. The only objective reality is that league has never had anywhere close to this many teams that are not competitive, or this little diversity in how teams play. For the NBA to expand into this situation would be negligence in its stewardship of the sport.