Asked at his Thursday press conference whether the NBA has looked any more at adding an expansion team or two, commissioner Adam Silver said the league is “still in the process of digesting the Celtics (sale)” and expects to explore expansion in a “more serious way” once that transaction is finalized, per Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
As Bontemps notes, ESPN has previously reported that the Celtics sale was viewed as a possible precursor to expansion, since it would provide a point of reference for how much the expansion fees for new teams could potentially be worth.
“I wish I could be more conclusive today and say, ‘Here it is, here’s the timeline,'” Silver said, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. “There are events that are clearly outside of my control. Part of it, as I said, is trying to assess value in a way that’s both fair, even to a potential owner, and fair to the existing owners in terms of what it means to add additional partners, different cities, divide up our current media pie with the 31st or 32nd share.
“And also, we want to make sure we put teams in a position, particularly as we’re setting the price, to be in a position to be competitive, economically successful and just as important for the other teams, successful on the floor.”
According to Bontemps, the widespread belief is that if the NBA expands, it would do so by two teams instead of one, with Seattle and Las Vegas considered the strong frontrunners for new teams.
We previously relayed Silver’s comments on Thursday about a new European league and the NBA’s All-Star format, but he also addressed several other topics during his New York presser. Here are some highlights:
- Addressing the Timberwolves‘ ownership situation, Silver said longtime owner Glen Taylor is still considering whether to appeal an arbitration ruling in favor of prospective owners Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez and that Taylor continues to communicate directly with Lore and Rodriguez, Bontemps writes. Silver referred to the situation as “on hold” while Taylor weighs his options.
- Silver believes that the variety of tweaks made by the NBA in recent years – including new draft lottery odds, the introduction of the play-in tournament, and the implementation of the 65-game rule and player participation policy – have helped limit the impact of tanking, but admits that the league is still mulling ways to further address the issue. “It comes down to incentives,” Silver said, per Bontemps. “There’s no doubt that incentives change at the end of a season, especially when you have a draft that’s perceived not just with the top pick, but the top maybe few picks is an incredibly strong draft. That’s a way, a legitimate way of rebuilding in this league. So I’m not sitting here saying, ‘All right, here’s the new calibration to the draft lottery and that will solve it.’ We don’t have a new plan at the moment. I don’t have an answer sitting here today as to what we’re going to do other than to say that we recognize it’s an issue and it’s an issue for our fans. And so we’re paying attention to it.”
- While Silver acknowledges the regional sports network landscape has become murky in recent years, he’s optimistic that the NBA will be able to “derive value from the situation,” Bontemps writes. “We think there’s tremendous opportunity there,” the commissioner said. “You have bankruptcies of RSNs, other RSNs that have shut down, and I think that’s created, for lack of a better term, a lot of transactional friction of people who would otherwise be interested. At the same time, well-known streaming services that only a year ago were saying they have no interest in live sports are now aggressively bidding on live sports. So we see no reason why the extent there’s that interest on a national basis or even a global basis there wouldn’t also be on a local basis.”
Tanking
76ers
Simmons 2016 #1
Fultz 2017 #1
Lakers
3 Consecutive #2 picks
Russell 2015
Ball 2016
Ingram 2017
Small market needs a chance on the draft
I know it was asked in a previous post, but I think the best way to address tanking would be to have a lottery for every lottery pick. So teams that tank have a chance of having their picks drop all the way to the bottom of the lottery.
Every team in the league gets a lottery ball for every win post all star break, the 16 teams who make the playoffs are taken out, the teams left are drawn, the top 4 picks after a lottery play a tournament seeded however the draft falls, 1v4 2v3 winners play for 1 and 2 pick loser play for 3 and 4, not only takes the incentive from losing but actually punishes it
Single elimination tournament. No play in tournament.16 teams make the playoffs.14 teams compete for the first pick
This way no lottery balls and all the non playoff teams will try to win as much as possible
He’s waiting for LeBron to retire so that he can be owner of the Vegas team.
Teams like hornets who had a chance to improve but didn’t should not be in the lottery at all. Teams who don’t care about winning like wizards definitely should not be given a lottery pick. Teams that happen to have a bad season but show they care about winning, make moves and can develop should be tops in lottery odds. If you trade your picks for veteran players and it didn’t work out you lose out simple.
Worst Commissioner in the history of sports leagues. Intentionally losing is a legitimate way of rebuilding? Owners that tolerate this fool also care little to nothing about the sport.
I have to place some blame on the new gen fan as well here
They covet tanking, probably more than actual GM/ownerships, they want to throw in the towel first sign of blood for dem magic bouncy balls
They are 100% complicit
Definitely, Silver would never lead anyone or anything anywhere without a choir behind him. After all, that would be leadership.
Not really a huge lottery conspiracy theorist but ATL winning last year had some very strange (purposeful) undertones.
Kinda fits Silvers moda operandi a little too snug from my side of the fence
I understood Atlanta getting the 1st pick. I’m glad you said that because you are right
Tanking will never be eliminated with the lotto in effect. Losing is still rewarded.
Create a Tourney for the #1 pick.
Eliminate conferences.
Top 16 teams make playoffs.
Top 8 teams to miss playoffs play tourney for picks 1-8 (occurs same time as playoffs)
Bottom 6 teams get picks 9-14. Don’t want be in the bottom, invest in free agents and coaching. Invest in bringing in a winning culture.
The league needs to contract at least 2 teams.
I’m for expansion, but also am into contracting every team that hasn’t won a title since 1980 and replacing/moving them to a new city where they might succeed.
Expansion gotta start with San Jose, CA – its 2+ hours in traffic to see Warriors at home – that’s too long/far. The east coast has more teams per capita than CA.