In a pefect world? We could just add another set of NBA teams and life would be good.
Rumors, hatred, feelings, emotions, revelations. That’s what alot of fans had when Oklahoma City and Memphis played a game 7. The fans? Vancouver and Seattle. Both cities lost their team to Memphis and Oklahoma City, and many couldn’t help but feel some level of pain, or even remorse for not supporting those cities. For Vancouver, it was almost a failure from the start. From the Bryant Reeves pick, to the Steve Francis’ draft look, to the terrible trades and picks that followed, Vancouver had no chance of being successful.
For Seattle, it must hurt ten times as much. Seattle drafted Kevin Durant and Jeff Green and got to see some of the glimpse of the future. Seattle even got to see Russell Westbrook wear the Supersonics hat, only for Clay Bennett to uproot them to Oklahoma City, where they reached the postseason in 2 of the 3 seasons since. Both cities thrown it’s name into the ring for a basketball team, as well as the Kansas City area, but if we see movement, one must believe both areas will recieve teams before Kansas City.
Now? The question must be what teams are up for movement? Here’s my idea:
The main moving team has to be the New Orleans Hornets. Currently, the Hornets are being ran by the NBA and the idea is they will be moving down the road, due to the fincial issues. They do have a franchise face in Chris Paul, but one must wonder if he will be there in the next couple seasons. With David Stern, he admitted his biggest mistake was Vancouver, but the first team to get a NBA city would be Seattle. Move the New Orleans Hornets to Seattle. Why New Orleans to Seattle? I think the city of Seattle just wants basketball back, regardless of the franchise status. The Hornets can get a good haul back for Chris Paul, and slowly rebuild the franchise back, with support for the Seattle fans.
The second team moving would be the Toronto Raptors. While the Raptors aren’t a poor attendance team (19th home, 23th away), they are always a team considered for movement and it makes alot of sense in terms of moving them to the Vancouver area. Unlike Seattle, I don’t think the people of Vancouver would enjoy the post-Chris Paul rebuild. Instead, give them building blocks like Demar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani that can get the fan base excited to come out to view. From 1995 to 1998, Vancouver’s attendance wasn’t terrible, it was actually quite average, ranging from the 16,000 to 16,500 range. I believe if you give them a solid team, we could see a increase to the 17,000 range.
The third movement isn’t a team, but a conference change. Let’s move the Memphis Grizzlies to the Eastern Conference. When looking at a map, the Memphis area is more southeast, close to teams like Orlando, Miami and Atlanta. Moving a solid 40 win team to the East is a smart thing, mainly because we just seen a 37 win Indiana team get in as the 8th seed. With Memphis in the east, this gives the Eastern Conference a replacement for Toronto, if not an upgrade. Imagine Zach Randolph, Mike Conley, Rudy Gay and company running around with teams like Orlando, Miami and Boston? I can see a couple strong playoff matches there, and a young team like this could be a solid contender for years to come.
The final move I would make is to move Sacramento to Kansas City. They want to get out of Sacramento, why not go to familiar territories? The Kings could do something similar to the Vancouver idea: Go into a new city with Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins and a bright future down the road. Like I said in a past story,Kansas City has history, and that’s a huge thing. With all the movement, let’s look at all these teams and the conference alignment now:
Eastern Conference
Atlantic: Boston, New Jersey, New York, Washington and Philadelphia
Central: Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Charlotte and Memphis
Southeast: Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland Detroit and Indiana
Western Conference
Pacific: Seattle, Vancouver, Portland, Minnesota and Golden State
Southwest:LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Sacramento, Phoenix and Utah
Midwest: Houston, San Antonio, Denver, Oklahoma City and Dallas
Why wouldn’t it work? Why can’t we have those cities back in the NBA family? Who knows, one day, we might have both back….and we might get to keep Toronto and New Orleans.
(Note to Memphis fans, Toronto fans and New Orleans fans: I hope I didn’t offend you, I was just making a case why Seattle and Vancouver should get teams back. If I did offend you, I apologize)