David Stern for a day: Fixing the NBA musical chairs

The NBA is arguably the most frustrating league in the professional sports world.  With recent turmoil, the Kings and Hornets both are in positions of losing their teams.  I want to disclose my bias from the beginning.  I am an Oregonian.  As such, I have a strong bias for the Pacific Northwest.  To see the Sonics leave Seattle, and the heartbreak that ensued was quite perturbing.  To see the league do nothing to remedy the situation?  Even worse.  The Sonics met their demise to greedy and selfish politics of David Stern.  Despite all of these recent rumors and efforts to bring a team to Seattle, whether the Kings will stay or go and ditto for the Hornets, there exists a simple solution that would solve this NBA problem for many years.  It's too simple to work and would eliminate the ability to leverage vulnerable franchises, which is why it would never be approved.  Which leads me to this post of what I would do if I were David Stern for a day.

I would start by adding two teams:  one in Seattle and one in Kansas City.  The NFL has thrived at 32 teams and I believe the NBA has the popularity to do the same.  Why would I do this?  Because Seattle, home to a loyal fan base deserves a team.  Because Kansas City (alternatively, you could put it in St. Louis) makes sense for the big picture of the NBA.

Next I would realign the entire structure of the conferences.  My proposal would involve four 8-team divisions , two in the west and two in the east.  Afterwards, I would keep everything else the same. Each division winner gets an automatic berth to the tournament.  16 playoff teams would make sense in a 32-team league.  As of right now, over half the teams make postseason play.  Allow me to lay out the divisions (names to be determined):

Division 1: The Most-West:

Seattle Supersonics

Portland Trailblazers

Sacramento Kings

Golden State Warriors

Los Angeles Lakers

Los Angeles Clippers

Utah Jazz

Denver Nuggets

Division 2: The Southwest:

Phoenix Suns

San Antonio Spurs

Dallas Mavericks

Houston Rockets

Oklahoma City Thunder

Kansas City/St. Louis Expansion team

New Orleans Hornets

Memphis Grizzlies

Division 3: The Midwest:

Minnesota Timberwolves

Chicago Bulls

Indiana Pacers

Detroit Pistons

Milwaukee Bucks

Cleveland Cavaliers

Toronto Raptors

Unfortunately there is no logical 8th team for this division.  For placeholder sake, let's put the Brooklyn Nets here

Division 4: The East:

Boston Celtics

New York Knicks

Philadelphia 76ers

Washington Wizards

Charlotte Bobcats

Atlanta Hawks

Miami Heat

Orlando Magic

You now have at least one team representing the major states or metropolitan areas.  Sure, some small(er) cities like Cincinnati and Pittsburgh would have to commute to Philadelphia and Cleveland, but they at least have one team servicing their state.  And despite what anyone says, Anaheim does NOT deserve an NBA team.  If you want a team in Anaheim, move the Clippers and call it good.  But we do not need a repeat of hockey where 3 teams are concentrated and service one market.  Especially not when that market already has 2 hockey teams, 2 baseball teams, 2 soccer teams, 2 high profile colleges and 2 basketball teams.  The LA area needs NFL, not a 3rd basketball team.

Still, I find the Kings an interesting dilemma.  I ponder why nobody has considered moving them to the Bay Area (San Jose or San Fran) to serve as a 2nd team there.  That market is close to saturation, but could handle one more team if in the right season (with NBA primarily winter and only 1 NHL team, it would work).  Personally, I would like to see the Kings stay in Sacramento.  If you move them to SJ or SF however, you might be able to retain part of your fan base, without having to compete against 6 other teams in your season.  But then money will always overpower logic.  If it didn't this mess would have been fixed a long time ago.

*as a side note, I put the Brooklyn Nets in with the Midwestern teams because I wanted to preserve the natural rivalries associated with the cities of Boston, NY, Philadelphia and Washington DC.  These 4 cities all have similar heritage and I would hate to see any of them moved, even if it makes more geographical sense.