It appears the decades-long wait for NBA expansion to bring about the return of a Seattle Sonics franchise will finally end this year, with the league’s Board of Governors expected to pass a vote during a meeting this week on exploring the addition of expansion teams specifically in Seattle and Las Vegas.
What the NBA vote this week on Seattle expansion means if approved
“I think it’s going to pass with overwhelming support,” said Sports Illustrated senior writer and NBA on NBC contributor Chris Mannix on Tuesday to Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. “(NBA commissioner) Adam Silver and the top league officials have been working on the small number of holdouts that have had some questions about (expansion) over the last probably six months to a year, getting everybody on the same page with the direction the league wants to go. And I think they’re there.
“I don’t think Adam Silver would hold a vote like this if he didn’t feel like he had overwhelming support for expansion.”
But as Mannix went on to explain, there are pros and cons to the NBA increasing its membership from 30 to 32 teams.
Since we’re talking about a Sonics revival nearly 20 years in the making, let’s start with the good.
“The pro is that we get the NBA in two great markets. Seattle and Las Vegas are ready to go, and I think they’ll immediately become two of the better markets in the NBA,” Mannix said. “The fan base in Seattle is well established and I think will pick up right where they left off.
“And Vegas, they haven’t really missed when it comes to pro sports teams. The hockey team out there does well, the football team out there does well. I would imagine that when baseball gets out there in a smaller stadium, it’s gonna do pretty well. It’s established itself as far more than a transitional city… and I think they’ll have good support there and they’ll make a lot of money there. So you get the league into two top markets.”
As for the bad? It’s something Mannix said is “pretty obvious,” particularly at a time when tanking is a big concern in the league.
“The league gets diluted even further. The talent pool gets diluted,” Mannix said. “And you have two (expansion) teams that for the immediate future are going to be very bad. And what the NBA has been dealing with this season is almost a third of the league being very bad. Now, some of that can be addressed with changes to the (draft) lottery system and rule changes. But the NBA, which has touted parity over the last couple of years, will now be faced with a situation that they’re going to be stuck with five, six, seven teams that enter the year with really no hope of doing anything, so that’s a big downside that certainly has been discussed.”
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There is a potential option that could see the NBA put teams in Seattle and Vegas without diluting the talent pool, but the league seems to have decided on the expansion route rather than moving struggling franchises like the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Hornets.
“Everybody wants teams in Seattle and Vegas. It’s just, nobody seems willing to do the hard part, which is to tell Memphis and New Orleans they no longer have teams,” Mannix said. “That’s kind of where a lot of people in the league are at. You’ve got a market in Memphis which just hasn’t succeeded outside of a couple of good playoff runs. New Orleans is a tough market as well. No one would argue that Seattle and Las Vegas (aren’t) better markets.”
Hear the full Bump and Stacy conversation with Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Catch Bump and Stacy from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.
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