There are ideas of an expansion draft in the NBA in the works, and it has been reported that two cities are expected to get new teams.
It has recently been reported that the National Basketball Association (NBA) is going to get even bigger at the start of the upcoming season, with two new franchises from two cities set to join the biggest basketball league in the world.
The NBA reportedly wants to announce expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle during the upcoming preseason games for the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers.
It was originally just teased during the NBA Finals last season that the league were looking to “invariably expand” by adding two new teams at some point in the future but not “at this time.”
However, it turns out that the league is reportedly looking to make a formal announcement regarding the two expansion teams during preseason games in Seattle and Las Vegas, according to Willie Ramirez of the Associated Press.
Which are the two cities going to get new teams and what will the expansion draft mean for the NBA?
The two cities that are reportedly going to get new franchises are Las Vegas and Seattle.
It would not be the first time that Seattle has had an NBA franchise considering the city player host to the SuperSonics from 1967 to 2008 before the team was moved to Oklahoma City. However, Las Vegas have never had an NBA franchise.
The last time the NBA expanded was in 2004 when the NBA added the Charlotte Bobcats (now known as the Hornets) to the league. Prior to that, the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies (now the Memphis Grizzlies) were added to the league in 1995.
It has been reported that an expansion will mean a reshuffling of the Conferences in the NBA, with two teams presumably joining the Western Conference at a later date.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Memphis Grizzlies are the two most eastern Western Conference sides, and look like the likeliest candidates to make a switch to the Eastern Conference at the time of the expansion.
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