How or Should the NBA Realign Divisions After Seattle Takes the Kings?

[boitoirich]

Really interested to hear your ideas on this.


The Seattle SuperSonics are set to come back to the NBA after the city ironically steals a team from California (we'll leave that for another thread). With that, it only makes sense for the NBA to realign rather than to have Seattle in the Pacific Division with Golden State, the LA teams, and Phoenix, bypassing its natural I-5 rival -- Portland. Either OKC and the Kings/Sonics franchises need to swap divisions, which would send OKC to the Pacific, or the NBA should re-draw divisions altogether.

So what do you think should happen? Should OKC play in the Pacific Division although we're not in the Pacific (we're not in the Northwest either, but hey)? Should a true Pacific division form (SEA, PDX, Golden State, LAX^2)? Should OKC be in a division with the Texas teams instead? Do we even care where we are aligned, as long as the Peake is loud and Bricktown bars and restaurants are full on game nights?

[Snowman]

OKC certainly does not belong in the pacific division. Given how much whining came out of Seattle, I would like to see them stay in the pacific since that makes winning their division much harder.

If you want to argue having them in the northwest for a rivalry with Portland, then it makes sense to have OKC stay their since there is a good chance for that could be a rivalry as well.

[Matt]

I like this guy's idea:



NBA Divisional Realignment - a modest proposal

[boitoirich]

From a logistical standpoint, the Midwest Division above would be a nightmare. Memphis, Milwaukee, and Utah in a division together makes no sense. If I were to take this map, I'd keep the Atlantic division as drawn because it is the most compact region. The Central division plus Minnesota, Milwaukee, Memphis, Atlanta, and Washington DC could then be divided into two division. Keeping compact divisions together might yield Memphis, Atlanta, DC, Cleveland, and Toronto in one division, with the others in another division.

The Florida teams, New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio make another decent grouping. Dallas and OKC would join the Mountain Division teams; and all teams in Pacific zone states would be grouped together.

I'm not married to those ideas. However if geography is going to be the driver for this, and there is no way to break up the north Atlantic area teams, that would be the most sensible way to go about it.

[boitoirich]

I don't much care for alignment schemes that places Minnesota or Memphis so far away from division rivals. Placing OKC in the Southwest and Minnesota in the Northwest or hypothetical Midwest makes sense for OKC only, but for the Thunder. For Minnesota, why fly to Seattle when Milwaukee is down the street?

[Mississippi Blues]

You gotta keep Atlanta in the Southeast. It's a Southern city in the Southeast part of America. Memphis is Mid-South, but nevertheless, South.

[Matt]

From a logistical standpoint, the Midwest Division above would be a nightmare. Memphis, Milwaukee, and Utah in a division together makes no sense.

It's really not any more-ridiculous than the current Northwest Division setup.

If I were to take this map, I'd keep the Atlantic division as drawn because it is the most compact region. The Central division plus Minnesota, Milwaukee, Memphis, Atlanta, and Washington DC could then be divided into two division. Keeping compact divisions together might yield Memphis, Atlanta, DC, Cleveland, and Toronto in one division, with the others in another division.

The Florida teams, New Orleans, Houston, and San Antonio make another decent grouping. Dallas and OKC would join the Mountain Division teams; and all teams in Pacific zone states would be grouped together.

I'm not married to those ideas. However if geography is going to be the driver for this, and there is no way to break up the north Atlantic area teams, that would be the most sensible way to go about it.

So you'd do something like this? (Please excuse my crude MS Paint skills and the apparent early-onset Parkinson's disease.)



I'm just assuming you meant Charlotte when you mentioned Washington (twice), because you also said you'd keep the Atlantic Division as drawn.

I guess my biggest question here is which division would be joining us in the Western Conference? 'Cause I really hope it's not the one with Miami in it.

[BoulderSooner]

we need to be realistic teams are not going to have a mass switch of conf because a team moves from sac to seattle ..

if any change is going to happen either utah or denver would switch with Sacramento and go to the pacific

[boitoirich]

I'm just assuming you meant Charlotte when you mentioned Washington (twice), because you also said you'd keep the Atlantic Division as drawn.

I guess my biggest question here is which division would be joining us in the Western Conference? 'Cause I really hope it's not the one with Miami in it.[/QUOTE]

Yes I meant Charlotte and thought I posted a correction that said so. My apologies, and thanks for pointing that out.

Wow, yes the suggestion is even more horrendous when Minnesota and Memphis are given more geographically sensible division rivals. Thank you for the map which makes that point clear.

So then I guess the question becomes what is the most appropriate way to to align the Western Conference?

[boitoirich]

we need to be realistic teams are not going to have a mass switch of conf because a team moves from sac to seattle ..

if any change is going to happen either utah or denver would switch with Sacramento and go to the pacific

That is certainly possible. I would have assumed the NBA would want to keep Utah and Denver with Seattle and Portland, though.

[Snowman]

That is certainly possible. I would have assumed the NBA would want to keep Utah and Denver with Seattle and Portland, though.

Seattle use to be in the pacific division till the northwest was created 2004ish

[BoulderSooner]

Seattle use to be in the pacific division till the northwest was created 2004ish

so was portland

[Snowman]

so was portland

Where I was going with that is Seattle is not really out of place with the Pacific division and have longer division histories with the teams in it than verses Portland. Also as long as they are both in the west, they will still play the same number of times per year.

A swap of Portland and Suns might be another reasonable shift without reorganizing the entire conference.

[boitoirich]

I have read that proposed on a sports blog from the Pacific Northwest. Creating a true Pacific division would be feasible by kicking Phoenix to the current Northwest division. That still leaves Minnesota traveling to OKC, DEN, SLC, and PHX, but I still have not figured out or seen any way to align Minnesota in a way that makes regional sense for them.

[dankrutka]

I like this guy's idea:



NBA Divisional Realignment - a modest proposal

I like this, but move Memphis to Southeast, New Orleans to Southwest, and PHX to midwest. The midwest is still the worst aligned division geographically, but PHX-Denver-Utah make sense and so does Minny-Mil. There's no perfect way to do it, but that would be pretty good.

[boitoirich]

I like this, but move Memphis to Southeast, New Orleans to Southwest, and PHX to midwest. The midwest is still the worst aligned division geographically, but PHX-Denver-Utah make sense and so does Minny-Mil. There's no perfect way to do it, but that would be pretty good.

*Applause

That would make a lot of sense. Everyone would have regional rivals and no one would be the lone far-flung team in any division. Minnesota and Memphis would have to be very happy about the move; Phoenix -- not so much.

[OKCisOK4me]

I redrew a map on my laptop....no clue what the conference names would be but here's my groupings:



Yellow, Brown & Green would make up the Eastern Conference and Blue, Red, and Purple would be the Western Conference. Of course the Kings and Trailblazers would just swap places if the Kings went to Seattle and became the Sonics.

As you can see, I'm really aiming for a shake up of what we've become used to. After all, it is a realignment.

[Matt]

That's retarded.

[OKCisOK4me]

That's retarded.

and you're gay.

[Matt]

and you're gay.

[OKCisOK4me]

lol

[MonkeesFan]

Kings moving to Seattle is not a done deal yet, you are jumping to consultions way early

[BoulderSooner]

I have read that proposed on a sports blog from the Pacific Northwest. Creating a true Pacific division would be feasible by kicking Phoenix to the current Northwest division. That still leaves Minnesota traveling to OKC, DEN, SLC, and PHX, but I still have not figured out or seen any way to align Minnesota in a way that makes regional sense for them.

the other thing that every one is missing is that divisions don't mean very much in the NBA as far a schedule goes ...

in the nba teams play the opposite conf 2 games a year (1 home 1 away) that is 30 games leaving 52 games for 14 teams

you play the teams in your division 4 times (2 home 2 away) 16 games leaving 36 games for 10 teams

you play 6 of those 10 teams 4 times (2 home 2 away) 24 games leaving 12 games for 4 teams and play the other 4 teams 3 times each ..

thus the division schedule doesn't really effect travel very much

[OKCisOK4me]

Kings moving to Seattle is not a done deal yet, you are jumping to consultions way early

You are jumping to conclusions way too early. I said IF they move to Seattle and drew respective arrows...yep.

[dankrutka]

Kings moving to Seattle is not a done deal yet, you are jumping to consultions way early

Even if they don't move this discussion still makes sense. The Kings/Sonics would be in the same division according to almost every drawing.