2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

bill simmons floated an interesting educated theory on his pod w rusillo that the league is going to expand to seattle and vegas, with fenway sports, who is already in business with lebron via his part ownership of liverpool, being the leaders to buy the vegas team, and lebron going to play there w/ an understanding that he will get an ownership stake once he retires. and they would prob draft bronny to make it happen. i love it

I was happy the Wolves won but was such a bummer that I saw what might be the worst game Ja Morant ever played, just looked it up

Wolves won 138-95, Ja had 11 points on 3/9 FG, O rebounds, 5 assists, -31

yeah 30th metro area population in the middle of an otherwise uninhabited desert, its borderline down there with the pittsburgs kanas citys cininattis and so forth, not sure wed be showering those places with teams if they didnt already have them xp

Vegas is a strange market. It attracts tons of tourists in a spending mood who are looking for entertainment, but it won't have a strong local fan base. Would be nice to see Seattle get a team again.

yeah be curious to know if their existing teams are attracting tourists, doesnt seem like quite a natural fit but who knows

it seems like a foregone conclusion that seattle will get another team. not sure i’ve heard anyone talk about expansion without that being treated as a given

wtg cad

vegas will def be a destination for visiting fans and now that gambling is basically legal, even more of a destination for all-star games, nba drafts, and such

the vegas hockey team reports 104% capacity attendance per game this year bcuz they sell standing room only tickets. i’m sure that’s prob fibbed to some degree but based on a quick google search they seem to actually do fairly well attendance wise. the franchise did have the insane fortune of making the stanley cup in its inaugural season so i do think they were able to quickly build up a genuine local fanbase in a way that is prob not replicable. the raiders reported 93% capacity last year which was in the bottom third of the NFL.

even if it’s not lebron it feels like a vegas team in the NBA would be likely to try and lure some aging star to sell tickets to tourists instead of building thru the draft and potentially being bad for its first three years

wonder how their local tv market would compare to other cities

not sure about sheer size but last year the hockey team had the second highest TV ratings in the league

The Penguins placed themselves back on top of the NHL’s local TV ratings, with games on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh averaging a 7.79 rating that is up 36%. That is hardly a surprise, given that Pittsburgh has occupied one of the top-two spots for at least the past 15 years. The big surprise is in Las Vegas, where Golden Knights games on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain posted the league’s second-best rating. The 5.08 rating is up 31%.

Nice

i'd think st louis would be a workable market but maybe the nba's weird okc/memphis/indy triangulation cuts into that and kc. i dont know how regional fanbases work

san diego also obv a decently big one

kansas city has always been mentioned as being near the front of the line bcuz they have a full sized basketball arena but no team. not sure if they would still be contenders. ppl mention louisville bcuz the college team plays in a full sized arena & obv it’s a big basketball state. have to imagine they’d look at nashville too. feel like a major part of it would just be which groups of rich ppl would be willing to put up the most money & in which cities they’d be trying to do that in

xxxp the courtside seat was a single and i decided to attempt to be a normal human being and invite a friend. got very respectable lower bowl seats though.

the knights had a little bit of an advantage in getting their first, and they were also good right away which never ever happens with expansion teams.

wonder if an up and coming city like austin would be another possibility. I vote san diego tho because there’s a good chance I live there in a few years

i don’t think san diego gets brought up much, don’t believe they have an arena which seems prohibitive given the other contenders

I also assume that a lot of LVK tix purchases in Vegas are hotels having tickets on hand to comp gamblers with.

i don’t think san diego gets brought up much, don’t believe they have an arena which seems prohibitive given the other contenders

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, March 1, 2022 11:30 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

its unfortunate that balmer didnt move the clippers there

the nba definitely shouldnt expand. the talent spread is in a pretty good place right now and theres already too many teams. but whatever

i agree but also i think seattle deserves a team and i dont know who you could move at this point that wouldn't leave just as awkward a hole as the seattle one

clippers i guess

nola clippers kings

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33394673/philadelphia-76ers-emerging-frontrunners-bring-deandre-jordan

feels bad to give up on a nola team but yeah youre probably right

DJ has been cooked for 5 seasons but i guess they just need a live body behind embiid

charlotte too tbh could use an NBA level rich owner and prob a new location. but yeah they’re gonna expand bcuz every team in the league will make a few hundred million bucks off it

DAJ has been largely unplayable for like 3 years running now but i’m glad to hear that special assistant to the GM matt armstrong is still having his voice heard in the front office

nola, charlotte and OKC would be my list xxp

clippers and kings just got new stadiums so they are locked in for a while. those three above have stadiums that are around 20 years old or older.

Rochester Royals 1945/46-1956/57
Cincinnati Royals 1957/58-1971/72
Kansas City-Omaha Kings 1972/73-1974/75
Kansas City Kings 1975/76-1984/85
Sacramento Kings 1985/86-Present

cursed franchise

Kansas City-Omaha Kings

lol

Is DAJ more or less cooked than Paul Milsap? Legit question.

that there are even headline news stories about who is the “frontrunner” for deandre jordan is bizarre.

Is DAJ more or less cooked than Paul Milsap? Legit question.

― removing bookmarks never felt so good (PBKR), Tuesday, March 1, 2022 2:15 PM (three minutes ago)bookmarkflaglink

if either of them is stepping on the floor for you for more than 3 mins in a real playoff game you have issues

Gulp.

its cool the sixers starting center doesnt have a history of conditioning issues im sure

in game 7 2019 vs the raptors embiid was +10 in 45 minutes and greg monroe was -9 in 2 minutes in a game the sixers lost by 2

ouch

nets getting drummond in the harden trade might end up being kind of a big deal

Drummond was the best backup the Sixers had in the Embiid era.

this is also where i feel like doc rivers is a pretty flawed coach, i think a nick nurse or spoelstra type would just say fuck it and roll out like a maxey-harden-thybulle-niang-harris line up in the non embiid minutes. but doc is absolutely gonna throw his corpse of a back up 5 out there come hell or highwater, he played dwight 10 mpg in the hawks series last year incl 9 minutes in game 7

Yeah, one Philly writer was suggesting using Harris as a backup 5.

Vegas's media market ranks 40th at 834k - which is actually bigger than OKC (755k), New Orleans (664k), and Memphis (620k).

Biggest market lacking an NBA team is easily Seattle at 2.1 mil, with Tampa-St Pete right behind them at 2 mil. St Louis would be next at 1.3

Purely anecdotal but impression I have of Vegas residents is there's not many hoop fans. Whenever I'm away from the Strip all I see are militia-type dudes.

UNLV back in the days of the Shark was a pretty big deal

ah they should call them the sharks

definitely

the freakin sharkanians chewing a towel and whatnot