Which team would you guys want?

[LookToShoot]

NBA will be back in Seattle soon. Which team would you guys want? I can see the Grizzlies relocating.

[Cactus Jack]

NBA will be back in Seattle soon. Which team would you guys want? I can see the Grizzlies relocating.

Fans prefer expansion.

[LookToShoot]

You don’t think the league is already watered down? The Grizzlies are doing poorly financially, I don’t see them sticking around in Memphis.

[Cactus Jack]

You don’t think the league is already watered down? The Grizzlies are doing poorly financially, I don’t see them sticking around in Memphis.

Stealing a team from another market is in poor taste.

[DoItALL9]

The Clippers lease with the Staples Centre runs thru June 2024

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[Wammy Giveaway]

The Seattle Supersonics to this day remain beloved by NBA casuals and loyalists alike, so when Clay Bennett purchased the Sonics only to move them away a year into his ownership to his home town in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the basketball world felt Seattle's pain and sense of betrayal, even going as far to call the move an "inside job." Seattle's only hope to reclaim a basketball city would be to take an existing NBA team and call it theirs. First it was the Sacramento Kings, Chris Hansen leading the charge. But Vivek Ranadive stepped in, and with the assistance of Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, the Kings were granted a stay in place by a board governors vote of 22-8, allowing Ranadive to buy the Kings off the hands of the Maloof family.

In 2014, an audio recording containing racist comments by disgraced owner Donald Sterling rocked the sports nation and hurting the Clipper's trust with the front office. In danger of a boycott and/or a tank job to the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs, NBA commissioner Adam Silver banished Sterling from the league for life and forced a sale of the team. Steve Ballmer would buy the Clippers for a then-record $2 billion from the Sterling family. But there was a stipulation in the sale: a no-relocation clause to prevent Clippers from moving out of L.A. At the very least, history wouldn't repeat itself. But even today, the Clippers are still a target, Seattle's.

I can list a multitude of reasons why the Clippers and Seattle sound like the perfect marriage:

1. They've been losers ever since their inception. Their record is currently 1562-2326, regular and playoff games combined. They've never gotten out of the 2nd round. Bad luck has always come to then when they're one move away from finally shedding the "loser" label.
2. They have the most injured players of any team in NBA history, many of which freak-related. See Bill Walton, Norm Nixon, Shaun Livingston, Blake Griffin.
3. Clippers have always been in the news for all the wrong reasons, most of which to do with Sterling. The most recent example, the firing of Bruce Bowen, is being analyzed as a desperate move to acquire superstar Kawhi Leonard. The consensus of the team's state of affairs is to tank and suck until you get a no. 1 pick, a practice made famous by the Philadelphia 76ers which Steve Ballmer has taken shots at on Friday.
4. Donald Sterling himself, who purposely used the team's resources to protect his wealth (and his friends). He only became an NBA member because he helped Dr. Jerry Buss in 1979 with a $2.7 billion loan that would be used to buy the Lakers from Jack Kent Cooke. You could make an indirect argument that Sterling helped the Lakers to win championships, even though the sentence as a whole sounds like a non-sequitur.
5. Clippers only became relevant by way of a commissioner veto. Everything the Clippers did by themselves always ended up going wrong. When David Stern vetoed a trade that would have seen Chris Paul on the Lakers, the Clippers acquisition of Chris Paul was perceived as a personal gift. Helping the Clippers reach real relevancy may have been his last act as commissioner prior to his successor Adam Silver taking over in 2014.
6. Lakers exceptionalism. Most of the relocation talks involving the Clippers are rooted in the Lakers being the first to arrive in Los Angeles and establishing a name for itself. The Lakers made the NBA relevant with their ties to Hollywood and the entertainment industry, and with the help of their arch nemesis Boston Celtics, saved the league from bankruptcy with the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson Finals rivalry. To think the Clippers could ever contribute to the good of the NBA was ludicrous at best, for they have always been seen as the opposite example of how to run a franchise. It's less to do with the fear of Clippers usurping Los Angeles from Lakers, and more to do with Clippers making a laughingstock out of a city the Lakers helped establish with its championships and winning legacy just by being there.

If the Clippers do become the candidate to get relocated, I ask you, what do you get out of this. You're getting a historically losing team with a dysfunctional dichotomy. But worst of all, you're helping Clay Bennett absolve himself of any wrongdoing in the Sonics robbery, and in the process, making the Clippers the scapegoat. Now it will sound like "The Clippers are the reason why Seattle lost its team." Even though the Clippers had nothing to do with the robbery directly, it only adds fuel to their putrid reputation, cement it even.

Why are the Clippers the target for relocation, particularly Seattle? What is it about this franchise that leads you to believe the NBA is better off without them? Do you think Seattle can save the Clippers, or are they just a token that can be exchanged to bring back the Sonics?

Here's what I'm trying to say: Seattle got robbed, they deserve to have an NBA team back. But the fact that the Clippers have always been front and center makes me believe the league has a hidden agenda.

[Cactus Jack]

Why are the Clippers the target for relocation, particularly Seattle? What is it about this franchise that leads you to believe the NBA is better off without them? Do you think Seattle can save the Clippers, or are they just a token that can be exchanged to bring back the Sonics?

Here's what I'm trying to say: Seattle got robbed, they deserve to have an NBA team back. But the fact that the Clippers have always been front and center makes me believe the league has a hidden agenda.

99.9% of Seattle fans prefer an Expansion team.

The reason the Clippers are always linked with a move to Seattle, is 100% due to Steve Ballmer owning the club.

[mirrornick]

Seattle fans deserve a team.

[JazzUte88]

Not the biggest fan of 32 teams in the NBA from a competition standpoint, however I'm sure I'd piss off (considering I like Utah) all the T-Wolves or Grizzlies fans when they say that they shouldn't have a team.

In an ideal basketball world, the Clippers would move up to Seattle or back to San Diego.

[BIG Game]

With the talk around Zion not wanting to be in NOLA, aren't the Pels more realistic then LAC?

If Zion forces NOLA hand and they move him for a boat load of assets they wont be able to sell a single ticket. NOLA is more realistic then LAC.

[Cactus Jack]

With the talk around Zion not wanting to be in NOLA, aren't the Pels more realistic then LAC?

The chances of them being made available & eventually sold to someone with plans to move the franchise are very very low.

[BIG Game]

Aside from the Zion fantasy stuff, NOLA has little support in the South. I use to live 3 hours from NOLA and no one was a Pel fan, on top of that, G. Benson the owner is only holding onto the team because her husband loved the city and wanted to keep the team there. I can see them starting to lose money or not getting much fan support leading to her putting the team up for sale. In that case, why wouldn't someone move the team here? NOLA is not a basketball city, despite have some really good players down there.

[Cactus Jack]

G. Benson the owner is only holding onto the team because her husband loved the city and wanted to keep the team there.

Bingo.

It's not as simple as the team is struggling, so why not move it!?

Any new out of town owner would likely want to move it.

Is she willing to just let the team leave?

[BIG Game]

Why would only someone from Seattle be willing to move a team to Seattle? Economically Seattle is to the NBA what LA was to the NFL.

In addition, the team would not move just because they struggled. Lets just start with the stadium, where the lease runs up in 2024. While they can play in the building eventually, they will need a new arean. Do you think the city will offer public funds for that? NOLA while having good fans is just not a basketball city, and if they are struggling, it becomes an even harder sell for a new arena. Secondly, who else in the city is buying this team? Is Benson supposed to sell the team for pennies on the dollar to keep it in NOLA? Houston just sold for 2.2 billion, give me one name of someone who is paying that price and keeping the team in NOLA? When Benson bought the team he got a great deal from the NBA, the price has now tripled.

With that said, I do not want to seem like I am trying to take their team, this is just a discussion.

[Cactus Jack]

Again every indication is that Benson won't sell. Wants to keep the team in New Orleans. Frankly, she doesn't have to sell.

[BIG Game]

I think we both agree expension is most likely. I just think that NOLA is higher on the list of happening then LAC, but we can agree to disagree

Hopefully sometime in the next 5 years Seattle has a team again.

[DoItALL9]

I think Zion at the minimum just provided about 5 years of profits for NOLA. He alone should keep their head above water and they have two other All-Stars around him so they should do better than breaking even.

(barring injury)

The team would have to be hemorrhaging money for Gayle Benson to sell or move it imo.
Adam Silver has shown that he would take it personal if a team was failing in that way so the NBA will do anything in its power to prevent that from happening.

The Clippers represent a slightly higher possibility of relocation because the team could be moved without "financial" problems but because of the owner's preference which may be rooted in arena issues.

Moreover, I'd think that the NBA would stand to profit twice because they could charge Ballmer a relocation fee plus they could place a new expansion franchise in LA later which would be a chance to capitalize on a monster expansion fee, I'd guess.

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[cdubbz]

Cities which have an NBA team that I think shouldn’t: Sacramento, New Orleans, Los Angeles shouldn’t have the Clippers.

[DoItALL9]

New Orleans

Gayle Benson is obviously doing everything she can to keep them in Louisiana while she is alive but down the line there are no promises.

Dennis Lauscha will likely fight to keep them there as long as he can too but we'll see. Longterm it seemingly doesn't make the most cents financially.

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