RealGM

Here is what triggered the thought process:

Mark Cuban didn't like the Hornets taking on salary cause the league owns the team. People have suggested for a long time to contract a team, with most specifically calling for the Hornets to be contracted beause lets be honest, the city can't support the team. I think contraction of at least one team would be a good thing.

Step 1: Contract the Hornets:
Problem 1: How to distribute the players?

Step 2: Let them be drafted by the teams in this years (the weakest draft in decades) draft. A draft that is both cyclically weak, and will be made even more so because of the pending CBA and possible lockout. Many players will stay an extra year instead of declaring and sitting on their hands.

How it would work: If Cleveland lands the #1 pick, the can take Chris Paul with out any salary cap concerns. Then if the next team wanted to take the number one college player because they wanted that player more than say Okafor, they could. As far as the players coming out of college, they would be slotted into the slotted draft salary that they would have normally been slated to make, based upon which position they were drafted as compared to other college players. This means that if the college players were draft at #3,5,6,10,13 etc, that would be 1,2,3,4,5 respectively because they were the top 5 college players taken.

This would greatly increase the depth of the draft, and not prevent players from declaring.

If the league actually did this, that would be really great for the Jazz's newly acquired lottery picks.
Just imagine that Stern announced this, and we landed the #1 pick. A guy can dream right?

Thoughts.

It would be like a reverse expansion draft.

They would have to contract two teams to make the conferences equal.

They could contract up to 4 teams (I think) and my candidates would
be in addition to the Hornets would be Memphis, Minnesota and Sacramento.

I think it should be just 2, and for sure New Orleans and either Memphis or Toronto.

Nice of us to decide which cities and fans get screwed.

There are plenty of billionaires/millionaires willing to buy a team, there will be no contraction. It would require the other teams to eat the cost. Now, they do already own the Hornets but that would require the league to not recover the money they dished out. Consider them the Vancouver Hornets IMO, and that's fine since Vancouver is the most awesome city on the continent.

It won't be Toronto.

It won't be any team. Who would want to pay 300 million dollars to get 1/30 less competition? They will move a team to London before they contract.