Are there too many teams in the NBA?

[cfan79]

I think the 5 teams I would get rid of our

Oklahoma
Memphis
LA Clips
Charlotte
Washington

Top Prospects

Durant, Westbrook, Gay, Mayo, B.Davis, Kaman, Thornton, Okafor, G.Wallace, G.Arenas, A.Jamison, C.Butler

2 lottery's would have to take place

1. for the non playoff teams who'll would get the top picks
2. for the playoff teams

Even piss poor teams like Minnesota and Milwaukee would become good if they draft well. Say for example they pick Durant and Okafor.

[cfan79]

We are too many without a team like St. Louis, Seattle, San Diego, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Kansas City.

I'm sure if they had a choice of a 5-10 win team or no team they'd choose the latter. No one wants to watch their team lose every night.

[MyInsatiableOne]

Absolutely too many. I've been harping on this for years. The peak of the NBA was in the 1980s when there were about 21-23 teams and NONE of them were awful...even the last place team would win 25-30 games and was a tough out. The talent was not as diluted. For years I've argued the following teams should be contracted:

Magic (no one will ever care about pro hoops in Fl)
Heat (same...even though they won a title with the refs, no one down there really cares)
Clippers (have never EVER been good, and does LA *NEED* 2 teams, especially when the other one is the Lakers, who will always be the top draw??)
Grizzlies (again, always stunk, no market in Memphis)
Nets (always stunk except for their back to back Finals runs, and again most people in the area root for the Knicks and only became Nets fans when they couldn't get Knick tickets or the Nets were better than the Knicks)
Thunder (should have stayed in Seattle...get rid of them)
TWolves (again, not sure there is a big market for NBA hoops up there in hockey country)
Raptors (makes no sense to have a team in Canada...no one wants to play there, especially since they LOSE money from the exchange rate and high taxes...)
Charlotte (they absolutely should not have gotten a new team so quickly after running their first one out of town)

This will never happen because Stern is too greedy and is more about image than quality, it seems, but that would take us down to 23 teams which would be ideal...

Thoughts?

[Rocky5000]

Absolutely too many. I've been harping on this for years. The peak of the NBA was in the 1980s when there were about 21-23 teams and NONE of them were awful...even the last place team would win 25-30 games and was a tough out. The talent was not as diluted. For years I've argued the following teams should be contracted:

Magic (no one will ever care about pro hoops in Fl)
Heat (same...even though they won a title with the refs, no one down there really cares)
Clippers (have never EVER been good, and does LA *NEED* 2 teams, especially when the other one is the Lakers, who will always be the top draw??)
Grizzlies (again, always stunk, no market in Memphis)
Nets (always stunk except for their back to back Finals runs, and again most people in the area root for the Knicks and only became Nets fans when they couldn't get Knick tickets or the Nets were better than the Knicks)
Thunder (should have stayed in Seattle...get rid of them)
TWolves (again, not sure there is a big market for NBA hoops up there in hockey country)
Raptors (makes no sense to have a team in Canada...no one wants to play there, especially since they LOSE money from the exchange rate and high taxes...)
Charlotte (they absolutely should not have gotten a new team so quickly after running their first one out of town)

This will never happen because Stern is too greedy and is more about image than quality, it seems, but that would take us down to 23 teams which would be ideal...

Thoughts?

I agree for the most part on the teams that could be cut. I wouldn't do Twolves, Heat, or Raptors though. I think that those cities are big enough to support an NBA team and have pretty strong established fanbases. The Twin Cities and Toronto were both involved in the NBA very early on, even if they had their teams move or disappear for a long time. The NBA/Hockey issue is something that probably does suppress attendance a little bit in both places though. It's unfortunate that so much of the NHL and NBA seasons overlap.

Also, Toronto, Miami, and Minnesota would put up a big fight, just like Seattle if their teams were taken away. If you take the Nets away, I don't think many people would notice.