What NBA expansion would look like

What NBA expansion would look like

What NBA expansion would look like
NBA

What NBA expansion would look like

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Good morning. We have that and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter.

Adam Silver recently called NBA expansion talks "inevitable." So we rolled with that and had a massive SB Nation NBA effort to work out how expansion might work. Our 30 team blogs chose players to protect in an expansion draft, and two front offices -- one at Sonics Rising and one at SBNation.com -- drafted faux expansion teams for Seattle and Hampton Roads, respectively.

According to a simulation we ran with NBA 2K, they drafted playoff teams.

We also asked readers to draft their own team from the eligible players list, and readers came through.

You may or may not remember much about our last expansion team, the Charlotte Bobcats. I took a trip down memory lane to remind everyone that while the expansion draft didn't give Charlotte much more than Gerald Wallace, it did help the Suns land Steve Nash, which kind of changed basketball forever.

Expansion is not without its challenges. Tim Cato writes up three issues the league needs to solve before deciding to expand, and one it does not.

D'Angelo Russell is making himself popular on certain courts in New York City.

Meet the man behind your favorite player's jumper, Rob McClanaghan.

Fun project from gentleman scholar Dan Devine: he made a Dream Team out of all of the Dream Teams.

Steve Adams shaved his mustache — R.I.P. Stache Bros — and now looks like a Game of Thrones extra.

Jonathan Tjarks on how the status quo and resistance to change is the NBA's greatest enemy.

An interesting, good rebuttal to my recent piece on Stan Van Gundy and the end of dual head coach-president of basketball operations roles from Detroit Bad Boys. The Jeff Bower note has come up a few times. To be clear, all of the dual title leaders have a GM who reports to them and does much of the day-to-day front office work. The Pistons won 37 games. I don't think Bower nor the arrangement covered itself in glory last year. I am also skeptical that Reggie Jackson's injury derailed what would have otherwise been an ascendant Pistons’ season on account of the fact that Detroit had a slightly worse record with Jackson than without, and also based on all of the reporting of internal strife upon Jackson's return.

The NBA has announced some international games. The Celtics and Sixers will play in London in January. Meanwhile, the disrespected fans in Mexico City get two games of the Nets. Ultimate dishonor. There's also an unconfirmed rumor the Sixers will play the Knicks on Christmas Day. Good for Philadelphia. And the Knicks create a nice opportunity to spend a few hours of Christmas with the family!

If these are the new Timberwolves uniforms, something has gone terribly wrong. Minnesota has one of the better mascots and a great color scheme. Don't do this, Wolves!

Yes, Doris Burke is the best NBA broadcaster on the planet.

The 2017-18 schedule should be out next week. But some early good news: the NBA is going to avoid back-to-backs around big national TV showcases to prevent stars resting for big games.