NBA Expansion: 3 most likely candidates to move to the Eastern Conference
By Phil Watson
With rumors circulating that the NBA is eyeing its first expansion since 2004, with Las Vegas and Seattle the most likely candidates for new clubs, the Western Conference will need to be tweaked to make room. Provided the NBA chooses to retain its East-West alignment that has been in place from the roots of the old Basketball Association of America in 1946, that means two of the current clubs in the West need to be shifted to the East.
There is only one exception to the East-West split in the NBA. In the first season after the merger of the BAA and the National Basketball League in 1950-51, there were three divisions — the predecessor of the current conferences. Along with Eastern and Western divisions, the fledgling NBA also had a Central Division.
The winner of the Eastern Division playoffs drew a bye to the NBA Finals, while the Central and Western champs met in a best-of-three semifinal series for the other Finals berth. When the NBA lost five clubs in the 1950 offseason (and a sixth in January 1951), the East-West format returned and has continued since.
The divisions were redesignated as the Eastern and Western conferences with the 1970 expansion, when four divisions (two per conference) were created with the increase in franchises from 14 to 17.
The last team to change conferences was the New Orleans Hornets (now the New Orleans Pelicans), who moved from East to West in 2004 when Charlotte's new franchise began play.
There are three likely candidates for a change of conference addresses. We present them in order of east to west.
3. Memphis Grizzlies
Memphis is slightly the furthest east in the current Western Conference with a longitude of 90.0490 degrees West, just eastward of New Orleans.
As an NBA franchise, Memphis has always competed in the Western Conference since the franchise moved from Vancouver in 2001. The city played in both the East and West as an ABA club of many names from 1970-75 after relocating from, coincidentally, New Orleans.
The Memphis Grizzlies are closest to New Orleans, a distance of 393 miles, with Dallas (457 miles) and Oklahoma City (467 miles) the only clubs within 500 miles of them in the Western Conference.
In the Eastern Conference, Atlanta is only 391 miles away and Indianapolis can be reached in 464 miles.
Still. purely based on geography, Memphis is the most likely candidate for a shift back to the East.