NBA Expansion: 3 most likely candidates to move to the Eastern Conference

1. Minnesota Timberwolves

The wild-card in any discussion of conference realignment is the Minnesota Timberwolves. While Minneapolis is significantly west of Memphis and New Orleans (93.2650 degrees West), it is also on an island geographically from its Western Conference rivals.

The nearest Western city is Oklahoma City (788 miles), with Memphis, Denver and Dallas the only other cities within 1,000 miles.

Compare that to 337 miles from Milwaukee, 413 mil;es to Chicago, 592 miles to Indianapolis, 693 miles to Detroit and 757 miles to Cleveland and you have four teams closer than any rival in the West.

The Timberwolves are always among the NBA leaders in air miles traveled each season, given they have two annual trips to Portland (1,726 miles) and Salt Lake City (1,244 miles) plus at least one trip per season to Los Angeles (1,931 miles), Phoenix (1,642 miles), Sacramento (1,894 miles)( and San Francisco (1,977 miles).

Given Minnesota's location in the Midwest and its proximity to the five teams currently in the Central Division, moving the Timberwolves to the East might be the most practical move, even if the geography doesn't make as much sense.

For what its worth, the Minneapolis Lakers were either a Central or Western division team. But both of Minnesota's entries in the old ABA were in the Eastern Division. The Timberwolves were placed in the Western Conference for their 1989-90 expansion campaign and have remained there.