The NBA in 2023 has an incredible number of talented players. The rebuilding teams for the most part have a bright future. The league from top to bottom is more talented than it ever has been. Looking towards future expansion it seems to be that the league will expand from 30 to 32 teams. Las Vegas and Seattle seem to be the likely destinations of the first round of expanding the NBA. So what cities should be considered for additional expansion to help expand the NBA brand globally? For the 33rd and 34th team I think that Vancouver and Montreal as the 30th and 19th largest MSAs in North America. Have the corporate base and infrastructure in place to take on NBA franchises and help expand the game globally. Mexico City is the largest metro by population in North America, it would be a major logistical hurdle for the NBA schedule, but it would be big for the brand of the league. For the last expansion team another city in Central America would be nice, but it most likely would not be realistic. Other cities that would be realistic would-be St. Louis, Kansas City, and San Jose.

With a 36 team league, it would be split into four regional divisions with 9 teams each. Each team would play every team in the league at home and away for a total of 70 games of their 82 game season. Every team would additionally play every team in their division an additional time alternating home and away every other year totaling 78 of their 82 game season. The last 4 games would be for an end of season division based tournament that would help determine playoff seeds. The four conference winners would be seeded 1-4 based on their season win totals. The rest of the playoff teams would be prioritized by their overall win total with tie breakers coming from the division record or head to head match up.