Should the NBA expand to Seattle and Las Vegas?
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What happened in the recent Hawks vs. Magic game?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon Prime for March 17th, 2026. I'm Dave DeFore here with Espera Henney. Coming up, the Hawks keep winning, beating the Magic. S has to apologize for that one. We're going to talk about some expansion news that dropped yesterday. And we've got Dan Wojcicki to talk about the Lakers winning streak continually. Good morning, everybody. What is up, S? Wow. Good morning. Hope you came hungry. Yeah. Got to eat some crow. How about that? I do have to eat some crow.
What are the latest updates on NBA expansion discussions?
The Atlanta Hawks. It was not Magic City night, and it was not the Magic's night either. It was not. Yeah, maybe Luke Cornett needs to eat some crow too, but whatever. That's another story for another day. Pretty, pretty incredible game from the Hawks. It was an incredible game. And they led the entire game. I mean, they controlled this just the entire time. Jalen Johnson, 24 points, 15 rebounds, 13 assists, triple double. They just had more juice right from the jump. Yeah. I mean, I think offensively is where you look at the difference here. You know, just the way that the Hawks shot the ball. I mean, Nikhil Alexander Walker ended up with 41 points.
Why is Seattle considered a top choice for NBA expansion?
He was absurd in this game, made nine of his 14 three point shots. I think the combination of him and CJ McCollum who McCollum didn't have like a great game tonight generally, but that combination scoring wise gives them a huge boost next to Jalen Johnson, who is basically now walking triple double can, can get to like 2010 and 10 basically every single night. My question with the Hawks, and this is where I will start writing out my apology letter for them is, It was more about can you do it against better competition? Right. And tonight they did it against better competition. The Magic were playing good basketball recently. They also had an opportunity to kind of not necessarily separate themselves in the Eastern Conference, but give themselves a little bit more of a cushion in the East.
They didn't do that tonight. The Hawks keeping it in that range, that striking distance of trying to get into maybe the fifth seed, as crazy as that sounds. It would be crazy, I think, if Atlanta was able to make up. I mean, It's a game and a half, I guess. It's possible, man. Yeah, it is.
How does Las Vegas fit into the NBA expansion conversation?
Yeah, it is possible. I mean, I guess Philly's still in the mix. I don't know. We'll see. Anyway, heck of a win. Hey, so we got to talk about this expansion news that dropped. We got some news yesterday. that the league is going to vote at the next board of governors meeting on expansion and furthering those discussions. Like this was coming down the pipeline. Yeah. Well, it's been happening for years. And I think that getting the new TV deal out of the way, allows them to then move on to this part of it, which to me seems like you maybe want to have it as part of the process. Since now you're going to have to negotiate with the other owners on how to split the money up with new teams. Yep.
What are the financial implications of adding new NBA teams?
And then I don't want to get into the financial parts of this because, frankly, I think for NBA fans, like finding out that a new team might cost seven billion dollars is kind of more boring than anything else. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what I do want to talk about is Seattle and Las Vegas, because it feels like they're they're the front runners. They're the teams, you know, the cities that we always talk about. Seattle, obviously, we want them to get the Supersonics back. Absolutely. Yeah, I think that that the NBA probably can't expand. to any city that doesn't include Seattle, right? No question. If they're going to do one team, it's got to be Seattle. And if it's going to be two teams, one of them has to be Seattle.
So that one's done. Yeah.
How do the Lakers' recent performances affect their playoff chances?
I think the Vegas conversation probably should be a little bit, you know, expanded a little bit. It feels like it's just going to happen. And when you look at what's happening in Las Vegas, sports wise, the aces are successful. The Knights in the NHL, pretty successful. They've been running the NBA cup there now. Yep. I don't know. I mean, you're not really selling tickets to that, but it's a tough thing to sell tickets for.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What happened in the recent Hawks vs. Magic game?
0:09–0:44
2
What are the latest updates on NBA expansion discussions?
0:44–1:25
3
Why is Seattle considered a top choice for NBA expansion?
1:25–2:30
4
How does Las Vegas fit into the NBA expansion conversation?
2:30–3:11
5
What are the financial implications of adding new NBA teams?
3:11–3:52
6
How do the Lakers' recent performances affect their playoff chances?
3:52–4:43
7
What are the MVP chances for Luka Doncic this season?
4:43–5:46
8
What challenges do the Lakers face as they approach the playoffs?
5:46–30:27