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Two things can be simultaneously true even if they appear at odds with one another. Try this pair:
*Bill Simmons throws a lot of things out there on his podcast, and not all of them stick.
*Simmons is plugged in on NBA matters, and when he says things with conviction we should pay attention to them.
I'm keeping both of those things in mind as I parse what Simmons said on his podcast Monday (and which I mentioned on Daily Delivery on Tuesday): "I have some intel. I think the league is going to expand to Vegas and Seattle. ... I don't care if it gets aggregated because I think that I'm right."
Let's aggregate!
Here's a good expanded clip of Simmons explaining a lot of things pertaining to that expansion news he is reporting:
Again, use a grain of salt when things like "I think" are involved in any reporting, particularly from someone like Simmons.
But even if it falls somewhere between news, rumor and prediction, the notion of the NBA expanding sometime soon to Las Vegas and Seattle does fall in line with conventional wisdom.
More importantly, it squares with a lot of the reporting that happened months ago when Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez bought the Timberwolves: Namely that Wolves fans, though understandably nervous that their team might be a candidate for relocation to one of those two hot markets, should be calmed by the greater likelihood that expansion franchises would be headed there instead.
Simmons' "intel" advances that notion and is of course good news for local Wolves fans if it is true. Though other markets would be candidates to land a team if it relocates, it would remove the two most viable and desirable threats.
Much of the rest of that segment with Simmons and Ryen Russillo discusses the possibility of LeBron James being part of a Vegas group, but there were also some interesting Wolves-related nuggets:
*They said some potential owners likely passed on trying to buy the Wolves because they were more focused on expansion coming down the line.
*They mentioned New Orleans as a candidate for relocation to Seattle if the league only decides to add one new team in Vegas.
*Simmons said the expansion franchises could cost a combined $7 billion — injecting more than $200 million apiece into the pockets of every other NBA team.
One other interesting piece of this puzzle: If two new teams were added in the West, it's possible the Wolves could move to the Eastern Conference.
