NBA intel: What to expect at next week's owners' meetings

Adam Silver, now in his 12th year as NBA commissioner, has dealt with plenty of changes and challenges during his tenure. But Monday and Tuesday's board of governors meeting in New York represents an inflection point for the league. And his leadership will play a major role.

There are a few main agenda items that could set major events into motion that, in some cases, have been years in the making.

Most of the work by Silver and the league office has been done in the months leading up to this meeting, where the presentations and formal votes might happen, but the public rollout is a big responsibility for the commissioner, who will deliver his news conference Tuesday.

This BOG meeting has the potential to be one of more consequential ones in recent memory. Here are three topics I'm expecting Silver and the owners to discuss: the LA Clippers' investigation and punishments, NBA Europe and the next steps in expansion.

Official statements on the Clippers' salary cap circumvention punishment

Silver spoke loudly with his actions last week, slapping the Clippers with five revoked first-round draft picks and a record $30 million fine. But how he responds in front of cameras for the first time next week will set the tone going forward as this situation probably has another chapter or two to come.
The Clippers have not publicly accepted their fate or announced whether they will pursue legal action. They have not said who will act as the governor at the meeting in suspended owner Steve Ballmer's place or who will act as interim head of basketball operations in place of the suspended Lawrence Frank.

They also have not executed the trade to send Kawhi Leonard to the Toronto Raptors, a deal agreed to on the first day of free agency.

This purposeful inaction, in addition to the legal saber-rattling, can be seen as the Clippers leaving open their options and negotiation windows.

When the NBA issued its enormous penalty -- the final revoked draft pick in 2034 -- it did so knowing Ballmer might have a litigious reaction. Whether it would admit it, the league has also given itself room to negotiate. (The league and the Clippers reportedly had failed settlement discussions before the Wachtell, Lipton report was made public. )

One topic rival front offices have discussed is the less-talked-about but draconian-sounding "compliance and monitoring program by the league office for a period of five years" penalty that was also leveled on the Clippers. The terms were nebulous, probably for a reason, and the devil will surely be in the details.

"Are they going to be reading all their emails, reading their texts, listening to their phone calls?" one general manager told ESPN. "I have no idea what that [penalty] means."

The announcement of the penalty and the side deal the league cut with the players' union to have Leonard accept a $700,000 reimbursement penalty and eliminate the Clippers' option to take the NBA to arbitration, certainly changed the dynamic.

During the investigation, which spanned five major Silver news conferences, he repeatedly gave no indication of the severity of the findings, even though he said he was getting regular updates.

In the past two, before Game 1 of the 2026 Finals and after the July owners meeting in Las Vegas, Silver gave off some Judge Judy meme vibes by figuratively tapping his watch and saying the investigation needed to wrap up. It was not the posture of someone about to release a bombshell. And the Clippers, based on their public and private statements claiming shock, certainly didn't see it coming.

David Stern, Silver's legendary predecessor, was known for fiery news conferences when announcing major disciplinary actions, whether it was after the 2004 Malice at the Palace in Detroit or when he levied his own five-pick penalty to the Minnesota Timberwolves for salary cap violations in 2000. Silver is typically much more measured and disarming. When he suspended former Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver three years ago, Silver was even-tempered.

Soon after the report was released and the punishments announced, the Clippers issued an emotional statement and sent a seething letter to Silver. Here comes the next round.

The latest on NBA Europe -- with a possible international showdown looming

For much of the past two years, the league has been planning a major push into Europe. And recent reports have set the stage for a drama.

The Euroleague, which would be NBA Europe's main rival, is waiting for a formal offer of a partnership in the very near future and has scheduled a rare owners meeting for Oct. 5 near Lake Como in northern Italy, where it all could come to a head.

The NBA has gone through several rounds of bids and is ready to move forward with a 16-team league with 12 permanent members and four rotating members, starting in 2027. League officials have said there are bidding groups for 12 of those new teams in Europe, with franchises in London and Paris expected to go for $1 billion-plus, per league sources.

But the NBA's preference would be to blend existing Euroleague teams and new franchises into one pan-European league with NBA branding and leadership, Euroleague history and infrastructure, plus the international organization of FIBA.

That sounds nice, of course, but there's so much money and power at stake that the process to do so will be bumpy, at best.

Top officials from both the NBA and the Euroleague have said they are prepared to work together or go it alone in what surely would be an unsustainable fragmented system. It could be a seminal showdown and will be a major part of this owners meeting, multiple sources said.

The next step in NBA (domestic) expansion

The meeting could feature a vote -- or perhaps the scheduling of a vote -- to move forward with expansion, which has been long assumed but never formalized. Silver, who has said the league has been working with bankers on vetting ownership groups, could establish an exact timetable for choosing winning bids or announcing finalists.
It should not be assumed that both Las Vegas and Seattle will be on the same schedule or be close to the same price point, ownership sources said. Preliminary bidders in the $8 billion range for Vegas quickly learned the number would be higher, sources said. A Seattle team, meanwhile, could be sold for considerably less.

Some teams have been projecting the per-team payout for expansion to be $500 million to $600 million, which would put the combined expansion fee at around $15 billion to $18 billion.

Within a few months, the Los Angeles Lakers sale could close for $12.5 billion; expansion could generate a once-in-a-generation windfall for teams while also increasing their valuations; and NBA Europe might generate billions more.

With the future of those nine-, 10- and 11-figure sums potentially at stake, it's difficult to understate the importance of next week's BOG meeting for Silver and the NBA.

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