The NBA is finally talking about contraction, something that's been needed for years. Fewer teams would give teams a larger piece of the pie in terms of revenue sharing and while fewer players would be employed, the Player's Union needs to recognize that it's the best answer for a league that is getting more and more split between the have's and the have not's.

So the question is then: who goes? The least valued team was the Milwaukee Bucks but I don't think the NBA should cut any teams with history, which the Bucks have. The team that sold for the least is the Charlotte Bobcats but they've put together an interesting squad and I doubt the NBA would do new owner Michael Jordan dirty by contracting the team he just bought (even if he did buy it for an insanely low price of 175 million.)

The first and most obvious choice to any sports fan is the Los Angeles Clippers. It's a joke of a franchise but the NBA would never cut a team from such a huge market. But what does it say about the Clips that they're the 23rd most value team in the league, a step below the Sacramento Kings? If the NBA can get Donald Sterling out of the league, they should do it. LA doesn't need two teams and if they want to move a team to Anaheim or San Diego, they'd be better off dumping the Clippers and moving another team.

The next teams on the chopping block would be Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Hornets. The Grizzlies could argue that they have finally put together a quality product and might win some games but even with said improvements, they ranked 28th in attendance, are historically in the bottom third of attendance whether they win or not, and they are the second least valued team in the league. I think this year would be a make-or-break season for the franchise. The team has high expectations and a nice young nucleus. If they can't get consistent attendance, they should be contracted.
The Hornets are an easier call. Like the Grizzlies, they have struggled to maintain attendance and while a click glance shows a couple of years of success, the fact of the matter is that those numbers are inflated by the attendance that they got when they played in Oklahoma City. More importantly, in a year, this could be the easiest team to dump personnel-wise. Chris Paul has one foot out the door, David West is a free agent next year, and there isn't really a ton of great talent on the roster after that. Marcus Thornton's a nice player but it's not like he's going to tip the balance of power in the NBA. If the NBA is just junking two squads, my guess is that these would be the two.

If they wanted to dump four, then the fourth team would be the toughest call. The Timberwolves were consistently in the top half (or close to the top third) of the league in terms of attendance for the KG years and I'm not sure you can fault the fans there for the management's horrific track record. The Raptors are crap now that Bosh have left but they're the 11th most valuable franchise and have had solid attendance. The Nets are the Nets but they have a new owner who is willing to spend, are looking to move to Brooklyn, and have history on their side. My guess is that Kevin McHale's tenure would go down as one of the worst in NBA history (as would the KG trade) as it would have taken a solid franchise and put it on the chopping block.

But four teams is probably too drastic. So I think the proposal should be to deep six the New Orleans Hornets and Memphis Grizzlies (although I'd really push for the Clippers to go.) Chris Paul's final year should be cancelled or bought out by the NBA and he should become a free agent next offseason. The Grizzlies don't have a lot of guys signed past next year (most players have team options) so if they NBA turned down the options on Mayo and the other rooks and didn't allow Memphis to extend Marc Gasol or Z-Bo, the only guys who'd be signed to guaranteed deals are Rudy Gay, Tony Allen, Xavier Henry, and Greivis Vasquez. For the real fans in New Orleans, maybe the Thunder could play a handful of games there during the year. Memphis? They seem to care more about college sports, anyway.