Everything Adam Silver Said About Expansion, Salary Cap, More at NBA Summer League

NBA commissioner Adam Silver discussed several topics surrounding the league at his press conference during the 2026 Summer League on Tuesday.

Silver said that he believes a decision regarding expansion will be made by the end of the year, with several groups showing interest in potential teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.

Silver also revealed that multiple groups are currently getting ready to present their plans for a possible Las Vegas organization.

"Multiple very serious groups are in the process of presenting plans to our bankers," Silver said, per ESPN's Ben Golliver. "... It's music to my ears. ... It's very encouraging. No votes have been taken yet."

Silver weighed in on the impact that the second apron has made on teams as they build their respective rosters for the 2026-27 season as well.

"It's certainly not an unintended consequence," Silver told reporters. "When you have a salary system in place as we do, every general manager is going to need to make mixed basketball and business decisions."

"The purpose of this system is ultimately to create competition throughout the league and from that standpoint I think the system's working incredibly well," he added. "The goal isn't necessarily to have a different champion every year, but we've had eight different champions over the last eight years."

Silver also explained that the league has received interest from cities in Europe for future teams.

"We've had tremendous interest from multiple cities in Europe, including cities that we didn't ask for bids from," Silver said, per Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. "And we discussed with our board today that we're in the process of finalizing those bids for an initial group of cities."

On March 25, NBA owners unanimously voted to begin the expansion bidding process for new teams in Las Vegas and Seattle.

Seattle was previously home to the SuperSonics from 1967 until 2008, as the organization moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.

Las Vegas has never had an NBA team, but the city is currently home of the WNBA's Las Vegas Aces and has hosted the Summer League on an annual basis since 2004.

Bill Foley, the majority owner of the NHL's Vegas Golden Knights, confirmed that he was launching a bid for a future NBA team in Las Vegas on June 22.

As for the league's 30 current teams, they've been careful to avoid spending too much on their rosters so that they don't cross into the second apron.

The second apron was implemented as part of the NBA's collective bargaining agreement that was ratified in 2023. The penalties involved with the second apron have often resulted in teams staying below it.

The New York Knicks chose not to enter the second apron and lost backup center Mitchell Robinson in free agency, while Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Brad Stevens confirmed that salary cap flexibility factored into his decision to trade star Jaylen Brown to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The NBA will hold its next board meeting in September.