SEATTLE, Wash. — Seattle is a basketball town without a team, but for how much longer? NBA commissioner Adam Silver doesn’t have an answer quite yet, but knows that Seattle will be on the short list when it comes time to expand.

Thanks to current NBA players, the history of the Seattle SuperSonics, and a vibrant high school and AAU culture, Seattle is one of the best metro areas for the sport in the United States. The constant, gray drizzle also helps keep folks inside the gym during the winter months.

There has been some talk about trying to get a team back to Washington as soon as possible, with a group led by Chris Hansen for a SoDo arena project that would put a building at the end of downtown, near CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field.

Concurrently, two groups have been vying for the opportunity to renovate the old KeyArena. A bidder was selected last month and they will move forward toward a memorandum of understanding with a proposal before the end of 2017.

This is a simple rundown of where we stand in 2017 of getting an NBA team back in Seattle. The arena proposals and politics surrounding them are incredibly complex, but the feeling here in Seattle is that the KeyArena consideration — which will focus on the NHL and entertainment — will win out over the SoDo proposal, likely putting away the idea of adding an NBA team for some time.

Meanwhile, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said in a recent interview with Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum over at The Players’ Tribune that Seattle will still be considered for NBA expansion in the future.

Silver was reluctant to put a specific timeline on potential expansion for the NBA or Seattle, but said it was inevitable.

Via The Players’ Tribune:

I think it’s just a question of when the right time is to seriously start thinking about expansion. Think about the state we’re in the league right now where [it is] amazing to me that, coming off of these Finals, you have some fans saying, “There’s only one good team in the league” And I’m thinking, well, if people really believe that even though we have 450 of the best players in the world, and 450 players can only form one really good team, probably doesn’t make sense to expand in terms of dilution of talent. Now I don’t really believe that, and I think these things correct themselves. And I don’t want to put a precise timeline on it, but it’s inevitable at some point we’ll start looking at growth of franchises, that’s always been the case in this league, and Seattle will no doubt be on a short list of cities we’ll look at.

There does seem to be a sense of disappointment in the city of Seattle for the current proposals. Even if the NBA comes to expansion in the next five years, it would still need to have a landing spot that would be available to host in the fashion NBA teams expect to give to their fans.

The SoDo proposal is a privately funded arena project that wedges yet another arena in downtown, which is causing a conflict with the Port of Seattle. However, Key Arena is situated in one of the most densely populated and trafficked areas in Seattle. Adding 41 games of an NBA team would be an unmitigated disaster given the congestion problems, public transportation usage, and the city’s lack of a consequential light rail system.

Most believe that renovating Key Arena would not make it nice enough to attract an NBA team in the future, so if the NBA wants to come to Seattle they will need someone like Hansen to go after a separate project in the future.

As Silver said, the NBA isn’t ready to think about expansion at this time. Unfortunately, neither is the city of Seattle.