Toronto Raptors to play home games in Louisville?

COVID-19 has complicated international travel. This is why the Toronto Raptors trained in Florida before the NBA bubble and the Toronto Blue Jays played home games in Buffalo this baseball season.

What will the Raptors do next season, when the NBA wants to play with fans in arenas?

According to league sources, Toronto may play next season’s home games in Louisville, Kentucky instead of Toronto, Canada.

This could be a nice audition for Louisville that has tried to get an NBA team before.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Hornets (who later became the Pelicans) split time between New Orleans and Oklahoma City in the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. That paved the way for Oklahoma City to get the Thunder (nee the Seattle SuperSonics) a couple of years later.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that expansion is imminent. Neither is a franchise permanently relocating. The Raptors playing home games in Louisville is a long shot. They’d obviously prefer to play in Toronto.

But among the many considerations for a complex next season, this one at least makes sense on paper.