You’re looking at a map of the NBA G League right now and honestly, it looks nothing like the NBA. It’s a weird, sprawling grid of small towns, suburban hubs, and one massive international outlier. If you haven’t checked the nba g league teams map since last season, you're already behind.
The league is currently sitting at 31 teams. That’s every single NBA franchise finally having their own "farm" team, plus one independent wild card down in Mexico City. But the geography is shifting. Teams aren't just sitting in the shadows of their big brothers anymore. Some are moving to brand new arenas in the suburbs, while others are playing "home" games in entirely different countries to test the waters for future NBA expansion.
The Current Layout: 31 Teams and a Lot of Miles
Basically, the G League is split into two conferences, East and West, but the "divisions" are where things get specific. For the 2025-26 season, the most significant change on the map is the arrival of the Noblesville Boom.
You might remember them as the Indiana Mad Ants. They spent years playing in Fort Wayne, then a weird gap year in Indianapolis, and now they’ve finally settled into their permanent home at The Arena at Innovation Mile in Noblesville, Indiana. It’s a classic G League move: finding a hungry, mid-sized market that doesn't have to compete with an NFL or MLB schedule.
Eastern Conference Heavy Hitters
The East is dense. You’ve got teams packed into the Northeast corridor like the Maine Celtics (Portland, ME), Westchester Knicks (White Plains, NY), and the Delaware Blue Coats (Wilmington, DE).
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Then you have the Raptors 905. They play out of Mississauga, Ontario. They are a massive success story for how a G League team can dominate a local market. Interestingly, the Long Island Nets have been shaking things up by playing a handful of games in Laval, Quebec, this season. They’re rebranding as "Les Nets" for those games. It’s a blatant—and smart—scouting mission for the NBA to see if Montreal can actually support a full-time pro team.
The Wild West and the Mexico City Factor
The Western Conference is where the nba g league teams map gets truly spread out. You have the San Diego Clippers, who recently moved down from Ontario, California, to Oceanside. They’re playing in the brand-new Frontwave Arena, trying to capture that San Diego sports vacuum.
Then there are the Mexico City Capitanes.
They are the only team without an NBA parent. They fly more miles than almost any other team in professional sports. If you're a player on the Maine Celtics and you have to fly down to Mexico City for a Tuesday night game, that’s a literal international trek that rivals some EuroLeague travel. It’s a grueling test of endurance, and it's exactly why the NBA uses this league as a laboratory.
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Why the Map Doesn't Always Match the NBA
A lot of people assume the G League team is always right next door to the NBA team. Sometimes that’s true. The South Bay Lakers play in El Segundo, literally in the Lakers' practice facility. The Oklahoma City Blue share the Paycom Center with the Thunder. It’s easy. A player gets "called up" and they just walk across the hall.
But then you look at the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Their parent team is the Houston Rockets, but the Vipers play in Edinburg, Texas—about a five-hour drive south near the Mexican border.
Why? Because the Vipers are a powerhouse. They’ve won multiple championships and they have a massive, dedicated fanbase that doesn't care about the Rockets; they care about the Vipers. The G League map is a balance between "convenience for the NBA team" and "can we actually sell tickets in this town?"
Recent Map Additions You Might Have Missed
If you haven't looked at the standings lately, two newer dots on the map are the Rip City Remix and the Valley Suns.
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- Rip City Remix: Owned by the Portland Trail Blazers, they play at the Chiles Center on the University of Portland campus. They finally gave Portland a local spot to develop guys like Duop Reath and Rayan Rupert without sending them to some random affiliate across the country.
- Valley Suns: The newest addition to the map. For the longest time, the Phoenix Suns were the only NBA team without a G League affiliate. They fixed that in 2024, setting up shop at Mullett Arena in Tempe (the same spot the Arizona Coyotes used to call home).
The Winter Showcase: The Map Collapses into One Point
Every December, the entire nba g league teams map stops mattering for four days. All 31 teams pack their bags and head to Orlando, Florida, for the Winter Showcase.
It’s basically a massive scouting convention. Every NBA GM, dozens of international scouts, and agents all crowd into the Orange County Convention Center to watch 31 games back-to-back. If a player is going to get a 10-day contract and make the jump to the NBA, it usually starts here. For those four days, the "geography" of the league is just two courts under one roof.
How to Use the Map for Your Advantage
If you're a basketball junkie, the G League map is actually a roadmap for cheap, high-quality hoops. You can sit courtside at a Stockton Kings game or watch the Osceola Magic for a fraction of what an NBA ticket costs.
You're often watching the same guys. One night a player is scoring 30 in the G League, and 48 hours later, he’s coming off the bench for the Orlando Magic.
Actionable Next Steps:
- Check Local Affiliations: If you live in a mid-sized city like Des Moines (Iowa Wolves) or Sioux Falls (Skyforce), check their schedule. These teams are often the only pro-level game in town and have a much more "college-like" atmosphere.
- Track the "Call-Ups": Use the NBA G League official site to see which players are on "Two-Way" contracts. These guys are the nomads of the map, constantly bouncing between the NBA city and the G League city.
- Watch the Rebrands: Keep an eye on the Noblesville Boom. Their success in a new purpose-built arena is the blueprint for the next five years of the league. If they thrive, expect more teams to move out of NBA arenas and into their own suburban "innovation" districts.
The map is never static. With NBA expansion talks for Seattle and Las Vegas heating up for 2026 and 2027, expect at least two more dots to appear on this map very soon.