As was discussed briefly this week on Sirius/XM NBA Radio, the NBA might be looking to expand back into Seattle at some point in the near future. If they did, that team would be an expansion team and not a re-location one, meaning that the league would then want to expand a second time to add an Eastern Conference team and balance the league back out.
If NBA owners did decide to expand the league by two teams today, the prevailing understanding is that every team would be allowed to protect a maximum of eight players, while leaving all others available to be poached by the new franchise’s.