This is interesting. A person living in Philadelphia claims to have better insight into how people would respond in Edmonton to a franchise than Edmontonians.
Personally I think it would be neat to have a team, but the reality is that no one talks about basketball around here at all. I work in an building with about 600 people in it, I personally chat with about 100 of them from time to time. Over the twenty years I've been here, I can think of 4 people that would regularly talk about basketball with me whereas at least half of the people will chat about hockey at any time.
Yes, if we got a team and it was super successful within 2-3 years, people would be interested and talking about it, but the reality is basically a successful team in any city in NA would likely be just as successful. If the criteria for getting a team was confidence that fans would show up if the team was championship calibre, you'd think probably another 100 cities in NA would make a bid.
The question when expanding or relocating a team is how strong is the interest in that sport in that city to sustain a team should it struggle in the standings for several years and the reality in Edmonton is that it may sell well in year one, but if the team struggled in the standings, attendance would be well below 10,000 in season 2. I'd actually be surprised if it was over 5000. Particularly at the prices the tickets would likely command.