Get rid of the 3pt shot and basketball would be great again!

This is nearly a week old, but I watched it recently:

There have been other breakdowns that show similar things as this video I think.

I just don't get the "too many 3s" complaints. Kick out to a role player who shoots a 22 foot corner 3? Bad ugly basketball. Kick out to a role player who shoots an 18 foot baseline jumper? BEAUTIFUL!!!! Yeah the conversion rates are about the same, and the former would lead to better spacing that allows for more exciting plays at the rim...but those 18 ft jumpers are just a thing of beauty.

I forget if I saw this confirmed, but I'm guessing the number of jumpers in this era in comparable to previous eras. Maybe it has even gone down as we do seem to be getting better looks at the rim (as noted in the video). And that's a good thing I think? Acrobatic finishes, alley oop dunks from *lob threats*, pretty floaters over big men, etc. Good stuff. I like that. Do other people not like that? Because we're getting more of that too.

There were some great teams in the past that did play some exciting basketball....at times anyway. My guess is most people have their nostalgia glasses on, and they're only thinking about the highlights and exceptions, but then comparing that to the average (or even worst) NBA game today (vs say...the Cavs vs Thunder game). Of course those aren't going to compare well.

I've been a Rockets fan for a long time (though not as long as some you old geezers ). I rooted for a Rockets team with future Hall of Famers Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady who played alongside Shane Battier, Skip to My Lou, the late great Dikembe Mutombo, the Tmac of Greece, and others. That was the 4th best team in the West in the 06-07 season...and they put up 67 points in a playoff game. Only 4 players even scored! Was this brand of basketball better than today's? Spoiler: No. You did have the Spurs and Suns who were pretty fun to watch (at least at times), but most of the NBA did not play like that. Yeah that 67 point game was an anomaly of sorts, but you'd still probably only get 90 something points scored (100+ if you're lucky), mostly by watching Yao and McGrady go iso.

On the whole, I 100% think today's game is better than eras of the past. The players are much more skilled, the strategies involved are much more complex and involved (I'm in awe of modern defenses to be honest...well the good ones), and there's also reasonably good parity in the league (at least for now). I'd be happy to blast officiating, certain rules that should be changed/tweaked, and other things (e.g., the media)., but I just do not understand these other complaints.

Teams also aren't running the exact same stuff. Not sure where that idea came from. I guess the types of shots teams want are the same, and yes some actions are used by every team, but the way these offenses work are all pretty different. Some teams very heavily run PnR. Some teams don't run any PnR (see Thinking Basketball video about the Grizzlies). Some teams pass the ball a ton. Others don't. Some teams have these gifted big men like Sengun, Sabonis, Jokic, etc. Others don't. Some teams have a unicorn 7'4" dude who can do crazy things. Some teams have a tiny 6'1" guy who can nail game winning shots from 50 feet away.

Not saying there's no overlap, but given a large number of teams in the past had an offense that consisted of "give the ball to the best player and let him cook," I don't know if there's much comparison. Again, not every team in previous eras were the Kings, Suns, Spurs, etc.

The one other thing I can think of that people might also be bothered by is that we don't really get key matchups during games. At least not as much. In the past, yeah you'd get Hakeem vs Ewing, Yao vs Shaq, AI vs Jordan, Kobe vs Lebron, etc. Nowadays, teams hunt mismatches, so instead of Yao posting up Shaq...you'd want Yao posting up Derek Fisher or something like that (or Francis/McGrady trying to isolate on Shaq). You also have these swarming defenses that will try to take the ball out of a superstar's hands....and superstars who are more willing to pass the ball to his teammates in those situations (sorry ANT). I like the current style, but I could understand wanting the game to be more superstar centric like it was in the past.

OK rant over. I probably should have stuck to my previous, shorter post, but I keep hearing this narrative (and I ended up re-reading this thread).

 

The basketball is great these days. /end.

 

I've been talking about this with some other people for the past couple of years. You can camp in the paint all day and not get called for a defensive 3 second call. I was trying to see if I missed a rule change or not, but couldn't find anything. I don't know if it's to discourage even more 20 ppg players (since everybody and their mother seems to be one now) or what. Hell, we've got almost 40 dudes averaging 20 ppg now. A lot of that is also because dudes are shooting 3's better than ever and jacking them more, but that can't be the only thing (or can it?).

The other thing is half the "hesi" dribbles that in the past would've probably been a travel/carry call.

 

Getting rid of the 3 point line would fix NBA officiating?

 

He is 100% on point

Rocket River

 

Garbage idiotic post

 

I went from being one of the biggest fans to not even watching it anymore mostly because the NBA looks too much like a show including being staged. The officiating is horrible and biased towards certain players and teams. Just let the teams play.

 

This is 100% the issue
I spend more time wondering about the Refs and the narrative more than the game.

Rocket River

 

Coaches need to get back in the suit and ties. You know, so do fans. Tired of the sloppy, untucked, unkempt look. Save it for your house.






Look at this mess:

 

Love the suit and ties era.

 

I am beginning to see more and more think pieces that coming around to my thinking
We are getting sick and tired of the bullsh*t narratives and negativity
It's slow work but it is happening.

The Video from Kofie above is terrible spot on

The #1 issue in the NBA is the Refs
and the feeling that games are predetermined
Like the WWE - if you are going to have the fix in . . .at least do what we want to see

Got to increase rating . . . remove the REFS from the equation
not saying get rid of them but make them feel invisible again
the fact that even know the name of a Ref is bothersome

In football . . .. I dont know a single ref . .. hell I cannot tell one from the ther
(Holy Isht. . . i did not even know they had positions in the NFL for each Ref
Positions

• Referee: The leader of the officiating crew, responsible for game management and final penalty decisions
• Umpire: An official with a specific role on the field
• Down judge: Also known as the head linesman, this official has a specific role on the field
• Line judge: An official with a specific role on the field
• Field judge: Also known as the back umpire, this official has a specific role on the field
• Side judge: An official with a specific role on the field
• Back judge: An official with a specific role on the field
• Center judge: An official with a specific role on the field )

Do your baseball heads know any particular Umpires?

Rocket River

 

Yes. Only the baseball purists love the bad calls and don't want to go to an automated strikezone. A perceived bad zone is the leading cause for players and coaches getting upset.

Angel Hernandez (has he been forced into retirement yet?)
Bucknor
Diaz
King Kulpa

 

I don't get the feeling that games are predetermined (or anything like that), though I do think there is a big problem with officiating.

The officiating of game rules in general...I'm...OK with. It is far from perfect, but I think basketball (especially at this high level) is an incredibly complicated game to officiate. Most casual fans don't even seem to know what a gather step is, and yet these officials need to track 20 feet, 20 hands, a fast moving ball, etc. Yeah they get stuff wrong, but by and large, I think they do a good job. I would prefer some rule tweaks and points of emphasis (both of which might simplify officiating), but generally speaking I think it is good.

What I don't like is that certain officials have an ego as big as some of the biggest NBA superstars. This combined with the power to dramatically impact games by dishing out ejections, techs, etc., ends up leading to some bad situations. Marc Davis called a 5 second violation on FVV a few weeks ago. I know a lot of Rockets fans were upset by this. I wasn't. Well the call sucked, but it happens (and FVV/Rockets shouldn't have been in that situation).

I was upset that Marc Davis then had a power trip and ejected FVV, which then instigated some of the things that followed. I find myself disagreeing with more and more ejections/techs than I feel like I should. Some of that is due to power trips by refs, though I also admit that I think the league needs to allow for more emotion from players/coaches (i.e., I think the refs are doing what they're told...but they shouldn't be told those things).

This carries over into challenges, which I initially liked but now I'm not so sure. To me, it seems like officials will make a bad call, coaches will challenge, and then certain officials who are too proud to be wrong will just make up words to prove they are still correct. Suddenly you hear "marginal" contact, or references to the rule book you never heard before ("hand is part of the ball...except in this case because it also affected the player's A-to-B trajectory towards the basket in a significant way"). Hell some refs won't even bother to explain and just refuse to overturn. I thought challenges could help keep calls more consistent, but I'm not sure it is having the effect I desired. It doesn't help that the NBA has these weird arbitrary rules about what can be challenged. Tony Brothers just hallucinates and thinks Cam inbounded the ball to himself. He's too arrogant to accept what others are saying (and apparently the NBA can't just tell him what happened via replay), but regardless, Ime can't challenge it anyway. Deal with it and accept his apology later (and look forward to seeing this hallucinating official in the NBA Finals).

Refs probably won't like it, but I wonder if they could just get rid of most ejections/techs. Obviously fights, flagrants, etc. would still exist (and get you ejected), but if guys are just complaining or taunting, I'm thinking maybe let it go in the game and review post-game. If the NBA doesn't want that stuff, the officiating crew can send it in after the game and throw some big fines towards the players/coaches/etc. Probably some unintended consequences to this, but as a fan, I really don't want to see a game stopped and a player/team penalized because they were hanging on the rim for an extra second or two. If the NBA handles that on the side without me really knowing it, I don't care (and in theory that should still incentivize players to do the right thing). If Joey Crawford really wants the NBA to fine Tim Duncan 500K because he was laughing on the bench, he can do that (vs actually ejecting a star player in a game all because Joey has anger management issues). I will say that I thought they'd do this with flopping, and that has seemingly failed, so there's probably reasons for why this wouldn't work as well as I'd think.

Anyway, yes the more invisible refs are, the better. I do think this is more difficult in basketball than other sports, but I think the NBA is not doing a great job of trying to reduce their visibility/impact on games. Yes, I/we should not know so many names of officials. And yet, here we are.

 

Nobody loves shitty umpires/refs

 

Lol no. Never. Please God no.

 

While I do miss midrange a bit, I definitely do not miss the clogged up rock fights. The tween tween hesi hesi pull up 20 footers went in probably at best 45%. On average much worse. I’m not pining for those days. I think nba basketball needs some tweaks but definitely does not need less spacing by removing 3s

 

LOL you use Draymond to back up your point? Silly…it’s also ironic for Green to say this.

 

Only 2 non moving screens per trip on offense.
Warriors :