Ideas of Rules Changes in the NBA

I waited on for responses concerning my ideas of rules changes, and I see that some believe that the penalties were too harsh on the first two. Those, I felt like doing some tweaking while I don't have much else to say about the last two.

1. Delay of Game--I think the NBA should get tougher on such a violation, and discourage it. Perhaps award one free throw instead of the two I suggested to the other team and give them the priviledge of choosing where to inbound the ball from. As far as the Delay of Game violations are concerned, do you think the league should get tougher than it is now on those violations? I consider this question open for debate. Eight years ago, when the league moved to give a team a technical foul if they commit such a violation within the last two minutes of the fourth quarter or an overtime period even though the team wasn't previously called for one just to stop the cheesy act at the end of games a team on defense was doing, which was having a defender intentionly step out of bounds on the inbound passer just to draw a whistle and stop play to see what kind of a play the other team is running, I thought the league should just do away with warnings, period.

2. Goaltends--I see some people think that issuing an additional penalty to the offending team isn't necessary. It was just that I liked the idea of doing such a thing just to stop players from swatting the ball away when it is obviously on its downward flight near the rim or has already been banked off the glass. Another idea I have thought of doing is give the other team the privilege of having play stopped on their next possession--either after a turnover, a defensive rebound, or most likely, a made basket--and have the ball moved to the front court. If they choose to just move the ball to the front court without having play stopped, then they will have waived the privilege on that occurrence, and won't get to do it until another goaltend is committed.

3. Alternating Possessions--Debatable, as far as doing it for the entire game or just the first 46 minutes is concerned. That was a rule instituted in the college game 27 years ago due to the referees having too much trouble throwing the ball up.

4. Allow play to continue if the shot clock expires when the ball is loose, a defender comes up with possession, and then dribbles or throws it--I see this as most everybody's favorite rule change, except there were a couple of people who think the stipulations to allow play to continue aren't necessary. Well, there could be times that a defender comes up with possession of the loose ball after the shot clock expires, but just can't do anything with it because of players on the offending team who are turned into defenders being draped all over him or tying him up. In that instance, you have to stop play and have that beneficiary team inbound the ball. On the other hand, the defender who came up with possession of the loose ball after the shot clock expired started dribbling or threw the ball, and play continued, it could legally be stolen.​

A comment I would like to make about ideas of going back to not allowing zone defenses, I would like to ask a few questions, which are, should we relive the era of stagnant offenses--teams playing on offense just to draw an illegal defense violation rather than try to make things happen and be creative? Did the college game seem more exciting to watch than the NBA prior to zone defenses being allowed? Also, do you think that the college game is still more exciting to watch than the NBA even after zone defenses were allowed?

One other thing, a rules change that we likely won't see in any existing basketball league is no one fouls out. My idea of such a rule would be so many personal and technical fouls (two technical fouls still would mean an ejection from the game) allowed without yielding technical free throws to the other team. Lets say that if a player was allowed six in a game, then on their seventh or eighth, they would yield two technical FTs on those occurrences. Then on their ninth or tenth, three technical FTs, eleventh or twelvth, four technical FTs, thirteenth or fourteenth, five technical FTs, then fifteenth and thereafter, six technical FTs.

 

I have never heard or read of the idea of widening the rim ever talked about, but I have heard or read of the ideas of tinkering with the size of the court though. IMO, I think that is something that could be done. I do know that high schoolers play on a smaller court than regulation, and most outdoor basketball courts are even smaller in parks than what high schoolers play on in gymnasiums.

Loosening up of the the hand check rule would likely mean a drop in scoring IMO. I do think the refs should watch all the rough play that tends to go on under the basket more carefully though.