Now that these three things have come and gone, which are the Olympics in Beijing, the Ron Artest Trade, and the Hakeem Olajuwon introduction to the HOF, I feel that now is an appropriate time to talk about rules changes in the league since it has been so full of them over the years. Some of the changes were good, and some wern't. There are four changes that I think would be good in such that they would help speed up play during the course of the games and increase scoring even further. 1. Delay of Game--Allow no more warnings for such a violation, period. Award the other team two technical free throws, and the privilege of choosing where to inbound the ball from. Calling for a time out you don't have would be one example of such a violation let alone interfering with the other team's ability to take the ball out of bounds after a made basket or free throw in any manner. The desired result I would hope to see is more fast breaks off of made baskets or free throws. 2. Goaltends--Penalize the offending team five seconds on their ensuing possession, meaning they will have 19 seconds instead of the usual 24 with any partial reset of the shot clock being set at 9 seconds instead of the 14. If the team who's got that possession with the reduced shot clock gets off a shot in time that hits the rim, then a full reset to 24. The desired result I would hope to see is reduce the stoppages of play because of goaltends or a few more possessions during the course of the game. 3. Alternating Possessions--These to go on for the first 46 minutes of play, which means that when the game clock shows 1:59 or less to play in the fourth quarter, then the possession indicator is turned off for the rest of the game, including overtime periods, and any tieup of the ball is jumped, like it is now. The desired result I would like to see is speed up play during the course of the game, plus be a model of what other basketball leagues that use alternating possessions should do with them altogether in crunch time (do away with them or keep the status quo). 4. Shot clock expires with the ball loose, but a defender comes up with possession of the ball, then either dribbles or throws it--allow play to continue rather than stop play on that occurrence. So many times, we see the one player that rightfully got the possession anyways wants to push the ball down to the other end of the floor for a fast break layup or dunk, but instead, gets denied that privilege by an official stopping play, thus giving that offending team a chance to get their defense back and set up at that other end of the court. Think about how back court violations are handled, which is if the ball goes into the backcourt and it was last touched by a player on offense, the officials don't stop play unless someone on the offense goes back to get it, or goes out of bounds. The shot clock violations could be handled in this same manner except during the last few seconds of a quarter, when the team defending would likely want play to be stopped if the shot clock expires, but would just need to request it to the officials. The desired result I hope to see here is unnecessary stoppages of play on some shot clock violations that would in turn speed up play during the course of the game, and allow more opportunities for easy baskets for the beneficiary teams on those occurrences.
1 and 2 are too much. 3 I don't like. I think the Refs should just take jump ball lessons cause they NEVER throw correctly. 4, sounds good, but isn't that what they are suppose to do right now? Again, Refs aren't that good and make mistakes a lot.
Disagree with 1 to 3. On 4, play should continue if the defensive team comes up with the ball. Period. My suggested rule change is to borrow something from FIBA: Technical fouls should count as personal fouls and should always result in 2 FTs and possession for the other team. It's time to shut the whiners up and teach them self-control.
3 In the Key: Get rid of it. Allow Handchecking: Why did the league make it illegal in the 1st place? Illegal Defense: Doubling one player without the ball. Don't call as many fouls: mainly just call body fouls, hacking fouls, pulling fouls, and knockdowns.
Put impact sensors in players' shirts to differentiate the floppers from the ones who have really been hit. Get rid of the semi-circle under the basket.
the first 2 are too harsh and, as bad as refs are at jump balls, i have just never liked alternate possession though it does sort of make sense to just alternately award it when two guys are essentially "tied" for possession. without all the stipulations, 4 is probably a good idea. i think if there is a shotclock violation, you only stop play if the offensive team touches it before anybody on the defense gains possession. so if the defense gets it, play on, but if the offense touches it at any point before the defense gains full possession, it's a shotclock violation.
1 would cause riots! Imagine a tied game then someone kicks a ball by accident after a basket, the opposing team gets shots because of a refs judgment. No way.
i am ok with the rules in play right now except for: zone defenses: go back to man to man only its the NBA you have to be good enough to play man this hybrid zone defense (not true zone defense) is silly and makes teams look better than what they are defensively. perimeter touch fouls...get rid of it no need to have the derek harper hand checks but this finger brushing stuff is downright silly when compared to the mugging that goes on underneath
Why do you think zone defense makes teams look better than what they are defensively? Do you think zone defense is easier to execute effectively? If so, why aren't teams using it more? I think it's a myth that zone defense is easier and therefore giving the defensively inferior team an advantage. Just think about it. If you banned man on man defense and allowed only zone, would it make the game defensively better? No. Actually, it gives the defense an advantage only in that it gives the defense one more option to use. So banning zone is like banning hand check or banning drawing charge directly under the basket. These are artificial ways to limit the defense in order to make the offense look better than it otherwise would.
QFMFT imo these rules give quick offensive players and long defensive players (using decent defensive concepts) an unnecessary advantage. Their physical gifts should be advantage enough! It really makes skill less important. A slower intelligent offensive player can no longer get all the way to the basket, even if he is smart enough to get by his man another lanky player can be waiting for him in his 'zone'. Instead of being able to expose someone like Nash on every play, he can get blown by on every play as long as there's someone to step into the next 'zone' area and that person's 'man' can't hit the open jumpshot. The perimeter touch fouls make it IMPOSSIBLE for a slow player to D up anyone no matter how smart of a defender he is unless the refs look the other way (see: Bowen). I think about how dominant a defender Shane would be if this rule wasn't in place. Its sad to see someone with perfect defensive principles get torched by 30, 40, or 50 but it happens. Essentially, now a perfect team is comprised of 5 extremely quick lanky, jump shooters. Skilled post players and skilled defenders are simply a luxury. Of course champions and great teams have both but now more than ever you can win with less skilled players and more athletes. These rules are part of the problem.
I second this idea. This will allow them to make the 3 point shot the same distance all around. No more cheap corner 3's. Besides, the athlete are a lot bigger stronger faster than when it was first invented and they need to adjust the size of the court a little bit.
Every rule favors some skills and physical attributes. Heck, the game of basketball by itself favors tall people. It's not about WHETHER some rules favor some players, but WHAT KIND of players you want your rules to favor. Allowing zone defense eliminates (or reduces) the advantage of "defensive specialist." In the past, you can have a totally useless offensively but good defensively player and can hide his offensive deficiency simply because the other team has to have someone to guard you. Now, you can't because if you can't shoot, your man will just ignore you and go double up the other team's star. So, do you want to hide the bad defensive players or the bad offensive players? Your choice.
The first two are ridiculous. The 3rd rule is a matter of opinion, but I like the jump ball thing the way it is. The 4th definitely makes sense. I don't know about rule changes, but I would like to see these things called differently: Break-away fouls: I don't know how many times a player gets fouled and I jump up and yell "break away!" only for the ref to call it a normal foul. I really think the league should be aggressive in calling break away fouls, because I would a zillion times prefer seeing a player get a steal and slam home a flashy dunk than half a heads up defender foul him and make him "earn" his two points. Hanging on the rim: What? hanging on it is bad for the rim? So all those years they didn't call it NBA teams were playing on bad rims? Please. Way to try and take the fun out of the game David Stern! Lighten up on this one as much as possible. Also, I want to see a new stat on box scores, that I'm sure every team actually keeps for its own records: adjusted assists. That means taking into account assists that lead to free throws, and weighting assists that lead to 2 point shots vs. 3 point shots. I don't think this stat should overtake old school assists, but it'd be interesting to see.
everyone can flame me if you want, but the best way to solve the NBA scoring/speed of the game problem is to 1 - widen the rim - it doesn't have to be by much, maybe an inch? relatively the exact same game happens with higher FG%. the 3 ball will become more relevant too. i'm sure at first most of you will think this is way too extreme. think about it though. 2 - widen, lengthen the court - todays players need the room to run full speed. players are taller, longer than ever. more room baseline especially, under the basket makes the game flow much more fluid for today's bigger players. 3 - loosen the hand check rule. c'mon. you know exactly what i'm talking about. these changes might seem extreme, but these changes address the defense now present in the NBA. defense STIFLES scoring and causes a slow tempo/physical game. i myself like that part of the game. so instead of taking that away, we keep the physicality of the game. AND put the same product on the court - with some increased scoring.
