Ruining the game: <iframe class="imgur-embed" width="100%" height="270" frameborder="0" src="http://i.imgur.com/rbFg7cQ.gifv#embed"></iframe>
That's a good analogy, in terms of development of the sport. I think part of the appeal of basketball is that it's a much simpler game than football, though not as pure as soccer. It's not the 3pt shooting that bothers me. That's been around for years. It's also not the allowing of zone defense. That keeps rules simpler and makes for a purer game. What I think is the biggest problem is that the league still allows defenses to beat the crap out of players who have their back to the basket, but they have forbidden contact with a guy on the perimeter. That's arbitrary and requires a huge amount of subjective judgement by refs. When winning is controlled by rules that are arbitrary, then the game, while not unfair, starts to feel like a legal contest. That's why the NFL has such excruciating replay breaks, and why the NBA is becoming more and more like that.
There's never been a blessed players like Curry and Thompson that can make a long range shot given ample room to wiggle a wrist.
I agree, though I'd note it goes both ways: Shaq was allowed to leverage his power a lot in the post, in a game that's supposedly a non-contact sport. How should post play work? Should the post player be allow to back people down because they're bigger and stronger? Should defensive players be allowed to apply force in return? If strength weren't allowed to be used, what would post play look like? Dream shakes and passing only? I don't actually have any answers to those questions, I'm mostly curious on how you'd like to see post play work.
It's not the warriors, or any particular players who've ruined anything. If you don't like the way the NBA game currently looks, you can only blame those who are responsible for tweaking the rules, and those who interpret and enforce these rules that foster this type of play. It's a don't get mad at the player, get mad at the architects of the game who made it possible for the player's attributes you don't like to be so successful, situation.
It's a difficult problem. I think no hand checking in the post even without the ball (but body ok) is the only system that can be consistent with how things are on the perimeter. That would dramatically increase paint scoring. It would also fundamentally alter the game. Maybe single hand checking could work. Something else that could help would be to very strictly enforce the defensive 3 second rule, but that's another rule that's random and not fan friendly. So my best guess is single hand checking only, or no hand checking once a player has received the ball. They'd have to try it in the D league.
