Revisiting How to Improve the NBA Game for the Fans

[CruzDude]

Every year or two we revisit how we, as armchair versions of Adam Silver and/or GM's, would change things in the NBA game to make the overall game better to watch and better for the fans. I think it is a separate thread on how to make the game better for the players (no back-to-backs, no tricky tacky fouls, etc). So, here are my first 2 ideas. What is your idea? Dumm & Dummer suggestions could get deleted. This is about the NBA game now.
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My #1 thought is to eliminate the FT shooting contest in the last 2 minutes of games by awarding 1 shot and the ball back to the offended team for each non-shooting foul. Then the better team should win close games.

My #2 might be to go back to the original 1+1 non-shooting foul wherein the the player has to make the first foul shot in order to get the second shot of the 1 + 1 or a clever rebounder could turn a missed first shot into a 2-point put-back.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

My #1 thought is to eliminate the FT shooting contest in the last 2 minutes of games by awarding 1 shot and the ball back to the offended team for each non-shooting foul. Then the better team should win close games.

Perhaps the fouled team could have the option of one plus the ball on the side or two shots, shooting foul or no.

My #2 might be to go back to the original 1+1 non-shooting foul wherein the the player has to make the first foul shot in order to get the second shot of the 1 + 1 or a clever rebounder could turn a missed first shot into a 2-point put-back.

Well, you can always turn a missed second shot into a put-back, so there's not really any incentive there. I've always hated the official verbiage of "shooting one plus the penalty, two shots". I mean, he's shooting two shots. I don't know if I have any preference for a 1+1 like college rather than the current two.


Perhaps my biggest pet peeve is the seemingly arbitrary travel calls that the officials love to make when a player is initiating a move from a set position. I know it's effectively "lifting the pivot foot" before the ball touches the ground, but I'd be in favor of that being relaxed a bit. If the player has committed to a dribble, I think that should be a good move as long as the dribble is completed before the "pivot foot" comes back down.

I'd actually be in favor of much stricter rules (or technically enforcement) on lane violations. You can call a lane violation on almost every free throw, so when they call it, it's arbitrary. I'd like to see the lane violation called consistently. Players would adjust.

I'd also like to see every timeout under the last two minutes (maybe even three minutes - let's say after the final TV timeout) be a 20-second timeout. You have time to sub and draw up one play. That's it. In fact, call it a 10-second timeout, because 20-second timeouts take a full minute. (That could get fixed too. From the moment the 20-second timeout is called, the clock starts counting down. When it gets to zero, you have five seconds to inbound. If you're inbounding and not ready, it's a turnover. If you're on defense and not ready...oops! In fact, if they were draconian about enforcing that, they could easily move to a 30-second timeout. Just enforce it.)

 

[chief bromden]

These will never happen, but just for fun:

Reduce the amount of timeouts in the game to 2 per half for each team.
To encourage passing, any shot without the player dribbling should be worth an extra point (ie. catch and shoot 3s will be 4s, alley oops will be 3s, etc).
If a player reaches his 6th foul, the team can elect to keep the player in the game by trading an additional free throw and possession (essentially a flagrant 1). This option wouldn't be available for additional fouls.
Relegate worst team to D League. Screw you Sixers. I despise tanking. I've always liked Simmons idea of having a 8th seed tourney will all the non-playoff teams for the last 2 weeks of the season.
For every technical, the ref repeats the gesture or words that caused the infraction to the crowd.

 

[miltonap]

Remove Joe Crawford from anything NBA related

Have a better replay system so we can stop killing the momentum of games

Remove other refs that suck

Stop calling technicals when players get emotional. This is an emotional game, not some fairy league.

Stop calling so many fouls/flagrants. Like, that's not a flagrant foul, you don't need to spend 10 minutes reviewing it, idiot. And even if it is, you don't need to spend 10 minutes reviewing it. Make a decision, stop being indecisive like a teenage girl

 

[ForlornKing]

We really need to go back and look at how post defense is being called.

In today's NBA the only way to play post defense most of the time is just letting the other guy score.

 

[CruzDude]

Ahh, some good ones. Thanks Capt. Traveling calls and Lane Violations are biggies for me too, especially lane violations which occur on almost every FT.

Stop all lane violations. Any defender foot on the floor in the lane before the ball hits the rim is a lane violation. Period.

Traveling calls are a tough nut. The ball needs to hit the floor before the pivot foot is lifted on beginning a dribble. Simple enough. Maybe it needs to be corrected at the Coach/Assistant Coach level with players learning how to start a dribble. The other traveling call that irks me is the "stars" getting the 3rd and 4th steps down low going to the basket. I see 2-3 of those every game now that I'm looking at that. Basic rule that does not seem to be enforced evenly.

Only 20 sec timeouts in last 2 min of each half makes sense, to let the game go.

 

[ESP47]

Just less fouls in general. It takes away from the game. Unless a foul specifically causes a player to severely affect their shot, they just shouldn't be called.
Games these days are turning into free throw contests. Players trying to cause contact to get the whistle. It takes away from the game. Just let the guys play.

I'll never understand why the NBA thinks that calling games tight is a good thing for the fans and the sport. Just slows the game down and leads to flopping and guys trying to make contact rather than trying to score the ball.

 

[Bricklayer]

 

[206Fan]

Call way less fouls in the game, which means stop playing soft.

• Make hand checking legal
• Take out the 3s violation
• Take out taking charges
• Take out stupid clear path fouls

Hand checking just plain sucks and anyone who's played basketball before knows this. The 3s violation on both ends of the floor is stupid. Charges are called incorrectly like 50% of the time.. the rule is just useless. I think there should be offensive fouls, but not charges. Clear path fouls should not be 2 shots and the ball.

I've seen JT try to defend both Gasol and Z-Bo the other day, and he couldn't. It wasn't because he sucked, it's because the refs wouldn't let him play an ounce of defense. That right there is ridiculous. There's a reason why defenders are really hard to find these days.

I think a few things they should add are:

• -For intentional fouls, it should be 1 shot+ball in the last 5 minutes of the game (this would prevent stupid teams from trying to play the foul game because their team sucked for 3 quarters and finally showed up in the 4th). Even if the team has 5 fouls, it's 1shot+ball and the opposing team cannot call a timeout before or after the foul shot.
• Goal tending and blocks should be reviewable at timeouts.

• Extend each quarter to 15mins, but have the clock running the entire time. The new shot clock starts for a team as soon as the other team scores or when they grab the rebound. This would probably increase a lot of full court pressure and give players a sense of urgency getting the ball in. It would also speed up the game and prevent constant stoppage unless necessary for a review or such.
• Give coaches 1 challenge on any call.

Just a few suggestions

 

[VF21]

Wipe out foul count if you go into overtime.

Eliminate the "You didn't check in in time so you have to wait" stupidity.

Make someone at the replay center responsible for the final determination of a disputed call, not one of the officials at the game.

Eliminate allowing the inbounding team to roll the ball down the court without the clock starting. The clock starts when the ball crosses the sideline.

 

[kingsboi]

How about not allowing a offensive player to flop his way to the free throw line
Allowing a little more lee way when contesting the shots of a shooter
Eliminating the clear path foul
Eliminate Joey Crawford from officiating ever...