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In the last two minutes of a game, if the player with the ball is fouled, there should be a 12-second runoff of the game clock. This will eliminate that stupid “foul the guy with the ball” (or as we used to call it, “smear the queer”) crap that you get at the end of a close NBA game. The worst 2 minutes in all sports is the last 2 minutes of a close NBA game.
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Why does over half the teams make the playoffs? They should reduce from 16 teams down to 12 or so.
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Reduce the length of the postseason. Four best-of-seven series is too much. Maybe the first round should be best-of-three, and the second should be best-of-five.
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Elminate the 2-2-1-1-1 format from the playoffs. Where’s the home field advantage? Where’s the incentive to play well during the season? Switch to 2-2-2-1 instead.
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Speaking of incentivizing teams to perform during the season–follow the NFL’s lead. Give first-round byes to the top teams in each conference. That would eliminate a lot of the tanking going on late in the season.
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Elminate the draft lottery. I don’t know how to fix it, but anything’s got to be better than that.
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Limit the fouls to five per game. I get tired of seeing people getting hacked every time they drive to the rim. Limiting the fouls would actually require people to play defense. (What a concept!)
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Fix the stupid “have to give the shooter space to come down” rule. Good rule in theory, because they do need to be able to land safely, without turning their ankles on somebody else’s foot. But in practice, it’s led to way too many foul shots, and it slows down the game.
implement a maximum player height of 6 foot. affirmative action for short people
allow a player to sit on top of the backboard and swat the ball away
no jumping allowed
Shut it down.
Publicize balleralert.com. All the girls on AF are doing it wrong. Should be spending their time on baller alert.
Unfortunately these are revenue drivers and will never be fixed.
The NBA is the worst of all the professional sports. I told my roomate that I thought we shouldn’t have this foul stuff and the last few minutes suck. I just heard a lot of angry comments like the two below (he was actually pissed I refused to accept this without question):
“THATS THE MOST BASIC THING ABOUT THE NBA ‘STEP TO THE LINE’”
“TAKE YOUR FREE THROWS - THATS FUNDAMENTAL BASKETBALL”
I think if you foul the player with the ball when they’re not shooting they should still get to keep the ball - don’t even take foul shots. You get a foul for hacking. Full stop. It makes it the most boring thing. I feel like every play that could be exciting becomes a foul. If no one is fouling out till the last few plays and people are intentionally fouling the whole game the limit for fouls is too high. There is not enough strategy or need for hard work in basketball. It’s all dunking and fouling.
What’s boring about the NBA is that pretty much everything that happened in the first three quarters has no impact on the game, everything is decided in the last 10 mins or so.
Maybe the way to solve this is to keep players less fresh at the end, with soccer-style substitution rules.
Introduce one team comprised of members of the animal kingdom. One more team should be comprised of robots. It will be the ultimate battle of man vs. machine vs. beast.
This was exactly my point to my roommate. The first 58 minutes of gameplay don’t mean anything?
Also, why does it seem like this is the only sport where we don’t give an advantage in terms of game tempo controll to the winning team. If I work had to be up 100-86 in the last period I should have a very small chance of losing. I should be able to hold all my shots for the full 25 seconds and run off A LOT of time on the clock. If you don’t like that 1) play harder during the first few quarters or 2) go on a big run by playing defense and hitting your last few shots. These rules are meant to make the games ‘exciting’ which to the NBA and the ignorants who like the NBA means ‘close’ because the rules favor the losing team
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Being able to not dribble if you run or walk backwards
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10 point shots for weird shots (3/4 court length, from the bench, off an opponent’s head, ect)
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Height of basket should change randomly
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and last but not least, my suggestion from the soccer thread, lets use 2+ basketballs at one time. Would see some interesting strategy and tactics.
introduce affirmative action into basketball. I propose a mandatory 25% asian population
This is the exact effect of some of the suggestions of the “How to improve soccer thread”. Shot clock…backboard…
^Yeah, you’re always going to have some purists out there, who think that there are some things that are sacred and should never be changedwhether those things are outdated or just plain ol’ stupid. (eg - the extra point in American football),
You would have just finished the 2nd overtime period at the 58 minute mark, so whatever happened earlier in the game was pretty important.
let officials bet on the games
Goes to show how little I watch because it’s a bad sport. I don’t even watch more than 10 minutes of playoffs.
I used to play in a few 6’ and under rec leagues (sorry bchad, no giants allowed), and they are filled with the most annoying people you ever want to meet. Every team as at least one 5’6" white dude who honestly believes he is the best inch-for-inch player in history and would school MJ and Lebron if he was only a little bit taller.
I’m surprised how popular the NBA is in the US. Yes, it’s way behind the NFL and MLB, but it’s still close to a $5 billion industry. Wasn’t the league left for dead in the mid 80s before the Jordan era started?
I love the NBA and think playoff basketball is amazing. But I concede that the league has some serious flaws, one of which is the long and almost meaningless regular season. Cutting back games is unlikely since players and owners would lose salary and revenue, so I’m not sure there will be an easy fix. Ratings for even the most important playoff games are miserable.
As a tall person myself, I am annoyed with shorties who think they would play in the NBA if only they were as tall as I am. Great. I would be in the NBA if I could run and jump like LeBron. What’s your point?
It was close to dead before the Magic/Bird era, the tail end of which bled into the Jordan era.