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From DoubleViking:
http://www.doubleviking.com/an-open-letter-to-the-nba-end-the-foul-and-chase--7605-p.html

The NBA has been around for over 60 years. During that time, you've widened the lanes to protect against the outright domination of giants, you've shortened the shot-clock to increase the pace of games, you've even come up with a complex system of revenue sharing and salary caps to help make sure that even the smaller market teams have a chance to retain their players and compete with New York and Los Angeles. Yet, for some reason, you continue to completely ignore the major cause behind the fact that basketball can put on possibly the greatest show in sports and still come in third in popularity among America's three major sports.

Great suggestion. The only thing I would change is to give the tech and the ball on non-shooting fouls in the last two minutes only if a team has a more than a one possession lead (more than 3 points) at the time. Otherwise, you shoot your foul shots and give up the ball.

lol at that picture of Jaric with his jersey backwards ... thats too funny

I would add too:

Coaches should not be allowed to complain to the referee. Even the player complains should be limited.
Serious issues should be discussed between the team captain (selected as the team well spoken & cool headed guy) and the referee not the coach/players. Then a video replay should be reviewed if coaches agree.

Reason they complain so much is to put pressure on referees and create biased calls next time.

This immature complaining rarely solves or changes the initial decision. It looks unprofessional and adds too much stress to the already challenged referees.

whoknows wrote:I would add too:

Coaches should not be allowed to complain to the referee. Even the player complains should be limited.
Serious issues should be discussed between the team captain (selected as the team well spoken & cool headed guy) and the referee not the coach/players. Then a video replay should be reviewed if coaches agree.

Reason they complain so much is to put pressure on referees and create biased calls next time.

This immature complaining rarely solves or changes the initial decision. It looks unprofessional and adds too much stress to the already challenged referees.

Agreed, player and coach complaining is at an all time high. I would assume that it's hard for Refs to focus on the game, when you everyone in the arena (Fans, coaches, players, mascots) in your ear all the time.

More technicals, end this attitude, its really frustrating for an NBA fan to watch.

I disagree. I see nothing wrong with this strategyin basketball at all and I think it makes games more interesting (esp. games that are on the verge of being "blowouts", say 8 or 9 points with 2 minutes to go, watchable). For the one out of 20 or 50 or whatever times this strategy works, it's an amazing game to watch and even more intense and emotional to play. It is a way for the coaches to micro-manage but I am okay with that. Finally, I would argue that what he is proposing, no fouling or it's a t, would make the game very boring and i see it as being the equivalent to football's taking the knee...where the opposing team has no chance, realistically, to win or to improve their chance of winning (by i.e. stripping the ball if the offensive team is required to run plays). I think that kind of finish makes for bad entertainment. Here's a basketball example...

NJ is up 10 points with 1 minute to go with the ball...they come down and hold the ball and with a 1 or 2 seconds to go they jack the ball and miss...Toronto gets the possession (with approx. 38 seconds to go), and hurries down the floor and hits a 3 (took them 4 seconds to do this). NJ inbound the ball (with 34 seconds to go), gets it over half and again holds it until 2 seconds on the shot clock, jacks another 3 and misses and TO gets the ball back (12 seconds left), runs down the court and hits another 3 only using 4 seconds off the clock...now with 8 seconds left all NJ has to do is get the ball over half and it's over...how boring would that be...and should TO foul accidentally during any of this time, the game is over. Now just consider how much more exciting the game likely would be if TO was able to foul during any of this stretch and say, a NJ Net player like VC, misses a couple free throws...

I don't really get the point of this "open letter". First, its written in a silly manner, and the writer loses all credibility and attention of the reader once the swearing and jokes are put in. If I'm in the NBA rules committee, I wouldn't give this much attention.

Secondly, he doesn't really give any real solutions to the problem, and yes I agree, it is a problem.

The one real solution he gives, would never work. Simply because teams would just try to wind down the clock and watching another team unable to try and win would be ridiculous. Simply because if they get aggressive and foul, you get a double penalty in a sense. How could you distinguish between an intentional foul and just a regular contact foul. Should the losing team leave the lane open for a layup and then come down the floor and try to win with 3 points? Lose 2 gain 3?

I like the topic and its something worth talking about and finding ways to improve the "last 2-3 minutes" of close game. But at the end of the day, I think those last few minutes can be exciting, even with the "foul and chase" method if the losing team has a real chance.

As a possible solution, why not simply make all fouls an automatic 1 point, techs an automatic 2? Teams would be far less likely to foul if you took away the "foul the bad shooter" mentality. The last two minutes of a game wouldn't last 20 minutes either.

The thing is, I think that close-game situations are what basketball fans live for. Those games where it's down to the wire, both teams are playing great, everything hangs on making your shots, etc... Games like our first regular season meeting with Boston or the recent tilt with Cleveland are what I'm talking about.

I think we'd lose something key to the game if we took that away.

Duffman100 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Agreed, player and coach complaining is at an all time high. I would assume that it's hard for Refs to focus on the game, when you everyone in the arena (Fans, coaches, players, mascots) in your ear all the time.

More technicals, end this attitude, its really frustrating for an NBA fan to watch.

A couple of years ago a rule was instituted that anyone (other than a designated captain) who argued a call, would get a tech. No questions asked.

It worked well for a while, but I guess the refs were told by the league to be less strict and the rule was slowly forgotten.

chsh22 wrote:As a possible solution, why not simply make all fouls an automatic 1 point, techs an automatic 2? Teams would be far less likely to foul if you took away the "foul the bad shooter" mentality. The last two minutes of a game wouldn't last 20 minutes either.

The thing is, I think that close-game situations are what basketball fans live for. Those games where it's down to the wire, both teams are playing great, everything hangs on making your shots, etc... Games like our first regular season meeting with Boston or the recent tilt with Cleveland are what I'm talking about.

I think we'd lose something key to the game if we took that away.

Problem with this is that if Player X looks like he has an open lay-up, I'll just foul and he gets 1 automatically instead of 2. Teams use the "no easy baskets" strategy and foul on lay-ups but the shooter has a possibility of knocking down both, now it's great to foul on a lay-up. Only 1 point. Let's say you were down by 2, you would just foul and get the ball back up by 1. Other team would foul, now you're up by 2 again and foul again. The systems extremely flawed.

Other than the Jaric thing this entire piece was really, really bad and personally I like the 'foul and chase' moments. They set-up for great failure and great triumph.

AB_21 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Problem with this is that if Player X looks like he has an open lay-up, I'll just foul and he gets 1 automatically instead of 2. Teams use the "no easy baskets" strategy and foul on lay-ups but the shooter has a possibility of knocking down both, now it's great to foul on a lay-up. Only 1 point. Let's say you were down by 2, you would just foul and get the ball back up by 1. Other team would foul, now you're up by 2 again and foul again. The systems extremely flawed.

Sorry I wasn't clear, but I meant in AND-1 situations. I was envisioning the same system we have now, just instead of shooting the FTs, you get them automatically.

I.e.:
Player drives the lane, is fouled, but throws it down with power = basket scored + 1 point for foul.
Player drives the lane, is fouled, and fails to make it = 2 points for foul.
Player takes a three, is fouled, but makes it = basket + 1 point for foul.
Player takes a three, is fouled, but doesn't make it = 3 points for foul.

Other than the Jaric thing this entire piece was really, really bad and personally I like the 'foul and chase' moments. They set-up for great failure and great triumph.

Agreed.

This is the dumbest thing Ive ever heard and that says a lot for these boards

chsh22 wrote:-= original quote snipped =-


Agreed.

No, wrong, and shortsighted

I think the current rules are fine, even with all the bullcrap rules favoring offensive players. It's just that it's so easy to foul and get fouled, offensively or defensively. So many ticky tack fouls and so many charging calls when they should've been no calls. Fouling at the end of games increases the drama, so I'm okay with that. I'm also okay with the players arguing with the refs, but it shouldn't go on for too long. Argue for a few seconds and walk away.

WTFsunsFTW wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
No, wrong, and shortsighted

An opinion on what I like is wrong and shortsighted?

The problem isn't as much the free throw as much as it is the timeouts. All timeouts in the last minutes should be to stop the clock only. The coaches can call plays verbally. It is the commercial breaks that kill the ends of games.

Another problem - lets say its a CLOSE game. In a tight contest, do you really want to be giving "2 plus possession" in the event of a last-second foul?

That would REALLY impact how games are played.

IMHO, one way to help would be to limit the ability to advance the ball to half-court after a timeout. That wouldn't solve the problem, but it would certainly reduce the benefit of calling all those timeouts.

But the bottom line is that this whole issue is a key reason why making free throws is such a critical skill in the NBA. Its like golf - you can't just be a big hitter - you have to also make the chip shots at the end of the hole.

Amen. I hate that SOOOOOOOOOOO much.

I would limit timeouts for sure, but not free throws.. Allow only 1 timeout per quarter, and an extra one in the last minute... I hate games where every few minutes coaches feel a need to change strategies and call endless timeouts back to back to one-up each other. Let the game have a little flow without dragging it out..

These would make practices crucial in engraining end of game plays and crunch time strategies in players, and would give the players a little more freedom..