How would the game change if dunks are worth 3 points

[shotsquatch]

Picture this. An Offensive player charges at the rim and gets the dunk and draws the foul.

Misses Free throw on purpose and teammate gets the rebound and also Dunks for another foul along with that.

This could potentially happen over and over leading to 6-9 points in a matter of seconds, and maybe even more than that on some occasions. So we're looking at the ball being stuck on one end of the floor for a longer period of time than ever before. That can't be good for the quality of the game can it? I don't think so.

If a team were able to do this, why wouldn't they do it now? Missing a free throw intentionally and getting the offensive rebound is pretty difficult.

I don't see why they couldn't? a team would just have to work on a way to grab offensive rebounds from rebounds than something like this could be done, and probably would be thought of if those dunks were suddenly changed to be worth 3 points.

3-pt dunks would definitely make offensive boards more valuable, and might lead to annoying meta-strategies like this as teams try everything to get easy dunks.

Grabbing an offensive rebound off a missed free throw would still be really hard. The defense is given a big positioning advantage during free throws. If it was easy to purposefully miss a free throw in such a way that your team could reliably collect the offensive rebound, I think we would see it happen more often. But the way the rules are now, purposefully missing a free throw is much more likely to result in a defensive board (and a wasted opportunity to score a point) than it is to create an opportunity for an offensive board or easy dunk.

[Alatan]

Everybody would guard the paint and gamble on the shooters missing. Also hard fouls and stiffs patroling the paint.

[BoatsNZones]

There would be even more fouls.

[robillionaire]

It would also slow the game down with replays on whether or not it was actually a dunk. Like would Blake Griffins old highlight where he throws the ball down without touching the rim count as a dunk, you’d have little guys saying their finger grazed the rim so it should count as a “dunk” etc. like you’d have to open up a debate about what even counts as a real dunk

[GamecockFan1024]

Hell no. Keep everything the same.

[Shock Defeat]

Bigs who protect the paint would be an even greater value.

[oldncreaky]

It would also slow the game down with replays on whether or not it was actually a dunk. Like would Blake Griffins old highlight where he throws the ball down without touching the rim count as a dunk, you’d have little guys saying their finger grazed the rim so it should count as a “dunk” etc. like you’d have to open up a debate about what even counts as a real dunk

^This

Asking innocently, "what is a dunk"? Rule writers would have a party! Can you touch the rim with hand/arm? Must you touch the rim? Can you release the ball outside the cylinder, or must you be strictly dunking "down"? How far outside the cylinder: 1 ft, 3 ft, "arm length"? If a dunk goes in, but is not "dunk-like" enough, does it count for 2 points, or nothing? If you get fouled on a dunk, is that 3 FTs or 2 because it could have been a layup? If a guy is fouled as he goes up for a dunk, does it matter whether he got the ball over his shoulders or not? etc. etc.

The dunk/no-dunk call would become as controversial as block/charge.

[ellobo]

If a team were able to do this, why wouldn't they do it now? Missing a free throw intentionally and getting the offensive rebound is pretty difficult.

I don't see why they couldn't? a team would just have to work on a way to grab offensive rebounds from rebounds than something like this could be done, and probably would be thought of if those dunks were suddenly changed to be worth 3 points.

3-pt dunks would definitely make offensive boards more valuable, and might lead to annoying meta-strategies like this as teams try everything to get easy dunks.

Grabbing an offensive rebound off a missed free throw would still be really hard. The defense is given a big positioning advantage during free throws. If it was easy to purposefully miss a free throw in such a way that your team could reliably collect the offensive rebound, I think we would see it happen more often. But the way the rules are now, purposefully missing a free throw is much more likely to result in a defensive board (and a wasted opportunity to score a point) than it is to create an opportunity for an offensive board or easy dunk.

I think teams might very well be LESS likely to crash the offensive boards. I'd have to see the actual numbers, but my guess is that a dunk in transition is much more likely than a dunk off an offensive rebound (which is not necessarily going to be right at the basket in dunking range). Teams are already very conservative in sending players to offensive rebound because they don't want to give up transition opportunities. Again, I think increasing the value of dunks is trying to incentivize something teams already have great incentive to do. Therefore, it wouldn't necessarily increase dunks or dunk attempts (teams already try to get as many dunks as they can), but it would give defenses even more reason to sell out to PREVENT dunk attempts.

[Peja Stojakovic]

imo a good but fairly radical move would be if paint points were worth three. big man scoring would matter again

[Mephariel]

imo a good but fairly radical move would be if paint points were worth three. big man scoring would matter again

Do big guys score that much off of dunks? I think most dunks comes from transition offense.