What does 6 on 6 basketball do to spacing?

[zimpy27]

Basketball was an inside the arc game mostly until 2010s, then the 3 bloomed and now we have space galore.

What would 6v6 look like on a court in this era?
Would it improve defense?

[mysticOscar]

If fans get so concerned with out of control scoring, the league can just revert some of the rules they have been implementing to help the scoring.

No need for drastic change of game

[louc1970]

I think you go the other direction. Players are faster, bigger, stronger than they were.
Instead of going to 6 v 6, go 4 v 4 and open up the lanes. That will produce drives and better shooting.
6 v 6 reduces any chance of driving the lane.

If we want to move away from the free for all 3-point attacks, let defenses play any method they choose - Man2Man, zone, box and 1, put everybody under the rim. Whatever they choose.
Force the offense to be planned out better rather than run to your corner and wait.

make the center a part of the game by allowing international goal tending rules.

[mysticOscar]

I think you go the other direction. Players are faster, bigger, stronger than they were.
Instead of going to 6 v 6, go 4 v 4 and open up the lanes. That will produce drives and better shooting.
6 v 6 reduces any chance of driving the lane.

If we want to move away from the free for all 3-point attacks, let defenses play any method they choose - Man2Man, zone, box and 1, put everybody under the rim. Whatever they choose.
Force the offense to be planned out better rather than run to your corner and wait.

make the center a part of the game by allowing international goal tending rules.

Revert the rules back to the 90s and you will see the score dry up fast.

Today's perimeter defenders if you provide them with the same lee way they had in the 90s and sprinkle each team with lumbering big men to crowd the paint...we'll go back to the 2000 level of scoring

[louc1970]

I think you go the other direction. Players are faster, bigger, stronger than they were.
Instead of going to 6 v 6, go 4 v 4 and open up the lanes. That will produce drives and better shooting.
6 v 6 reduces any chance of driving the lane.

If we want to move away from the free for all 3-point attacks, let defenses play any method they choose - Man2Man, zone, box and 1, put everybody under the rim. Whatever they choose.
Force the offense to be planned out better rather than run to your corner and wait.

make the center a part of the game by allowing international goal tending rules.

Revert the rules back to the 90s and you will see the score dry up fast.

Today's perimeter defenders if you provide them with the same lee way they had in the 90s and sprinkle each team with lumbering big men to crowd the paint...we'll go back to the 2000 level of scoring

The same result can be achieved by not allowing every player to walk, carry the ball, etc.
Every time there is a rule to benefit the offense, there needs to be one to benefit the defense.

[LuDux1]

Court needs to be embiggened then too

[CIN-C-STAR]

Let's play w 2 balls at once too.
On asphalt.
Bring your pets

[yosemiteben]

What if we warped the court so that it is lower at midcourt and higher at the goals. That way 3 point shots are shooting at a higher basket and also there is variation in height around the 3 point line, making it a more challenging shot.

Allow me to provide a helpful illustration:



Another perk is it rewards players with strong ankles as they'll be playing on an incline.

ETA: I can hear you folks thinking that this is a perfect idea except for one thing - doesn't this make dunking harder? Fear not, a simple modification where we ramp up to the basket and then back down would solve for that problem. Something along these lines:

[madmaxmedia]

Or 4 on 4 half court games (man I hated those...)

[MambaVenom24]

Guys FFS ... I applaud the idea of 6v6 or the midcourt drop above, but please for the love of god , keep this energy for the offseason, we have like 1o days to the playoffs

Keep this energy and vibes for the offseason, not now

[yosemiteben]

Guys FFS ... I applaud the idea of 6v6 or the midcourt drop above, but please for the love of god , keep this energy for the offseason, we have like 1o days to the playoffs

Keep this energy and vibes for the offseason, not now

Good call, I'll repost this summer when folks are open to truly creating the perfect game instead of the slop that they're playing now on "level" courts.

[Tim Lehrbach]

Somebody needs to find that graphic somebody created of the multicourt with like 100 baskets at all angles.

[Wammy Giveaway]

Basketball was an inside the arc game mostly until 2010s, then the 3 bloomed and now we have space galore.

What would 6v6 look like on a court in this era?
Would it improve defense?

The bigger question would be how big would it get. Now that we have positionless basketball, it's very possible a team could put three (!) centers to guard the rim. What is a defensive 3-second violation again? That would be Jeopardy!

If six-on-six is to be had, there would need to be big changes. And I honestly would think going the hockey route might be the best recourse, mainly for fairness purposes. I know this thread was supposed to be focusing on theoretical defense, but I'm going to veer off topic for the purposes of illustration.

Centers have always been listed near seven feet, if not past it. Total combined height based on traditional basketball play according to Wikipedia articles on each position is 32 ft. 6 in on the low end and 33 ft. 7 on the high end. By adding one more player, assuming that sixth is a center, the total combined height can climb upwards of 39 to 40 (!) feet (42 if your dream team is all centers). Initially my plan was to institute a height limitation, say no more than 40 feet total, but I was worried it would rob teams that are big-based from using their twin towers schemes (Duncan-Robinson Spurs lineups come to mind). Then I thought of applying the hockey rule of exchanging a goalie for an extra player, which in turn made the team's own net empty and exposed to point blank shots from the opponent, only to circle back to the prohibition of the twin towers. It all has to do with fairness: how do you properly address six-on-six on both sides of the floor without making one facet of the game become too powerful and invincible to defeat.

List of height measurements according to Wikipedia:

Point Guard: 6'1 to 6'4
Shooting Guard: 6'3 to 6'7
Small Forward: 6'6 to 6'9
Power Forward: 6'8 to 6'11
Center: 7'

[dhsilv2]

I think you go the other direction. Players are faster, bigger, stronger than they were.
Instead of going to 6 v 6, go 4 v 4 and open up the lanes. That will produce drives and better shooting.
6 v 6 reduces any chance of driving the lane.

If we want to move away from the free for all 3-point attacks, let defenses play any method they choose - Man2Man, zone, box and 1, put everybody under the rim. Whatever they choose.
Force the offense to be planned out better rather than run to your corner and wait.

make the center a part of the game by allowing international goal tending rules.

You'd see way more injuries.

[dhsilv2]

I think you go the other direction. Players are faster, bigger, stronger than they were.
Instead of going to 6 v 6, go 4 v 4 and open up the lanes. That will produce drives and better shooting.
6 v 6 reduces any chance of driving the lane.

If we want to move away from the free for all 3-point attacks, let defenses play any method they choose - Man2Man, zone, box and 1, put everybody under the rim. Whatever they choose.
Force the offense to be planned out better rather than run to your corner and wait.

make the center a part of the game by allowing international goal tending rules.

Revert the rules back to the 90s and you will see the score dry up fast.

Today's perimeter defenders if you provide them with the same lee way they had in the 90s and sprinkle each team with lumbering big men to crowd the paint...we'll go back to the 2000 level of scoring

Why would anyone go back to having lumbering bigs? Rules didn't end the lumbering big. Better players did.

[dhsilv2]

To be honest...it would start looking a lot more like FIBIA which they did through a smaller court. Obviously 6 on 6 is a bit more extreme.

[mysticOscar]

I think you go the other direction. Players are faster, bigger, stronger than they were.
Instead of going to 6 v 6, go 4 v 4 and open up the lanes. That will produce drives and better shooting.
6 v 6 reduces any chance of driving the lane.

If we want to move away from the free for all 3-point attacks, let defenses play any method they choose - Man2Man, zone, box and 1, put everybody under the rim. Whatever they choose.
Force the offense to be planned out better rather than run to your corner and wait.

make the center a part of the game by allowing international goal tending rules.

Revert the rules back to the 90s and you will see the score dry up fast.

Today's perimeter defenders if you provide them with the same lee way they had in the 90s and sprinkle each team with lumbering big men to crowd the paint...we'll go back to the 2000 level of scoring

Why would anyone go back to having lumbering bigs? Rules didn't end the lumbering big. Better players did.

The last 20 years the league have heavily hanficapping those traditional big men and have been continually making it easier for other type of players ...and in your imagination these league changes has little to do with current environment we see now?

Even when the league has blatantly told us that was there intent multiple times? Before and after they implemented the rules?

[dhsilv2]

Revert the rules back to the 90s and you will see the score dry up fast.

Today's perimeter defenders if you provide them with the same lee way they had in the 90s and sprinkle each team with lumbering big men to crowd the paint...we'll go back to the 2000 level of scoring

Why would anyone go back to having lumbering bigs? Rules didn't end the lumbering big. Better players did.

The last 20 years the league have heavily hanficapping those traditional big men and have been continually making it easier for other type of players ...and in your imagination these league changes has little to do with current environment we see now?

Even when the league has blatantly told us that was there intent multiple times? Before and after they implemented the rules?

Lumbering bigs are bad at basketball. Full stop end of story. This isn't a rule change. It's just the reality they suck. If you can get a big man who can do things on the court, great! I don't care what rules you implement, having a guy who can't shoot or close out on guards is bad basketball. Always has been and always will be. We just had a time when you had guards in the league who couldn't shoot from 20 feet out.

[ropjhk]

Court needs to be embiggened then too

This sounds like a perfectly cromulent suggestion.

[Iwasawitness]

I'd rather not find out tbh.