10 ways to improve the NBA

[may191988]

very very interesting post. but how about this change:

NO FOUL OUTS!!!

why do players even foul out?? isnt it penalty enough to have to shoot free throws. like mentioned b4 lets keep the best players on the floor!!

[may191988]

Some of those rules I find are unnecessary (ie, 7th foul, 5th year salary cut) but some I like.

I agree that playoff seeding should be strictly based on records and not divisions.

I also agree that there should be a Hall of Fame exclusive to the NBA though I don't like this tier system.

Someone else mentioned eliminating the 125%+100K rule and I sort of agree. Trade deadline day in all other sports is exciting. Last year, the second biggest move in the NBA was the Juan Dixon trade to Toronto. That doesn't garner much attention for the league.

I also agree with the person who suggested the NBADL should be a full minor league system for the NBA (each team has an affiliate). A rule change I'd tie into this would be the addition of another round to the draft (done by conference call, no need to televise it at that point). It's not like it would require that much effort and it sure would add structure to the building of DL teams (I think more guys would try their luck on these teams before going to Europe).

One last change I'll suggest (and I suggest this for every single sport) is to stop having fans decide who makes the all-star team starting lineup. Lets be honest, every couple of years, we see a completely deserving player get passed up for the game because fans vote for a lesser player who's more popular. I understand these leagues want to encourage fan participation but there are other ways to do it.
[color=red]One possible solution that would keep the fans involved would be for the coaches to select the entire rosters but have the fans vote on which guys start the game. This way you'd have the most deserving players playing the game while the fans could still see more of their favorite players.
This one change would make me so much happier. I always get frustrated when reading fan voting results.[/color]

ur a freaking genius my man

[MaxRider]

hard salary cap (i think that's how they called it)
which mean you can't go over the salary cap limit
just forcing team to think twice before handling out big contract to player
Spurs got no problem keeping their team winning and under the luxury tax zone

[PhilipNelsonFan]

Group #1 Financial
1. Lux Tax change-make it a tiered tax. The bottom 5 teams pay the same now. The next five pay at $1 or $1.5 higher; teams 11-15 another step up.
Why-Look at the Suns and the Spurs. KThomas and Scola could have helped them but they were afraid of the lux tax. They are successful, so reward it. Great teams need depth-and great teams make for a great season. This would not lead to an orgy of spending, but another $6 or $9 million for top teams would allow them one more solid veteran.
Finally, this would not cause too much overspending, b/c the extra freedom would change year by year.
Finally/finally, this might prove a nice incentive at the end of the year to avoid tanking. The GM could pressure a coach to play his best guys to jump up to the next level to avoid a tax hit.
RESULT-improved play all around

This shouldn't matter. If you're an smart money manager and talent scout, you wouldn't have to worry about the luxury tax. And if you do, you outline your concerns to the owner(s) and get them on your side. If you can't make them come around, then that's the fault of the organization and not the general managers.

2. No more Base Year rule for trading contracts. Fans love trades, the media loves trades, players usually like a change (mainly unhappy or underused players are traded).
Instead of this rule about team moving a BY player only getting 1/2 value back the team that deals him would pay the player a 10% kicker.
I think GMs sometimes use the BY clause to avoid trades b/c their cowards.
RESULT-more trades/more interest/improved play

Eh...what loserX said. It's a one-year provision, so it's not terribly harmful.

3. Every 5 year period a team can cut a player and his salary would come off the cap. This would allow for a little more movement. Players still get paid, and could sign elsewhere. Since it's only once every 5 years, it would not be abused, but a do-over could help many teams.
RESULT-improved play by cutting dead weight

I like this, but I'd make it every 8-10 years. A 5-year rule, to me, lets too many organizations off the hook. The Allan Houston rule was a great first step, and I'd like to see it come back.

GAME CHANGES
4. widen the court by 1 foot on each side. This one makes a lot of sense. SO MANY times players step out in that corner-at least once a game (slowing down the flow). Plus, one more foot (with the same 3 pt. distance) would spread the court and allow more lanes for drives. I believe each arena could stretch teh court a foot and not lose the $ seats.
RESULT-improved play

Without lengthening the three-point line this seems like a big non-issue. Why not just add six inches to the three-point line and THEN a foot on each side?

5. Allow a once-a-game 7th foul for ONE player per team. The team would give up a technical. I pay to see the stars, not some bench guy play b/c the star picked up a few cheapies. I hate when a good player gets two quick ones and sits for 10 minutes or more. SInce it is only once a game, it would not lead to an orgy (2nd time I used that word!) of hacking, but could make crunch time more fun.
RESULT-improved play

This is your worst idea. While time-outs do slow the game down greatly (as has been mentioned), fouling out players with 6 fouls is damn near impossible. It doesn't happen that often in regulation games. I'd be in favor, however, of reducing the number of fouls for each player to five. It'd force teams to rely on their benches more and force players to rely on fundamental defense.

6. Crack down on travelling like they have on palming (which is working, I believe). Watch Redd or Rip come off a screen and take 5 steps. It's almost comical. I believe the casual fan likes college more mainly for the open disregard for the basic rules. Calling an NBA game is rough, I know-but refs intentionally ignore this basic rule. 2 steps-that's it. Players would adjust.
RESULT-purer play, bring back more casual fans

I think we can all agree that this is a good idea.

OTHER
7. This one is easy, an NBA Hall of Fame (tiered, like Simmons' idea for baseball would be best). The Basketball Hall of Fame is fine, but I don't care about a Russian coach from the 80's. Make 5 tiers (All time greats/legends/superstars/allstars/stars) and let the debate begin.
RESULT-more interest

I like it, but I don't think it should be called a Hall of Fame. If the NBA wants to honor players, it can do so under its own structure, and it couldn't afford a quarrel with the Basketball Hall of Fame because that would damage its reputation.

8. Reseed the playoffs-division winners only get an automatic berth-not a top 4 one like now. I know Stern likes the idea of division winners, but no one else cares. I want the best teams playing in late May.
Result-better playoffs

This is your best idea. Quite simply, the eight best teams should be seeded as such.

9. Change the lottery system slightly. Instead of the top 3 picks, then the next 11 slotted, go to a lottery (same odds) for the top 5 picks. That way, tanking and getting the best record only assures a top 6 pick. Small change, but might help at the end of the year. Plus, teams at the back of the lottery have a better chance of getting lucky and moving up, making mediocre teams decent faster.
RESULT-improved play (or maybe the same tanking?)

TD is the MAN made a post back in May regarding the lottery that I thought made the most sense: The team with the most ping-pong balls still has less than a 50% chance of winning the lottery. I'd probably restructure the percentages, but I wouldn't drastically change the lottery system.

10. Cut the schedule to 76 games (and pay accordingly). 4 games with each division foe (16 total), 3 with rest of conference (30 total) and 2 with other conference (30 total). That makes 76. 6 games might not seem like much, but that's 6 fewer back-to-backs, resulting in more rest, harder play and fewer injuries.
RESULT-improved play

I like that one poster's idea of having more division-rivalry games because there's a lot at stake in those. Here's a proposal: 20 games in-division, 30 games in-conference, 20 games vs. the opposite conference and 10 "extra" games that are handed out lottery-style against teams outside of the division.

A BONUS-contract Memphis and Atlanta, buy out their owners and spread their talent around. RESULT-HUGE increase in quality of play. Never happen, but a dream

Exactly the opposite should be done. The NBA should broker a deal between the ownership of Memphis, Atlanta and Seattle, allowing the owners to receive inflated value in a sale but offering incentives for new owners to keep their teams.

[hoops4life]

Most are really good ideas. I don't like the one about the extra foul though.

I would like to see the game get more physicall like it was in the late 80's.

Less games and a Champions League style tournament with world teams would be really cool too.

[tracey_nice]

i think when teams get in the penalty it shouldnt be an automatic 2 shots, 1 and bonus situation similar to college
also i think major awards such as mvp shouldnt be determined by the media but by gms and coaches those who know more about basketball and will be a lot less bias
i also think that will take care of those people you cant believe got an mvp vote

[Mike Hunt]

ur a freaking genius my man

That's what I keep telling people but no one seems to listen...

[ljp24]

very very interesting post. but how about this change:

NO FOUL OUTS!!!

why do players even foul out?? isnt it penalty enough to have to shoot free throws. like mentioned b4 lets keep the best players on the floor!!

Are you freaking insane!? That's the only way people can stop monsters like Shaq and Dwight.

You guys sound like 9/11 truthers.

[#1stunna]

All the nba really has to do is make this league a man's game again. The wnba allows more contact at times. Allowing more contact would give far less power to the officials. It's funny when teams have to worry more about refs than the team there facing.

You play MIA in the playoffs for example, your not scared of wade or shaq, your scared of if the officials are going to make them untouchable or not . Last year we seen SA be allowed to play aggressive / sometimes dirty ball. When PHX got hosed when they tried to play that same style. Way to much power for the officials. Let the players decide the game & not ticky tack garbage. Atleast make it even for ALL players of ALL teams.

Superstar phantom calls are a embarrassment for a professional organization. You don't see extra special treatment in the 3 other major sports. Atleast give special treatment to the bad players instead of the best. I will never understand why the best players in the world get help from the nba. It probably helps marketing, but it severely hurts the nba overall from a image standpoint & fans from the opposing teams, It can make many fans (including myself) sometimes think the nba is rigged.

For entertainment purposes, nothing slows a game down more than FT's. Especially watching games on tv. You have to make the game more fluid. Way to many stops from timeouts, commercials, & fouls.

[Chief]

contraction contraction contraction.

[dflaschberger]

thanks for all the feedback. I see my 7th foul rule is out. My fav 2 are widening the court and the 5 year do-over

[PrecociousNeoph]

in my opinion non-guaranteed contracts is something the nba badly needs, but it would never get past the player's union.

[Alyosha12]

A nother thing that could be done is get a rating system for the refs, and after every game bouth coaches and teams would rate the refs from 1-10 each player would rate by them self, then the refs would get points based on those evaluations, and would get payed according to their rank, or would at least get a bonus if they would be in the top lets say 20.

That way refs would try harder to do a good job, because $ would be the reward for good work, and would be less bias towards one team because they would need points from bouth sides, and it would crop out the bad refs from the good, so only the good ones would be able to ref the playoff games.

[dflaschberger]

i'm sure they have a rating system for refs, but maybe $ would help?

As for non-guaranteed deals, a great thought, but they could shorten them 1 more year?

[Alyosha12]

i'm sure they have a rating system for refs, but maybe $ would help?

As for non-guaranteed deals, a great thought, but they could shorten them 1 more year?

yes but the point is, that the players and coaches would rate them, i doubt the system as like that ATM.

[Polansky]

The 7th foul is (Please Use More Appropriate Word) but the others seem alright.

[UGA Hayes]

1. On regular 2 shot free throws? Just have a free throw count for 2 points and only give the shooter 1 attempt. That would reduce the number of FTs by 40 to 50% in most games.

"and ones" stay the same. Fouled on a three attempt, keep the same. Techicals, keep the same.

This is honestly one of the most interesting ideas I have heard in a long time. I'm not sure i would like it or not but its definitely outside of the box and hypothetically could be a big incentive to discourage fouling.

[Man_Up]

The #1 way to improve the quality of play in the NBA is getting rid of 3-5 franchises that arent really being supported and then those players from those teams being spread out around the league so the talent pool improves bigtime. Then we wont have guys like Ryan Bowen, Joey Graham, Eddie Gill etc. still in the league. Every teams bench will have at least 3 quality guys who can start as well in a situation.

This right here is the answer.

The talent in the NBA is just as good as it has ever been but more spread out. The Less teams you have the more likely you are to have great players put together. Then NBA teams would be a lot deeper talent wise, and we'd be more likely to see players like Lebron & Kobe with better supporting players. The more teams that the league has the more watered down it will be.

[dflaschberger]

yes, and just imagine the fun for fans, contracting even 2 teams!

[dflaschberger]

yes, and just imagine the fun for fans, contracting even 2 teams!