NBA Competition Committee has officially begun reviewing offensive-defensive imbalance.

[brownbobcat]

The explosion in scoring can almost entirely be explained by 3 pt shooting. The average team now makes about 13 3s per game which is double a decade ago.

Total free throws are the same as a decade ago so softer defense and lax NBA rules aren’t a big issue here.

Only thing really that could be done is make it harder for players to make 3s (eg allowing handchecking or moving the line back). Clogging the paint won’t make a difference.

More 3s is the "what", not the "how". Teams are replacing mid-range shots with 3s, but it's still a shot that needs to get set up with the drive & kick and/or screens.

The free throw rate doesn't explain anything because players adjust to how refs call the game. It's the same number of allowable player fouls and team fouls as always. If you want to reduce 3pt shots without altering the rules, give defenders more leeway to stop drives, call more offensive fouls when guys push off or initiate contact and call illegal screens.

[HoopAndTheHarm]

What if they just push the 3 point line back a foot or two?

A corner 3 is already closer than the rest of the arc, you can't go further out in the corner unless you widen the court.

Or just lose the corner 3. The arc is moved back and ends wherever that radius meets the sideline?

[ItsDanger]

The should review the impact of the landing space rule put into effect during 17/18 season. That was an underrated factor in increasing 3 pt attempts.

[RalphWiggum]

Cut the 3pt line off about 8-10 feet from the baseline and once a team misses 16 threes everything is worth 2 untill the last 5 minutes of the game.

I guarantee those two changes would make a giant difference to the quality of the game.

[metafisical]

A steal or block should mean -1 point for the team that got the ball stolen or blocked. So the offense can still be status quo, but defence actually has an even greater impact.

[Ramako]

What if they just push the 3 point line back a foot or two?

A corner 3 is already closer than the rest of the arc, you can't go further out in the corner unless you widen the court.

The arc is moved back and ends wherever that radius meets the sideline?

Yup exactly.

[HoopAndTheHarm]

A corner 3 is already closer than the rest of the arc, you can't go further out in the corner unless you widen the court.

The arc is moved back and ends wherever that radius meets the sideline?

Yup exactly.

Sorry. The question mark was a mistake. I was making a statement. We are in agreement. lol

[BBallInSight]

The way they're allowed to carry the ball is ridiculous.

[CPT]

A few minor changes would probably do a lot.

Call carrying, call more of the off-arm stuff, call less of the offensive player-initiated stuff as a foul on the defense.

No need to change the court or scoring rules.

[GP2]

Isn't it strange that if a team commits 0 fouls in the first 10 minutes of a quarter, they're automatically reduced to 1 foul to give once there are 2 minutes remaining? This rule has never made sense to me and penalizes a good defense for no reason.

[Landomar]

I don't think the league needs to make any major rule changes, they just need to enforce the current rules a little differently.

- Call carries and travels a lot more strictly. Players routinely carry the ball while dribbling now, and by cracking down on this it would give defenses a much better chance of staying in front of people.
- Call moving screens more. A lot of three point shots are opened up by moving screens, one way to reduce three point attempts is by making it harder to get open.
- Allow more contact by the defense. The standard right now is that on defense, you can't touch anyone unless you're holding position and going straight up near the basket. On the perimeter almost any bump at all is a foul on the defense. A simple adjustment would be to have a looser whistle for POA defenders. The biggest thing that could be done to reduce scoring would be to let POA defenders fight to stay in front of guys more aggressively.

[brownbobcat]

I don't think the league needs to make any major rule changes, they just need to enforce the current rules a little differently.

- Call carries and travels a lot more strictly. Players routinely carry the ball while dribbling now, and by cracking down on this it would give defenses a much better chance of staying in front of people.
- Call moving screens more. A lot of three point shots are opened up by moving screens, one way to reduce three point attempts is by making it harder to get open.
- Allow more contact by the defense. The standard right now is that on defense, you can't touch anyone unless you're holding position and going straight up near the basket. On the perimeter almost any bump at all is a foul on the defense. A simple adjustment would be to have a looser whistle for POA defenders. The biggest thing that could be done to reduce scoring would be to let POA defenders fight to stay in front of guys more aggressively.

1000%. When you can't stop the ball and everyone else is 4 out, it's either a layup line all night or you flip a coin with guys hitting 3s.

Let defenders stop the ball and everything changes.