Would you be in favor of banning zone/bringing back illegal defense again? what would the implications be?

ScrantonBulls · Post #1 » by **ScrantonBulls** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:13 am

Zone was illegal for the 80s and 90s mostly. I've heard people claim they got rid of the ban because Shaq was too dominant. You couldn't double team him when he didn't have the ball. That made things more difficult.

Is it time to bring the ban back? The year it was banned were the most fond eras in many people's opinions. No more zones to help stifle the best player. There would definitely be more isoball. We'd see the best players go 1v1 more often, because teams would not want to commit to the double as often.

What would the implications be if they banned zone again? Would we see an explosion in scoring?

EmpireFalls · Post #2 » by **EmpireFalls** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:29 am

No. Basketball is disjointed enough and prone to way too many stoppages and breaks as is.

Plus it would just devolve into teams breaking the rules and daring refs to call it every time, just as we saw OKC dare refs to do with their aggressive guarding. This happened in the 90s and early 00s as well. It would help absolutely no one and just be a nuisance.

Moreover, I’m ideologically opposed to it beyond its practical clunkiness. Illegal defense rules remove a creative element from gameplanning that gives variety to play. Watching SGA solve Denver’s zone and seeing Spo flummox some of the best offenses in the NBA with his innovative zone was legitimately rewarding basketball. Why would we want to limit that?

morosis · Post #3 » by **morosis** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:33 am

in an ideal scenario, i would prefer the least "rules" possible that allows the game to function.

basketball as a sport is already way too dependent on how the rules are enforced, and the nba in particular has a very weird tendency to selectively enforce rules. its not consistent game to game or ref crew to ref crew.

so yeah, i guess thats not a direct answer to your question but no, I dont want "illegal defense" to come back and be another rule they can sometimes enforce and sometimes not based on whatever subjective judgement call they make in the moment.

scrabbarista · Post #4 » by **scrabbarista** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:34 am

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo way. This is the worst idea ever, and OP should be banned for a month for even asking the question.

Also, zone was not banned in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or 70's. It was only banned for about twenty years.

scrabbarista · Post #5 » by **scrabbarista** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:41 am

Side note, defensive three seconds is actually a partial ban on zone defense.

Mirotic12 · Post #6 » by **Mirotic12** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:53 am

They need to ban the defensive 3 seconds rule.

SkyBill40 · Post #7 » by **SkyBill40** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:55 am

I don't think it would have much of an effect on anything seeing they barely called illegal defense as it were. Personally speaking, at this level, I prefer man to man coverage and am not really a fan of zone.

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ScrantonBulls · Post #8 » by **ScrantonBulls** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 5:17 am

scrabbarista wrote:Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo way. This is the worst idea ever, and OP should be banned for a month for even asking the question.

Also, zone was not banned in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or 70's. It was only banned for about twenty years.

Thank you! That's what I get for believing reddit.

nomansland · Post #9 » by **nomansland** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 9:46 am

The last thing the league needs is more rules and restrictions. They can't even enforce basic rules or call games consistently.

Plus, the zone can be an interesting way to mix things up if you like basketball strategy.

psimanic1 · Post #10 » by **psimanic1** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 10:25 am

Why are people so obsessed with scoring numbers? You don't enjoy actual basketball being played? You don't enjoy hard defense leading to offense and nice dunks? Good defense is what leads to some of the best highlights, not banning everything so you would make it easier to score...They just need to enforce rules same for both teams, remove defensive 3 seconds and stop calling bait fouls as fouls...I have no issue with games finishing 98-93, as long as it's entertaining, and it would be if you are actual basketball fan and not AND 1 basketball fan...

ScrantonBulls · Post #11 » by **ScrantonBulls** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 4:24 pm

psimanic1 wrote:Why are people so obsessed with scoring numbers? You don't enjoy actual basketball being played? You don't enjoy hard defense leading to offense and nice dunks? Good defense is what leads to some of the best highlights, not banning everything so you would make it easier to score...They just need to enforce rules same for both teams, remove defensive 3 seconds and stop calling bait fouls as fouls...I have no issue with games finishing 98-93, as long as it's entertaining, and it would be if you are actual basketball fan and not AND 1 basketball fan...

These were the rules in the 80s and 90s, which are helded as the golden era for the NBA. Don't you think those who yearn for 80s/90s ll would want it?

Post #12 » by **tsherkin** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 5:17 pm

Zone is fine.

The idea that zone is stifling guys is insane, and directly at odds with the majority screaming about how scoring is too easy in this era.

sp6r=underrated · Post #13 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 5:30 pm

ScrantonBulls is a troll but I'll answer his question sincerely for others.

Bringing back illegal defense is a bad idea. What the NBA should do is:

ropjhk · Post #14 » by **ropjhk** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 5:50 pm

There's a lot of rules I'd like to see changed before considering banning zone defense.

sp6r=underrated · Post #15 » by **sp6r=underrated** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 6:33 pm

tsherkin wrote:Zone is fine.

The idea that zone is stifling guys is insane, and directly at odds with the majority screaming about how scoring is too easy in this era.

Given the 3 defensive second rule teams can't even run real zone defenses in the NBA.

ScrantonBulls · Post #16 » by **ScrantonBulls** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 6:53 pm

sp6r=underrated wrote:
tsherkin wrote:Zone is fine.

The idea that zone is stifling guys is insane, and directly at odds with the majority screaming about how scoring is too easy in this era.

Given the 3 defensive second rule teams can't even run real zone defenses in the NBA.

Explain how you couldn't run a basic 3-2 zone with the defensive 3 seconds rule.

Post #17 » by **NO-KG-AI** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 7:01 pm

tsherkin wrote:Zone is fine.

The idea that zone is stifling guys is insane, and directly at odds with the majority screaming about how scoring is too easy in this era.

Right. People pretending THIS is the difficult time to score is insane lol.

Zone is used on 2-4% of plays because any offense worth a damn is going to obliterate it after more than that.

ScrantonBulls · Post #18 » by **ScrantonBulls** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 7:05 pm

NO-KG-AI wrote:
tsherkin wrote:Zone is fine.

The idea that zone is stifling guys is insane, and directly at odds with the majority screaming about how scoring is too easy in this era.

Right. People pretending THIS is the difficult time to score is insane lol.

Zone is used on 2-4% of plays because any offense worth a damn is going to obliterate it after more than that.

So you're saying teams use man to man and rarely use any elements of a zone defense? They're either committing fully to their man or committing fully to a double team?

Hugi Mancura · Post #19 » by **Hugi Mancura** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 7:15 pm

Only reason some people might want to bring illegal defense back is because they like to see people shooting free throws. Having good shooters on the court is 10 times more effective way to create space than illegal defense rule.

Zone defense is very easy to break. If teams players don't know how to break zone defense then maybe they should ask from coach how to do that. And if the coach doesn't know how to break zone defense then maybe they should fire that useless coach.

Only reason why zone works on high level is because team doesn't have enough shooting. And like with illegal defense it shouldn't work in modern NBA. If it works against your favorite team then problem is not the illegal / zone defense. The problem lies in your favorite teams front office who have no idea how to run a successful team, so your FO should be fired.

ReggiesKnicks · Post #20 » by **ReggiesKnicks** » Wed Jun 25, 2025 7:17 pm

ScrantonBulls wrote:
psimanic1 wrote:Why are people so obsessed with scoring numbers? You don't enjoy actual basketball being played? You don't enjoy hard defense leading to offense and nice dunks? Good defense is what leads to some of the best highlights, not banning everything so you would make it easier to score...They just need to enforce rules same for both teams, remove defensive 3 seconds and stop calling bait fouls as fouls...I have no issue with games finishing 98-93, as long as it's entertaining, and it would be if you are actual basketball fan and not AND 1 basketball fan...

These were the rules in the 80s and 90s, which are helded as the golden era for the NBA. Don't you think those who yearn for 80s/90s ll would want it?

The 80s and 90s are not the golden era of the NBA.

Should zone be banned again?