NBA Reform Ideas (Sept. 2019) -- What Ideas do you have going forward?

[Parliament10]

NBA Reform
* Expand the NBA Preseason to 1 month.
* Extend the NBA Regular Season to End in July.
* Push Summer League to early August.
* Eliminate Back-to-Backs.
* Have 15 All-Stars per Conference. 3 Defensive players, specifically.
* Increase the ratio of out of Conference Games.

* NBA Playoffs – Top 16 Teams compete, irregardless of Conference.
* NBA Playoffs – Re-seeding each Round.
* Coach's Challenge: Call a Timeout. If upheld, team keeps said Challenge(s). (2 initially/game. Expandable to 4.)
* NBA Draft Age: Change back to Age: 18. Allow G-League to Start at Age: 16.
* Expand the League to at least 32 teams.
* Shorten the number of Regular Season Games Players to between 70-76.
* Create a best-of-1 Tournament, to be held during All-Star Break.
* Clamp down on Flopping by issuing Techs, for Excessive Offenders.


Referees
* 90 sec (on-court) Referee Replay Review.
* Allow up to 6 Referees. With at least one specifically on the Replay. And one In-Training, up from the G-League.
* Allow Rules to be Reviewed by a NBPA Committee. (Like Shooter initiated Fouls.)


G-League Reform
* Add a 3rd Round (and poss. 4th) to the NBA Draft, specifically for Drafting Two-Players.
* Allow up to (5) Two-Way Players, and increase time to 60-NBA days.
* As Injury Replacements, allow Two-Players to play in the NBA Playoffs.
* Let the 5 Affiliates Practice with the NBA Team, throughout the season. (Like in the NFL.)
* Allow 15 Players on a D-League team.
* Increase G-League pay to be Commensurate with Overseas, and a Percentage of NBA Salaries.
* Increase & Allow Affiliate Pay. Ie.: If you're partially paid a $300,000, then you can still be a G-League Affiliate.
* Extend the NBA Players Union and Benefits, to include G-League members.


Continue to Review:
* Tanking
* Hack-A-Player
* Draft & Draft Lottery
* Make Replay more efficient.
* Widen the NBA Court, to at least 3-6 ft, in width and length.
* Find a mechanism to Fix the NBA Disparity between East & West.
* Redefine Offensive Fouls -- ie. Jumping into Defender on a shot (to get the foul) is an offensive foul.
* The NBAPA should be determining which rules are fair or not.
_____________________________________________________


I revised some Ideas from other people, going back 5 years.
Though, here are some quotes of really Novel Ideas.

From a pure entertainment perspective, I'd love to see a single-elimination tournament of the bottom 14 teams to determine who gets the #1 pick in the draft. Maybe even #2 goes to the runner-up? Don't think it would help tanking but at the very least it would give bottom teams a reason to stay somewhat competitive.

72 game season: Play west teams twice and conference opponents three times. No back-to-backs. And yes a longer pre-season.

widen the court by 3 feet and push back the 3 point line by a foot.

4 refs. and clarify at least a bit charging/blocking.

Reformulate the supermax. Better yet scrap the super max, and replace it with super bird rights. The contract of any player signed with super bird rights does not count, or maybe half counts, towards the cap. This way, retaining players long term does not prevent a team from signing free agents.

Clamp down on flopping by issuing techs for it like in soccer where obvious ‘simulation’ gets you a yellow card.

Revisit the interpretation surrounding what a foul is to allow the game to be a contact sport like it once was.

* Flex scheduling for national games starting in January of the season (the way the NFL does with Sunday night football). This will allow the NBA to not have to broadcast teams that are no longer interesting do to trades or injuries that have occurred and will also allow the NBA to:

* Remove the fines for resting healthy players....

* Any time a team has a back to back, their opponent must also have a back to back and both teams must be traveling during this exchange. This will eliminate "schedule losses" without having to completely eliminate back to backs outright.

* Dial back the league rules about what players are and aren't allowed to say. These bad leaks and unsubstantiated rumors are direct result of players getting fined for speaking their minds. There can still be some rules, but players saying there are certain teams they would like to play for does not warrant a fine IMO.

* Allow the public to see a record of the league office's after-the-fact reviews of all referee calls made so that fans and the media can see clearly what the league thinks is and isn't a call. Pretending like referees are not human and don't make mistakes is a worse look than simply admitting that they are IMO.

IMHO the new WNBA idea to determine draft order based on the results of the last two seasons has merit. Maybe that should be extended to three seasons.

It would certainly eliminate the one season tank to pick up a dominant player (think 1996-97 Spurs). It's not perfect, but IMHO it's a step in the right direction.

[OldCeltics]

Stop super teams, and return parity to league. Only 1 or 2 stars per team.

Right now players and their agents decide who they want to play with and what team. Teams have no control of their futures.

1. Demanding trades and demanding where they have to be traded to, otherwise they wont resign.

2. Forming of super teams like Lebron planning to form a super team with Wade/Bosh during Olympics. Miami got lucky, but it could have been Knicks or Chicago.

3. Only 3-4 teams have any chance to win the finals.

Celtics have been lucky to get some talent, but most teams are permanently in the dump. If those teams didn't exist in the NBA it would make no difference.

[Fencer reregistered]

I have two thoughts that unfortunately conflict with each other:

1. Put the whole league in the playoffs, and make the playoffs be double-elimination. That means the champion has to win 5 rounds if they sweep or 6 rounds if they took a loss, vs. the current 4, and minus one if they got a tip-top seeding and had a bye. Accommodate the extra games by shortening some of the series, shortening the season (58 games is an obvious target), or both.

2. Make seedings more valuable by letting teams choose their opponents each round, highest-seeded teams choosing first.


The conflict between these ideas is that if you have #1 and DON'T have #2, then everybody has at least some disincentive to tank. But if you have both ideas in place, tanking once again has no postseason downside.

[100proof]

NBA Reform
* Expand the NBA Preseason to 1 month. - Too long, already have alot of rest games. Would rather see a shorter season with gleague season not at the same time. so no overlap yet more basketball.
* Extend the NBA Regular Season to End in July. - see above
* Push Summer League to early August. - see above
* Eliminate Back-to-Backs. ok with back to back, just eliminate home and home back to backs.
* Have 15 All-Stars per Conference. 3 Defensive players, specifically. - cool, would add that winning conference gets home court advantage in finals.
* Increase the ratio of out of Conference Games. like

* NBA Playoffs – Top 16 Teams compete, irregardless of Conference. perfect
* NBA Playoffs – Re-seeding each Round. naw, seems like that could get complicated
* Coach's Challenge: Call a Timeout. If upheld, team keeps said Challenge(s). (2 initially/game. Expandable to 4.)
* NBA Draft Age: Change back to Age: 18. Allow G-League to Start at Age: 16.
* Expand the League to at least 32 teams.
* Shorten the number of Regular Season Games Players to between 70-76.
* Create a best-of-1 Tournament, to be held during All-Star Break.
* Clamp down on Flopping by issuing Techs, for Excessive Offenders. poor marcus would never get to play


Referees
* 90 sec (on-court) Referee Replay Review. - yes
* Allow up to 6 Referees. With at least one specifically on the Replay. And one In-Training, up from the G-League. - yes
* Allow Rules to be Reviewed by a NBPA Committee. (Like Shooter initiated Fouls.) - yes


G-League Reform
* Add a 3rd Round (and poss. 4th) to the NBA Draft, specifically for Drafting Two-Players.
* Allow up to (5) Two-Way Players, and increase time to 60-NBA days.
* As Injury Replacements, allow Two-Players to play in the NBA Playoffs.
* Let the 5 Affiliates Practice with the NBA Team, throughout the season. (Like in the NFL.)
* Allow 15 Players on a D-League team.
* Increase G-League pay to be Commensurate with Overseas, and a Percentage of NBA Salaries.
* Increase & Allow Affiliate Pay. Ie.: If you're partially paid a $300,000, then you can still be a G-League Affiliate.
* Extend the NBA Players Union and Benefits, to include G-League members.


Continue to Review:
* Tanking
* Hack-A-Player
* Draft & Draft Lottery
* Make Replay more efficient.
* Widen the NBA Court, to at least 3-6 ft, in width and length.
* Find a mechanism to Fix the NBA Disparity between East & West.
* Redefine Offensive Fouls -- ie. Jumping into Defender on a shot (to get the foul) is an offensive foul.
* The NBAPA should be determining which rules are fair or not.
_____________________________________________________


I revised some Ideas from other people, going back 5 years.
Though, here are some quotes of really Novel Ideas.

From a pure entertainment perspective, I'd love to see a single-elimination tournament of the bottom 14 teams to determine who gets the #1 pick in the draft. Maybe even #2 goes to the runner-up? Don't think it would help tanking but at the very least it would give bottom teams a reason to stay somewhat competitive.

72 game season: Play west teams twice and conference opponents three times. No back-to-backs. And yes a longer pre-season.

widen the court by 3 feet and push back the 3 point line by a foot.

4 refs. and clarify at least a bit charging/blocking.

Reformulate the supermax. Better yet scrap the super max, and replace it with super bird rights. The contract of any player signed with super bird rights does not count, or maybe half counts, towards the cap. This way, retaining players long term does not prevent a team from signing free agents.

Clamp down on flopping by issuing techs for it like in soccer where obvious ‘simulation’ gets you a yellow card.

Revisit the interpretation surrounding what a foul is to allow the game to be a contact sport like it once was.

* Flex scheduling for national games starting in January of the season (the way the NFL does with Sunday night football). This will allow the NBA to not have to broadcast teams that are no longer interesting do to trades or injuries that have occurred and will also allow the NBA to:

* Remove the fines for resting healthy players....

* Any time a team has a back to back, their opponent must also have a back to back and both teams must be traveling during this exchange. This will eliminate "schedule losses" without having to completely eliminate back to backs outright.

* Dial back the league rules about what players are and aren't allowed to say. These bad leaks and unsubstantiated rumors are direct result of players getting fined for speaking their minds. There can still be some rules, but players saying there are certain teams they would like to play for does not warrant a fine IMO.

* Allow the public to see a record of the league office's after-the-fact reviews of all referee calls made so that fans and the media can see clearly what the league thinks is and isn't a call. Pretending like referees are not human and don't make mistakes is a worse look than simply admitting that they are IMO.

IMHO the new WNBA idea to determine draft order based on the results of the last two seasons has merit. Maybe that should be extended to three seasons.

It would certainly eliminate the one season tank to pick up a dominant player (think 1996-97 Spurs). It's not perfect, but IMHO it's a step in the right direction.

I added a few of notes in your post, I would like to see some serious reviewing of travelling rules and I would like to see some physicality brought back into the game.

I miss postups, I miss hard boxouts, I miss handchecks - well sometimes.

[captain green]

Interesting ideas but one I'm not for is the top16 teams make playoffs. I like conference's and other wise banners would mean nothing. The east vs the west forever. One I liked best was expanding teams to 32. And another one was heavier review of flopping. I'll add my idea that I haven't read.(or missed possibly ) fine agent's heavily for leaks and manipulation.fining a team and player does nothing but fine those agents and watch that **** clean up real quick.

[Banks2Pierce]

Get rid of divisions and just play the teams in your conference 3 times. Other conference twice for 72 games. No more b2bs. 16 teams seeded by record.

32 team tournament with an invitation to 2 European teams, depending on their enthusiasm. Their qualification criteria are up to them(winning Euroleague, eurocup, etc.) If you are drawn with them, you play at MSG. Every tournament game is aired on television. Can make a big deal out of the draw as well. Re-draw every round. Clear a full week in January to do the first 2 rounds and then do the rest over Feb-April on random weeks.

Stop fast break fouling with an actual rule against intentional fouling. It is not that hard to read intent on this.

Guys that foul out get another foul if a game goes to OT and another foul per OT.

[GuyClinch]

Good ideas..

I haven't thought about it a ton but a few that come to mind..

1) Do something about 3 step euro steps. You don't get some 'small' step that doesn't count because you are gathering. <g> This rule makes defense very difficult and the game seem stupid. We are basically letting guys pick up the ball and run with it.
2) End the practice of fouling people to stop fast breaks. It's childish and terrible for the game.
3) Remove some timeouts and give teams replay challenges instead.

[timpiker]

1. Refs
2. Hard Salary Cap
3. Tampering by teams and by players
4. Travelling - Should be the same as before Jordan showed up.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

1) get rid of max contracts - easiest way to eliminate stars teaming up. Easiest way to get parity back into the league.

2) change the order of the draft and free agency. Things would have worked out very differently for the Celtics in 2016 if we had known we weren't getting Durant. ( ie we wouldn't have taken draft and stash guys in Yabu and Zizic, could have taken Levert)

3) Get rid of the preseason altogether. It serves no purpose.

[chakdaddy]

Hate the re-seeding playoffs. I don't see the point. So a mediocre west team gets in instead of a slightly worse east team? Who cares? The wider range of early round matchups would discourage rivalries. Remember Celtics Pistons and Bulls Pistons in the 80s? Forget it, they're on other sides of the bracket and playing the Nuggets one year and the Blazers the next. Lakers - Celtics, a great tradition...now in the first round. bleah.

Hack a Shaq seems so easy to fix. Intentional away from the ball foul counts as a tech, 1 FT and ball out of bounds. Not sure if it's an intentional foul or not? Then don't call it, it's away from the ball so it doesn't matter much. Not much different than expanding the final 2 minute rule to the whole game. Make it a judgment call as to whether it's "intentional". Whether it's a no-call or 1 FT + out of bounds, in either case the hack a shaq strategy fails.

Move the 3 point line back. Players have gotten too good and it looks like late 80s college basketball. Eliminate the corner 3.

[threrf23]

Reformulate the supermax. Better yet scrap the super max, and replace it with super bird rights. The contract of any player signed with super bird rights does not count, or maybe half counts, towards the cap. This way, retaining players long term does not prevent a team from signing free agents.

To refine this idea, when a player is resigned using non-transferrable 'super bird rights,' it shouldn't count towards the luxury tax, and at least a small percentage of the contract shouldn't count towards the max (edit - CAP).

The big issue with the super max as it currently stands, is that while it gives select players a small incentive to stay with their team, it punishes their team for keeping them, which in turn makes the team a less attractive destination for the player, which in some cases more than offsets the intended effect.

[Taget]

Adopt FIBA rules. Seeing NBA players complain about euroball being too physical is an embarrassment. And if suddenly teams are questioning whether Power Forwards and even Centers are necessary you have changed defensive rules WAY too much in the wrong direction.

Expand the NBA geography by not allowing NBA teams to locate within 40 miles of another NBA franchise (chosen because that is the rough distance between Baltimore and DC). It actually should be more like 100. But the point is to get the the Nets out of Brooklyn and the Clippers out of LA. Those cities already have teams and those duplicate teams do not really expand the popularity of the game. The NBA would be healthier to see those teams go to places without an NBA team such as Seattle, Las Vegas, St Louis, Kansas City. Want to really have some fun? Co-locating a team between San Diego and Tijuana. Half the home games in the States, half in Mexico.

Cap reformulated into salary slots with pre-defined salary numbers.

3 25 million dollar slots.
4 15 million dollar slots
5 10 million dollar slots
3 5 million dollar slots.

Salaries go way up. But teams have defined expenses that are equal to every team. Star players have to move to equalize to get the money they want.

[yazfan]

I do not know how to solve it but players picking teams has to change.
Paul George demanding a trade after 1 of 4 years is a really bad precedent

Game needs more flow. Get rid of ticky tack fouls. Unless you get clubbed, play on and deal with it. (Old NBA)

Move back 3 point line 5 ft and get rid of corner 3. Ruining the game.

[Ed Pinkney]

Some things I think are good ideas that could be effective:

- Expansion to 32 teams then reduce the season to 62 games - every team plays each other twice (once at home, once away). Get rid of back to backs, reduce resting of players, meaningless games at the end of the season.

- Get rid of conferences and divisions - top 16 teams make the playoffs seeded 1-16.

- Add a veteran players rule to contracts - once they have played a certain number of years with the same club (say 8-10) only a certain percentage of their salary counts towards the cap.

- Get rid of draft age limit, add additional rounds to the draft and increase roster size to 22-24 players. Then have a genuine "reserve grade" league. The reserve team could play the same schedule as the "first grade" team as warm up events before the main game. Enables clubs to bring more young players into their systems.

- Consider adding a hard cap but raising the total amount for the cap.

- Add more mechanisms to prevent long term tanking such as if you pick inside the top three one year the highest pick you can receive the following year is #4.

[Red2]

Top 16 teams are in playoffs regardless of conference .
Cut down on traveling
Eliminate court side seats so players have a place to land if they fall etc
Give coaches a certain number of challenges like nfl