Top 10 Ways to Improve the NBA
The NBA may be wildly popular, but it there is definite room for improvement. Here are 10 real steps the NBA could take to improve the product they put on the court and make the game more enjoyable.In my book, if you are able to stay between the ball handler and where he is trying to go, that's good defense. If I guy can't get around you, you've done your job. And if he can't get around you and ends up running you over, it certainly shouldn't be a foul on you.
Get rid of fouls that reward a player for lowering his shoulder and plowing over a defender just because the defender's "feet weren't set".
I feel like the season is too long because players don't get to rest that much. The should be 35 games until the playoffs.
Anymore, NBA games are turning into foul shooting competitions. Who wants to spend good money to watch 9 really tall guys stand around while another really tall guy shoots stationary shots from 15 feet?
It sucks that a guy can charge recklessly into the lane, run into a crowd, and heave up a desperation shot knowing there is a decent chance he'll end up on the line.
I don't know why Kobe, LeBron, and 'Melo don't score 70 a game... From the stripe. All they have to do is charge into the lane and if anyone does anything other than stand perfectly still with their hands straight up in the air, there will be a foul call. Basically, if you are a big enough star, it is a foul to play defense against you.
Of course, if you are a star, you pretty much have to tackle someone to get called for a penalty. And if you're a superstar with 5 fouls? Well then, unless you bash someone with a courtside folding chair, you're not going to get that 6th foul.
Remember when three steps was travelling? Did they change the rule? If not, how does a guy take two steps, jump stop, elevate, and not get called? How does a guy cover 30 feet without dribbling the ball?
I'm all for a good alley-oop, if it is legal. But the same rules need to apply to the offense as the defense. An offensive player should not be able to dunk the same ball that a defender would get whistled for if he grabbed it out of the air at the same point.
There is a salary cap in place, but you can go over it if you're willing to pay a tax. So, the Lakers, Knicks, Nets, and other big market teams can afford to go over the cap while small market teams are at a competitive disadvantage.
The lottery system is designed to help losing teams compete by allowing them the top selections in the NBA draft. But outside of a few superstars, not many rookies are able to significantly impact their team's fortunes in a couple of years. So by the time a downtrodden franchise has molded a rookie into a valuable asset, their contract is up and they can bolt to a winning franchise. A couple of extra years would give a down team a real shot of rebuilding through the draft.
Just like it was implement in soccer/ football, a ref should be in charge of video only, and call the others just in cases of interpretation. In cases of goaltend or off court ball shouldn't be reviewed by a court ref just like the fout on the line check.
Not sure it would have a huge impact on the game, but it seems kinda high school to have the game officials have to watch a replay on a monitor at the scorers table. Plus, it could speed up the game to have someone dedicated to the task.
They can be exciting, but as we used to say when we were kids, if a foul doesn't affect the shot, then it wasn't a foul. By that logic, it isn't a foul if it goes in. Plus, it incentivizes players to commit hard, potentially dangerous fouls because the mindset is that if you are going to foul a guy, you have to foul hard enough to make sure he doesn't make the shot.
You can still call a technical foul on a particularly nasty foul regardless of whether or not the shot goes in, but now we don't have to sit through yet another foul shot on a weak foul that didn't even bother the shooter.
Remember when Stephon Marbury was getting paid $20 million to stay at home and not play? Yeah, that's a seriously broken system.
Look, I get that the refs need a break, but the players need to make their opinions heard without David Stern and Adam Silver forcing them to give checks
Yes allow hand checking. It allows the defense to actually play defense. It allows the defender a way to stop those MVP like players.
Allows fans to customize designs for jerseys that are then approved by the league.