The reason a person gets an adjustable king size bed is because they usually are smooth and has a habit of quiet operation utilizing the finest German motor technology.

How many games have been won after having the ball inbounced at midcourt with a second or less?

Not a LOT, but enough that the loss of timeouts at that point would be killer.

Now, that isn’t to say that you shouldn’t limit the amount of timeouts anyways. Just saying that I think timeouts ARE very valuable.

I absolutely agree on limiting the timeouts in the last two minutes. What’s really gained from the timeouts, anyways?! God forbid the players actually have to think out there. Besides, plays that are called in the huddle are constantly broken and almost never run correctly because opposing coaches can set their defense. The timeouts give neither team an advantage – they just waste time and break up the flow of the game, making it unbearable to watch (especially if you are actually at the game). Coaches would hate to relinquish their control and greedy Stern would never give up the advertising dollars involved, but from a pure fan enjoyment perspective it’s imperative.

The second change I’d love to make is to limit the number of charging calls. What happened to the part of the charging rule stating the the defensive player actually has to have position?! In my opinion, charges should only be called when offensive players are clearly out of control or defensive players have position for a full second.

I’m sure we’re one only one LeBron on DWade injury away from the rule being interpreted differently. Besides, why make it so easy to get to the basket (with the highly, almost arbitrarily enforced handchecking rules) if you’re going to call a charge on a defender who is leaning in a spot for .01 seconds? These days it just seems like the charge bails out too many defenders who can’t stay with their man or can’t block their shot.

As for Butler: It would be rediculous for the Knicks not to match. He’d have the most reasonable multi-year contract on the whole roster. Curry and James are both prone to injury and health issues. And, Butler is better than both of them, anyway.

Three years, seven million.

Damn.

That is SUCH a reasonable price for Butler, but it very well might be seen as too much of a committment for the Knicks.

Please oh please oh please let the Knicks match that. The payroll is eleventy zillion dollars ALREADY, so what’s another $2.34 million a year?

I must know if the Knicks will match!!!!

But they DO get the ball at half court for a set play after they take a time out.

It just isn’t as big of a deal early on as it is later on in the game.

The only rule change at the end of the game that I can think of (that would affect how long the game takes) is that the officials are supposed to be more lax in enforcing substitutions at the end of the game, to give more leeway to teams making changes at the end of the game.

Otherwise, the end of the game is called the same way, the teams just choose to use their time outs at that point in the game.

I think reducing it to 30 second timeouts is a nice start, and probably just non radical enough for the league to actually consider.

As for playoff system, I love the idea of seeding based on record. Winning a division can get you IN to the playoffs, which I think should be as significant of an advantage as it is.

I think going to 8 total teams in the playoffs is a bit radical, but switching to 12 with first round byes (sp?) sounds a lot more feasible. I’d also like to see 5 game series not only in the first round, but also the second. Sixteen teams out of 30 is pretty ridiculous, esp after 82 regular season games.