A big one would be making the game a race to a fixed point total, let’s say 100.

I don’t know, it could backfire in certain games. In chess there was a big problem when they changed the world championship format to the first who wins 6 (I believe Fischer proposed the first to win 10), and then Karpov and Kasparov played a match for 50 games and the federation had to stop it, because it dragged for 5 months and Karpov seemed ill.

I feel that this has been beaten to death, but the AAU circuit kinda makes that impossible, since the kids need to be the ones shooting in order to get noticed by scouts and get places in the top teams.

Like, I watched some random highlights of Lebron’s son playing on instagram, and pretty much every highlight he had was a deep 3, like 3 feet behind the line. He’s 13 and just getting into this circuit.

There’s obviously always going to be good defenders and all, but with the rules and the American development system, it’s just not going to be the focus anymore. On one part it makes me sad, as a fan of the game, but in the other hand explosive scores is what brings casual fans and they are what keeps the NBA in its position (and growing in popularity), so I guess it’s just a lost battle anyway.

Also, I think you could allow hand checking without allowing Zaza style play.

Regardless, I think the issue isn’t one of the rules being poor, it’s that kids don’t learn to defend against NBA style offenses early enough. Or frankly, don’t learn to defend well at all. I think we’ll see this paradigm shift over time as more effective counters are developed and players learn those counters at a younger age.

I would like to see an elimination of the 3 FT rule, except in the last 2 minutes. If a player is fould while attempting a 3-pointer, give him one FT and possession (like the fouling OB rule.)

I would also like to make illegal screens non-foul turnovers, unless the screen is more egregious.

If you want to offset the possible negative effect on parity, once draft order for 1-16 are determined, then give all non-playoff teams their “2nd” pick with the team with the worst record picking #17, second-worst team #18, all the way through 14th worst pick gets #30, the two teams that earned the playoff spots in the tournament getting #31 and 32. Then the remaining 28 picks that used to be second rounders (#33-60) becoming the first and second picks of the playoff teams, in reverse order.

So in essence, all non-playoff teams get two first-rounders and all playoff teams get two 2nd rounders.

Love the race to 100 idea. Reminds me of straight pool, where every shot/possession matters.

I like the idea either before the season, to help teams finalize rosters and get into shape more quickly, since no one cares about preseason games anyway, or late in the season to give something for teams outside of the playoffs to look for. Both ideas have issues, in the sense that teams would probably treat the preseason tournament super lightly as to not injure players, and the later one would also have the top teams saving all their key players, but it’s better than nothing.

Nobody really cares if Manchester United or Arsenal win the FA cup for example, but every time there’s a Cinderella story it’s a huge deal. We could see some team that has nothing to play for in the regular season go on a good run and surprising a few contenders, rivalries get more heated, etc etc. with rosters as big as they are nowadays with the addition of 2-way players it would be very cool imo.