Also, I don’t think the post game is dead, it’s been a casualty of how players are developed too. Nowitzki spent a lot of time in his career working from the post and he worked very well as a player until very late in his career. It’s just that developing great post play takes a tremendous amount of effort and won’t really help a blue chip 15 year old get noticed by scouts as much as shooting 3s and dunking a lot will.

It’s as much a casualty of the way the game has developed as it is of the way prospects get developed and noticed. Why would I spent countless hours perfecting post moves as a big man if I can learn to shoot 3s at a .300 percentage and get touted by scouts as someone with possible NBA range (instead of getting the old-fashioned playstyle label?)

What I’m saying is that I think a guy like Ewing or Olajuwon would certainly still be very good in today’s NBA, but Ewings and Olajuwons simply do not get developed anymore because of the way the league has changed and how talent evaluation has went together with it.

I don’t really think I would enjoy watching Ewing back down the opposing center for post shots every possession if I wasn’t emotionally invested in it.

Adding or moving lines on the court has happened. Changing foul call parameters has happened. Changing the FTs awarded had happened. Changing allowable defenses and techniques has happened. so these things are more practical to discuss.

It would be fun to try out some of our suggestions, though!

This used to happen a lot in soccer, teams would have extremely different styles and there used to be even very long traditional play styles (English teams playing with two open wings crossing balls into the box for tall strikers, Brazil playing with high skilled midfielders and breaking defenses one on one, Netherlands playing a high tempo passing game with 3 forwards, etc), but now every top team pretty much tries to emulate the prime Messi / Guardiola Barcelona.

But why does that happen? Simply put, the ball will always travel faster than the players and with the ridiculous athletic level defenders have reached, most offensive options are straight up inferior than the Barcelona passing focused game, if you have the players to pull it off. Then it became a matter of team construction: if you’re rich enough to get the players to run this style you do, and if you don’t, well, too bad, try squeaking some wins with other strategies. The Barcelona style is also way more entertaining to watch, which is very relevant.

As long as basketball is basketball there will be a more efficient way of running a team and teams will focus on building around that style. That’s why I liked the 3 point / 4 point idea, it devalues the 3 pointer relative to the 2 pointer without changing the fundamental dynamics of how basketball works at the top level, and without taking away the excitement / what brings fans to watch games. It only makes the most effective strategy less efficient overall but still possible.

Doing away with dunks or 3 pointers altogether would limit options and not open up others.

My father rip hated basketball. He suggested two modifications.to make the game more interesting:

1) electrify the rim
2) give every player a club

can’t miss tv right there!!!