The NBA is in the golden era of skill, athleticism and creativity. It's also in the golden era of another highly valued tactic used by players... Foul grifting.
I have no issues with your proposal at all. It honestly probably goes a bit far if regularly called, but that is the beauty of it.
Right now, the choice is between a foul call or a no-call. Your third option makes the no-call somewhat of a reward for the offensive player, which is good! The ref can say, "you're lucky I didn't give them a free throw."
Great article and agree with the issue. But, how does this?
"Any obvious foul-grifting action will result in a foul on the grifting player. Then, the opposing team will be awarded one free throw1, and the ball."
Not lead to more of this?
"If it takes something that you need a six-minute review with multiple 8K camera angles and 25x zoom lens features, then we’ve lost the thread on what makes this game amazing."
I am a lifelong basketball fan who's watching less NBA this year than any other season. There are distribution reasons for that… but I mostly think there are some fundamental problems with the ruleset that incentivize the wrong kind of play. The biggest and most glaring is the team foul limit and free throws down the stretch.
No other sport I can think of awards a team with possession after they commit a foul. This is the crux of the problem. Fouling over the limit stops the clock, lowers the ceiling of the opponent's possible score for the possession, and switches possession.
This is how you get insane (and correct within the broken context) reads like “foul when you're up 3 on defense”. There are a lot of changes the NBA needs to make to fix its already amazing product (like foul grifting), but the most impactful would be that fouls over the limit grant one free throw and a side out for the team that was fouled.
You want tense endings, good defense, fewer FT contests? Incentivize the right kind of play.
PS: and no live ball timeouts. Quit punishing good defense!
I have no issues with your proposal at all. It honestly probably goes a bit far if regularly called, but that is the beauty of it.
Right now, the choice is between a foul call or a no-call. Your third option makes the no-call somewhat of a reward for the offensive player, which is good! The ref can say, "you're lucky I didn't give them a free throw."
You’ve seen the light!! Welcome to the revolution, Ray!
Great article and agree with the issue. But, how does this?
"Any obvious foul-grifting action will result in a foul on the grifting player. Then, the opposing team will be awarded one free throw1, and the ball."
Not lead to more of this?
"If it takes something that you need a six-minute review with multiple 8K camera angles and 25x zoom lens features, then we’ve lost the thread on what makes this game amazing."
It’s a great question.
I don't have a great answer other than you would hope that after being caught a few times most of the notorious grifters would cease their grifting.
Glad to see the Cavs not featured here - ethical organic farm-raised grass fed hooping in the Land!
They play a game that would make Dr. James proud.
Love this 100%. I'll add on further:
I am a lifelong basketball fan who's watching less NBA this year than any other season. There are distribution reasons for that… but I mostly think there are some fundamental problems with the ruleset that incentivize the wrong kind of play. The biggest and most glaring is the team foul limit and free throws down the stretch.
No other sport I can think of awards a team with possession after they commit a foul. This is the crux of the problem. Fouling over the limit stops the clock, lowers the ceiling of the opponent's possible score for the possession, and switches possession.
This is how you get insane (and correct within the broken context) reads like “foul when you're up 3 on defense”. There are a lot of changes the NBA needs to make to fix its already amazing product (like foul grifting), but the most impactful would be that fouls over the limit grant one free throw and a side out for the team that was fouled.
You want tense endings, good defense, fewer FT contests? Incentivize the right kind of play.
PS: and no live ball timeouts. Quit punishing good defense!