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This is too funny!
During last season’s NBA playoffs, I Tivo’ed most of the games. Since the playoffs have a lot of desperate attempts by teams trying to come from behind to win the game, which requires stopping the clock, and that means there are lots of time-outs and lots of fouls in the last minutes of the game. At first I was excited that Tivo let me fast-forward through these boring and often pointless tactics, but being able to skip boring parts made me realize how much I don’t like free throws. When I watch an NBA or college game, I want to see the offense and defense battling it out. I do not want to see a game of H-O-R-S-E.
I started to wonder why there are so many free throws in a game. Free throws are obviously a penalty to discourage fouls. If there wasn’t a penalty for fouls, the NBA would be filled with football linemen and wrestlers. Fouls are intended to keep basketball being basketball, but they are now a tactic to obtain three objectives:
- To stop the clock.
- To obtain possession of the ball after free throws.
- To prevent Shaq from scoring by sending him to the foul line.
I will address how we can eliminate each of those benefits from fouling.
The defense needs to foul so that the offense doesn’t use up all the time left in the game. The offense is no longer trying to score, it is just eating up time. Instead of a game clock, each team should get the same number of possessions similar to innings in baseball. There is already a shot clock to prevent teams from dribbling the ball forever once they have a two point lead. Instead of an agonizing last two minutes of the game, which takes ten minutes with all the free throws and timeouts, you would know exactly when all hope is lost. If the team is down ten points with two possessions remaining, even two four-point plays won’t save them. I think this will make the end of the game even more exciting, since every basket that could clinch an insurmountable lead could be a game winning shot. Please, just admit a game is over when it’s over.
Once there is no game clock, the defense no longer has to force someone to the foul line to get the ball back before time runs out. All they need to do is play really good defense.
Why do we let the defense decide whether someone will get to dunk the ball or shoot free throws? The defense shouldn’t know that they can take away Shaq’s high percentage dunk and trade it with his low percentage foul line shot. Also, why do we make the offense inbound the ball, when a foul hasn’t taken possession of the ball away from the offense. In football you usually don’t stop as soon as a flag is thrown. Instead, the opposing team can decide whether to accept or decline the penalty. The refs in basketball shouldn’t blow a whistle until the offense scores, loses the ball, fouls, or violates some other rule. The offense should get the option of inbounding the ball instead of shooting free throws. Shaq will never shoot another free throw in his life, period. If the defense fouls twice, the offense will get two more possessions. If the foul is on the floor, and the offense makes the basket, then the offense will just take the points unless they want possession again to try for a 3-point shot.
As you can see getting rid of the game clock and only delaying the penalty for defensive fouls will eliminate most of the reasons to go to the foul line. Less fouls will be given to stop the clock. Stupid little fouls that don’t cause a turnover won’t require an inbound pass. I think these rules changes would make basketball more exciting and fun.
Further technical details:
Because teams sometime bobble the ball before one side gains possession, it would be a good idea to have a clear way of determining whether a team had used up one of its possessions/innings. I think that crossing the half-court line would be an easy point at which to mark the change of possession, although it might be necessary to use a different term than “possession” since there are a lot of stats on that already. Inbounding the ball would also be a good demarcation of a change in possession, but it isn’t useful when the defense steals the ball or gets a rebound.
I think that it would be a good idea to cut the game short when the losing team doesn’t have enough possessions left to catch up. I know that multiple defensive fouls could lead to the offense scoring multiple baskets in one so-called “possession”, but it is unreasonable to handle the situation where the defense accidentally fouls, if they could sit on the floor and still win the game.