As with most things, I'm not a fan of tradition being used to stop improvements. "Tradition" usually is just another word for "status quo bias."
I love the NBA, but here are some things that I think are obvious improvements to the status quo.
Structural Changes:
1. Shorten number of regular season games to eliminate most/all back-to-backs. This should reduce injuries, increase the overall quality of play, and reduce the number of meaningless games. It would obviously screw with some of the records, but most of the records that people care about in the NBA are per game. Plus, the game has changed enough in other ways to make records over time rather incomparable.
2. Remove all conferences and divisions. Given modern travel, these are rather pointless.
3. Have a (more) balanced schedule.
4. The playoffs would be a 16 team bracket, according to overall record.
5. I like Bill Barnwell's idea posted today to have the first round be best of 5, UNLESS both teams each have a win within the first three games (i.e., if a team falls behind 0-3, they are eliminated.)
6. Remove the team salary cap. I don't like that potential dynasties have to be broken up because of money. I get that parity suffers (a little), but MLB has proven that a sufficient level of parity is possible.
7. Remove the player salary cap. This should help counterbalance the anti-parity effects of the lack of a team salary cap, since renting a player like LeBron suddenly becomes VERY costly.
8. Have some sort of revenue sharing scheme that is based on market size.
9. Move some team to Seattle
10. Eliminate college/age requirements to enter the NBA.
11. Restructure the draft. I like the 30-year wheel idea, especially some modified versions where the timeframe is shortened and teams aren't guaranteed exact spots, but are guaranteed to be placed in certain buckets in the draft (i.e. every team gets one spot in the 1-5 range, 6-10, etc.)
In Game Reform:
1. Make all intentional fouls cost 2 free throws and the ball. Hack-a-player fouls suck, even if smart; so do fouls to stop fast breaks.
2. Add a four point line. Not only to watch some deep bombs, but to help increase the spacing that is needed in today's larger, faster NBA with zone and hybrid zone defenses. Plus, imagine some of the possible crazy comebacks if this were possible.
3. Add a five point line behind half court. Give players an incentive to heave the ball with little time left. Make crazy, flukey comebacks more likely!
4. Increase the size of the restricted zone. This will encourage more drives and action at the rim and it's also safer.
5. Somehow reform the number of time outs near the end of games. I haven't thought about the exact ways to do this, but it's clearly a huge annoyance with the NBA.
6. Players get an additional possible foul for every additional overtime.
7. Have a ref whose only job is to monitor replays at all times. If a decision can't be made in 20 seconds, the call on the court stands. Replays can be vastly increased in use (including for fouls) while being far less annoying. It's much preferable to be 90% confident on all calls at a speedy pace than 99% confident on a few calls at a glacial pace.
Some of these are obviously more important than others, and some I'm less confident if they are good ideas or not.
I love the NBA, but here are some things that I think are obvious improvements to the status quo.
Structural Changes:
1. Shorten number of regular season games to eliminate most/all back-to-backs. This should reduce injuries, increase the overall quality of play, and reduce the number of meaningless games. It would obviously screw with some of the records, but most of the records that people care about in the NBA are per game. Plus, the game has changed enough in other ways to make records over time rather incomparable.
2. Remove all conferences and divisions. Given modern travel, these are rather pointless.
3. Have a (more) balanced schedule.
4. The playoffs would be a 16 team bracket, according to overall record.
5. I like Bill Barnwell's idea posted today to have the first round be best of 5, UNLESS both teams each have a win within the first three games (i.e., if a team falls behind 0-3, they are eliminated.)
6. Remove the team salary cap. I don't like that potential dynasties have to be broken up because of money. I get that parity suffers (a little), but MLB has proven that a sufficient level of parity is possible.
7. Remove the player salary cap. This should help counterbalance the anti-parity effects of the lack of a team salary cap, since renting a player like LeBron suddenly becomes VERY costly.
8. Have some sort of revenue sharing scheme that is based on market size.
9. Move some team to Seattle
10. Eliminate college/age requirements to enter the NBA.
11. Restructure the draft. I like the 30-year wheel idea, especially some modified versions where the timeframe is shortened and teams aren't guaranteed exact spots, but are guaranteed to be placed in certain buckets in the draft (i.e. every team gets one spot in the 1-5 range, 6-10, etc.)
In Game Reform:
1. Make all intentional fouls cost 2 free throws and the ball. Hack-a-player fouls suck, even if smart; so do fouls to stop fast breaks.
2. Add a four point line. Not only to watch some deep bombs, but to help increase the spacing that is needed in today's larger, faster NBA with zone and hybrid zone defenses. Plus, imagine some of the possible crazy comebacks if this were possible.
3. Add a five point line behind half court. Give players an incentive to heave the ball with little time left. Make crazy, flukey comebacks more likely!
4. Increase the size of the restricted zone. This will encourage more drives and action at the rim and it's also safer.
5. Somehow reform the number of time outs near the end of games. I haven't thought about the exact ways to do this, but it's clearly a huge annoyance with the NBA.
6. Players get an additional possible foul for every additional overtime.
7. Have a ref whose only job is to monitor replays at all times. If a decision can't be made in 20 seconds, the call on the court stands. Replays can be vastly increased in use (including for fouls) while being far less annoying. It's much preferable to be 90% confident on all calls at a speedy pace than 99% confident on a few calls at a glacial pace.
Some of these are obviously more important than others, and some I'm less confident if they are good ideas or not.