If you could change the game what would you do ?

[GreenWarrior]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

Ohh and do away with the players association.

[gouki88]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

The first point is probably impossible, and I don't necessarily agree with it. But the third one has been proposed many times before. But it's not necessarily "one max per team" but allowing each team one "super max" contract with a high salary limit. The thought is that this would create more parity over the league with the top 25-30 stars looking for that "super max" contract.

Completely agree with the idea of the second point. My major change would reduce the refs' impact on the game. They get so much wrong because they're way too involved, which inevitably leads to inconsistency and subjective calls. I'd probably go down to two refs per game and dramatically cut down what is considered a foul in terms of severity of contact. Further, there'd be an emphasis to start curbing all the gaming of the system by offensive players to get free throws.

It's definitely been proposed, but I just doubt the players association would ever let it get off the ground. It would also not lead to teams with one star and a bunch of role players given the talent in the NBA currently.

Definitely agree with the officiating one though. If not that, some other type of major overhaul

[tenn_smoothie]

Outlaw all ball screens. Get the ball off the floor and moving by the pass again.
I know it would never happen, but gawd, it's an ugly game and college with less skill level is almost unwatchable at times.

[tenn_smoothie]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

Ohh and do away with the players association.

Amen - and get back to owners being owners, not "governors".

[GreenWarrior]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

Ohh and do away with the players association.

Amen - and get back to owners being owners, not "governors".

Yes please!

[RPGenerate]

A hard cap, but more flexibility in re-structuring / waiving bad contracts.  Get rid of max contracts.

This right here. No more luxury tax garbage that benefits the wealthier owners. You have to be under the hard cap number, period. Combine that with no max contracts, and I think this helps the NBA product.

Another thing that would be interesting would be to introduce the compensatory picks system that the nfl has. If a team loses a significant free agent, they get a pick in return. I have no idea how they would calculate what pick the team in question would get, but I think it would give rebuilding teams a head start on getting new prospects.

[libermaniac]

Eliminate offensive goal tending rules.

Eliminate defensive and offensive three seconds.

Expand the three point line to exclude the corners.

Set a cap on the amount that a player drafted by a team could count against his team's cap based on years of service, and allow teams to pay such players well beyond that cap with no luxury tax impact.  Example: Jayson Tatum can't count more than $25 million against the Celts cap, but the Celts can pay him much more, e.g. $40 million per year.  Reward teams for drafting and developing, reward players for staying with the team that drafted them.  Making the extra money count against the cap and luxury tax, and limiting it to one player (Rose rule) is unnecessarily punitive to teams and creates a dynamic where players earn the right to be paid the maximum amount and then immediately become a negative asset (see: Westbrook, Wall, Griffin etc).

Eliminate East vs West for playoff purposes and seed 1-16.

All teams except for the top 8 seeds get ping pong balls in the lottery, with greatly flattened odds from the worst record to the 17th record, and the top 5 spots are selected by lottery.

Not sure about the first two, but love the rest. Especially the cap benefits for developing talent.

[furball]

Get rid of the zone defenses!!!  Play man to man like the old days.  That brings back the big man and gets rid of the game being all about corner threes. 

[Moranis]

I've long felt that they should eliminate the max amount for a player on a contract. You still have the team salary cap and what not, and maybe still restrict the max years to 5, but if I'm the Cavs and want to pay Lebron 100 million a year, I should be able to. 

[slamtheking]

I must be the old fart here but basically I'd undo most of the rule changes made since the early 80's as well as undo the tolerance for rule breaking for entertainment purposes.
- call palming --> no more allowing players to carry the ball.  no more allowing players to dribble by bouncing the ball, catching it and either flipping it over to bounce it again or then throwing the ball to the side for a drive.  only dribbling allowed is the old Bob Cousy style hand on top bouncing the ball. 
- no more euro-step.  ever.  it's a freaking travel
- no more flagrant fouls.  if it's a grievous hit, it's a foul.  if it's deliberately intended to cause harm, call a technical or if it's bad enough, toss the player.  no more automatic flagrant (technical) for contact to the face. 
- technical foul for a flop and it needs to actually be called more consistently
- more diligence calling 3-second lane violations. 
- Officiate all players on both teams the same.  no star calls.  no rookie calls.  no fouls simply because Theis just happens to be on the court.  there needs to be penalties for officials that do not follow this especially when it's very apparent there's not an equal whistle being called. 
- ditch the circle under the basket where a defender isn't allowed to stand to get a charge.  bogus.  let them stand wherever they need to stand to get that charge.

that's the changes I'd make to the game itself as a start.  I'm ok with the current court size -- hasn't changed so there's no excuse for the players not to know where they're standing on the court.

off the court, I'd penalize any player under contract pushing for a trade to play elsewhere.  they signed a contract, honor it.   if they don't like it, they can leave the league (without pay) until either they decide to honor the deal or retire from the NBA.   The contract and roster spot would be available for the team to use on another player if they choose.  (granted if it was a top player it would be impossible to get an unsigned player to come in and play at a top level but bringing in someone would be better than nothing).  also, the contract is linked to the player's playing time - if the player had 2 years left on it, they owe 2 years to that team - they don't become free agents in 2 years.

[colincb]

- Hate the play-in.
- The challenge system needs revision or elimination. Maybe 1 only in the last two minutes of the game.
- 24-second violations need revision too.

[gouki88]

Eliminate offensive goal tending rules.

Eliminate defensive and offensive three seconds.

Expand the three point line to exclude the corners.

Set a cap on the amount that a player drafted by a team could count against his team's cap based on years of service, and allow teams to pay such players well beyond that cap with no luxury tax impact.  Example: Jayson Tatum can't count more than $25 million against the Celts cap, but the Celts can pay him much more, e.g. $40 million per year.  Reward teams for drafting and developing, reward players for staying with the team that drafted them.  Making the extra money count against the cap and luxury tax, and limiting it to one player (Rose rule) is unnecessarily punitive to teams and creates a dynamic where players earn the right to be paid the maximum amount and then immediately become a negative asset (see: Westbrook, Wall, Griffin etc).

Eliminate East vs West for playoff purposes and seed 1-16.

All teams except for the top 8 seeds get ping pong balls in the lottery, with greatly flattened odds from the worst record to the 17th record, and the top 5 spots are selected by lottery.

Not sure about the first two, but love the rest. Especially the cap benefits for developing talent.

Yeah, that cap rule would be a great incentive to developing homegrown talent

[Sophomore]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

Ohh and do away with the players association.

Amen - and get back to owners being owners, not "governors".

Yes please!

Law of the market. Talent dictates the rules. All they have to do is threaten to stop work; nobody wants to watch replacement players.

[GreenWarrior]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

Ohh and do away with the players association.

Amen - and get back to owners being owners, not "governors".

Yes please!

Law of the market. Talent dictates the rules. All they have to do is threaten to stop work; nobody wants to watch replacement players.

I understand the situation but other than laker fans every team and every fan should want this.

The league is basically a farm team for the lakers and then miami and then the clippers, etc.

The celtics are no different than minnesota and the bulls are no different than atlanta. Both big sports markets that no NBA player wants to play for.

These franchises acquire players that when the time arises are available to the lakers. And the other teams I mentioned are the consolation prize.

It really makes this league unappealing to me and like I said every fan outside of LA should really feel this way, because it's a real thing.

The NBA fixes this and removes all but one official on the floor then this league will be exciting. Because right now there really is no drama, the champion is pretty much decided in the off season. Everyone else is just hoping that team has injuries.

[gouki88]

Take away the power from the players. No more picking where you want to go unless you've been in the league for 7 seasons.

Only one ref on the floor that watches only the ball handler and the player defending the ball handler. Another official on the sideline watching what the viewer at home sees looking for anything egregious or out of bounds plays.

Only one max player per team, and the rest of the roster is role players.

Feel like your first and third point would be literally impossible, unless you somehow scrap the players association

Ohh and do away with the players association.

Amen - and get back to owners being owners, not "governors".

Yes please!

Law of the market. Talent dictates the rules. All they have to do is threaten to stop work; nobody wants to watch replacement players.

I understand the situation but other than laker fans every team and every fan should want this.

The league is basically a farm team for the lakers and then miami and then the clippers, etc.

The celtics are no different than minnesota and the bulls are no different than atlanta. Both big sports markets that no NBA player wants to play for.

These franchises acquire players that when the time arises are available to the lakers. And the other teams I mentioned are the consolation prize.

It really makes this league unappealing to me and like I said every fan outside of LA should really feel this way, because it's a real thing.

The NBA fixes this and removes all but one official on the floor then this league will be exciting. Because right now there really is no drama, the champion is pretty much decided in the off season. Everyone else is just hoping that team has injuries.

What do you even mean? The Celtics have acquired numerous marquee free agent signings over the last 5 or so years. Atlanta just landed a few free agents, one even leaving the Lakers.

There is a problem with tampering, but there is no way to simply remove the players association. You can't give workers rights and then strip them away again...