NBA rule changes ( both realistic and fantasy)

[michigan adam]

I'd really like to see much more consistency in the shooting foul rules. Stars are breathed on and are shooting foul shots and normal Joe's get mauled and have to suck it up and keep playing. I also dont like the traveling calls not being enforced. Sometimes it's many extra steps too...

[Celtics2021]

Introduce a live challenge.  A coach can challenge something immediately after it was not called (say 3-5 seconds).  A failure, in addition to the loss of timeout and future challenges, also results in a technical free throw, and change of possession of applicable.

I hate obviously missed calls that lead to breakaways the other direction (for example, when Jaylen got tripped at the end of the Utah game at the beginning of the year), but obviously there needs to be a stiff penalty for an incorrect challenge so coaches do not challenge just to eliminate a breakaway.  Maybe it should be two free throws and the ball.

[CFAN38]

Listening to "The game theory podcast" hosts Sam Vencenie and Bryce Simon had an interesting take on tanking related rule changes.

To paraphrase:

tanking is never going away and either is the draft

the goal should be to incentives fewer teams to tank

every rule change comes with consequences


One of their ideas was to make the 1st pick solely based on record, worst record gets 1st pick. After that go to a lottery for 2-14. This means the worst team every year gets the "best player" in theory moving the talent where its needed. While teams will still tank realistically only 4-5 out of 30 teams have a shot at being that bad.

Rachel Nichols said the same thing - she added that you shouldn't be able to have the top pick (or top 3, I really don't remember) two years in a row. Though I'm not sure it will work, it is worth discussing. It's based on the thought that you'll never be able to completely eliminate tanking, so you may as well put in policies to minimize it. On the other hand, when there is a player like Flagg or Wemby available, I do think it may create a race to the bottom.

I was a big fan of the top teams not being eligible for top picks the following year(s) but sam made a good point in the pod. If 2-3 teams are not eligible for 1-3 but are able to land 4,5,6 they might still tank and a team in playin contention might have more incentive to loose given that less teams are eligible for the top picks.