Celtics to play Nets in "shortened game experiment"

[pearljammer10]

Found this interesting. Sunday the Celtics and the Nets will square off in a 44 minute game... Can't say I would like this idea at all. Don't really see the sense it in.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11700335/brooklyn-nets-boston-celtics-play-44-minute-preseason-game

The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute preseason game Sunday -- four minutes shorter than the standard NBA game.

The league announced the decision Tuesday, with NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn saying it will test out the idea of playing a shorter game, a notion that was broached during offseason discussions.

"At our recent coaches' meeting, we had a discussion about the length of our games, and it was suggested that we consider experimenting with a shorter format," Thorn said in a statement. "After consulting with our Competition Committee, we agreed to allow the Nets and Celtics to play a 44-minute preseason game in order to give us some preliminary data that will help us to further analyze game-time lengths."

To get the game down to 44 minutes, each quarter will be shortened from 12 minutes down to 11, and the number of mandatory timeouts will be pared down from three to two.

"When this idea came up at the coaches' meeting, I thought it was a unique experiment that was worth participating in," Nets coach Lionel Hollins said in the statement. "I'm looking forward to gauging its impact on the flow of the game. Since there is a shorter clock, it affects playing time, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays into substitution patterns."

[BudweiserCeltic]

I think this is a terrible idea. Hope these idiots don't consider this as a viable option.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11700335/brooklyn-nets-boston-celtics-play-44-minute-preseason-game


The Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics will play a 44-minute preseason game Sunday -- four minutes shorter than the standard NBA game.

The league announced the decision Tuesday, with NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn saying it will test out the idea of playing a shorter game, a notion that was broached during offseason discussions.

"At our recent coaches' meeting, we had a discussion about the length of our games, and it was suggested that we consider experimenting with a shorter format," Thorn said in a statement. "After consulting with our Competition Committee, we agreed to allow the Nets and Celtics to play a 44-minute preseason game in order to give us some preliminary data that will help us to further analyze game-time lengths."

To get the game down to 44 minutes, each quarter will be shortened from 12 minutes down to 11, and the number of mandatory timeouts will be pared down from three to two.

"When this idea came up at the coaches' meeting, I thought it was a unique experiment that was worth participating in," Nets coach Lionel Hollins said in the statement. "I'm looking forward to gauging its impact on the flow of the game. Since there is a shorter clock, it affects playing time, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays into substitution patterns."

[BudweiserCeltic]

Merge or delete my thread:
http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=73813.0

Posted at the same time.

[snively]

What a great idea: let's shorten the game so the refs have more time to spend reviewing calls.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The problem is not the length of the game. If there's a problem, which personally I don't think there is, with the length of a match it's purely due to time wasted outside of the game's run time.

You could shorten the half time (but of course not, that's the gold mine of advertisers), reduce time-outs, shorten the time a player needs to shoot a free-throw, etc.

But reducing the actual gameplay clock is kinda idiotic, uncreative, and short-sighted.

[Moranis]

I like they are eliminating a mandatory time out per quarter.  That seems like it could be the real time saver.

Of course if they really just wanted to save time, they could just eliminate the mandatory time out and not shorten the game.  Frankly it is the television time outs that take so much time.

[BudweiserCeltic]

I like they are eliminating a mandatory time out per quarter.  That seems like it could be the real time saver.

Of course if they really just wanted to save time, they could just eliminate the mandatory time out and not shorten the game.  Frankly it is the television time outs that take so much time.

Agreed. But that's the money maker.

[pearljammer10]

The problem is not the length of the game. If there's a problem, which personally I don't think there is, with the length of a match it's purely due to time wasted outside of the game's run time.

You could shorten the half time (but of course not, that's the gold mine of advertisers), reduce time-outs, shorten the time a player needs to shoot a free-throw, etc.

But reducing the actual gameplay clock is kinda idiotic, uncreative, and short-sighted.

Like you say it isn't the actual game time that is the problem it is everything surrounding the actual game that is causing the issue.

Half time, number of times outs, number of commercials....However like you state, that's where the money is. I'm sure if the shorten the game four minutes they will still find a way to keep the televised time the same length and make even more money.

Oh and TP for posting at the same time.

[BudweiserCeltic]

The problem is not the length of the game. If there's a problem, which personally I don't think there is, with the length of a match it's purely due to time wasted outside of the game's run time.

You could shorten the half time (but of course not, that's the gold mine of advertisers), reduce time-outs, shorten the time a player needs to shoot a free-throw, etc.

But reducing the actual gameplay clock is kinda idiotic, uncreative, and short-sighted.

Like you say it isn't the actual game time that is the problem it is everything surrounding the actual game that is causing the issue.

Half time, number of times outs, number of commercials....However like you state, that's where the money is. I'm sure if the shorten the game four minutes they will still find a way to keep the televised time the same length and make even more money.

Oh and TP for posting at the same time.

Here's an innovative idea as well, how about starting the game on-time?

[Chris22]

I would like to see them make the court wider.

The players today are so much bigger and faster.

[D.o.s.]

The problem is not the length of the game. If there's a problem, which personally I don't think there is, with the length of a match it's purely due to time wasted outside of the game's run time.

You could shorten the half time (but of course not, that's the gold mine of advertisers), reduce time-outs, shorten the time a player needs to shoot a free-throw, etc.

But reducing the actual gameplay clock is kinda idiotic, uncreative, and short-sighted.

Like you say it isn't the actual game time that is the problem it is everything surrounding the actual game that is causing the issue.

Half time, number of times outs, number of commercials....However like you state, that's where the money is. I'm sure if the shorten the game four minutes they will still find a way to keep the televised time the same length and make even more money.

Oh and TP for posting at the same time.

Here's an innovative idea as well, how about starting the game on-time?

As someone who is almost chronically late to things when they require showing up in person, I strongly oppose this idea.

[Nerf DPOY]

The problem is not the length of the game. If there's a problem, which personally I don't think there is, with the length of a match it's purely due to time wasted outside of the game's run time.

You could shorten the half time (but of course not, that's the gold mine of advertisers), reduce time-outs, shorten the time a player needs to shoot a free-throw, etc.

But reducing the actual gameplay clock is kinda idiotic, uncreative, and short-sighted.

Like you say it isn't the actual game time that is the problem it is everything surrounding the actual game that is causing the issue.

Half time, number of times outs, number of commercials....However like you state, that's where the money is. I'm sure if the shorten the game four minutes they will still find a way to keep the televised time the same length and make even more money.

Oh and TP for posting at the same time.

Here's an innovative idea as well, how about starting the game on-time?

And cut out the pregame interview where the coach isn't wearing a tie? I don't know if I want to live in that world....

But seriously, to a fan's perspective I don't see how there's anything good about this at all.

[Mencius]

I don't like it.  Personally, I don't find the games to be too long anyway.  They don't even give any rationale for trying this out.  How about tossing out a reason for trying this, NBA.

I think the length of NBA games is about right.  It's not like a 3.5 hour boring baseball game.

If it's about cumulative minutes these guys rack up, then reduce the number of games.  You could keep the season just as long, but have, say, ten fewer games.  You could reduce the number of back to backs that way, and perhaps squeeze in a few more practices, of which there are too few during the season.  Might make for a better product while reducing cumulative minutes.

Anyway, I don't want four fewer minutes a game.  At. All.

[kozlodoev]

This is the dumbest thing I've heard in a while.

First, if you want to shorten the games, for the love of French cheese, go to the standard FIBA length of 40 minutes. 11 minutes/quarter is just idiotic.

Second, how about you start trimming by getting rid of some of the ridiculous and excessive timeouts. Or perhaps, I don't know, by enforcing 5-second violations at the FT line or even by not blowing the whistle every 5 seconds.

/facepalm

[nickagneta]

Televised games are getting too long so the solution is not cutting down on mandatory timeouts for television advertising its cutting down on actual game time played. Unreal.

What's next? Let's eliminate all traveling, double dribble, offensive fouls, back court violations, and video replay to cut down on game stoppages and speed the game along that way? Are they going to eliminate all timeouts in the last two minutes of the game because it makes the game too long?

Can you even imagine hockey, baseball or football experimenting with cutting their designated play time in their game down to accommodate game length problems? 8 inning baseball? 18 minutes periods? 13 minute quarters?

The people running basketball gotta take their heads out of their butts every once in a while and realize they are really screwing around with the integrity of their product when they start doing things like this and not addressing poor officiating or the bias towards stars on the court.