Re: NBA Rules Committee Changes

[Jim Meninno <jim_meninno@hotmail.com>]

>From: Dan Forant Sr <dforant1@nycap.rr.com>
>
>http://cnnsi.com/basketball/nba/news/1999/06/23/nba_rules/
>
>Looks like a 14 second clock for common fouls in the front court, when the 
>clock is under 14 seconds. That one sounds like fun. Who will be watching 
>the clock at the time of the foul? Maybe the whistle will stop the clock 
>and the time determined then. Should save some game time.

This change hardly sounds worth making.  If this happened six times a game, 
it would save a minute.  Big deal.

>
>No zone defense. Evidently they want more scoring. Like baseball, they 
>zipped up the baseball, smaller strike zone etc. I personally think the 
>defensive game the Knicks and sometimes the Celts play is more exciting. 
>I'd like to see a composite of the shooting percentages of today and say 10 
>years ago.

I heard on TV that they were thinking of adding a college style 5 second 
rule, but only below the foul line, so that post players couldn't hold the 
ball all day long, backing their players down.  Also, they were thinking of 
allowing "strong side zones", or doubling away from the ball on the same 
side of the court.  So, a guard could back off the man feeding the post to 
deny the pass.  These both sound like interesting ideas to me, but I didn't 
see them mentioned in this article, and I have no idea how they would play 
out in real life.

My take is that anything they do to limit the post play or loosen the 
illegal defense rules will help the Celtics.  Cracking down on the clutching 
and grabbing will probably hurt them more than a lot of teams.

Jim


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