Celtic, Nets Will Experiment With 44-Minute Game October 19th

Great. More money, less basketball. If the problem is that games are too long (says who?) then maybe there shouldn't be as many ticky-tack fouls called. Maybe the games could start earlier and just reduce the pre-game BS? How about eliminating 1 TO/half/team? How about only allowing 5 or 6 seconds to get the ball over half court, resulting in more traps?



Jay King @ByJayKing about 29 minutes ago
The Celtics and Nets will apparently play a 44-minute preseason game Oct. 19 to "examine the flow of a shorter game."

Reply Retweet Favorite



Gary Washburn @GwashburnGlobe about 28 minutes ago
The teams will play 11-minute quarters with two mandatory timeouts instead of three. #nets #celtics

Reply Retweet Favorite




bob



.

How about (as was mentioned here last week) that they limit the time at the ft line?  All they have to do is use the rules that are already in place:

http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_10.html

Section I-Free Throw
a. After the ball is placed at the disposal of a free throw shooter, his attempt shall be within 10 seconds in such a way that the ball enters the basket or touches the ring before it is touched by a player. The shooter shall be within that part of the free throw circle behind the free throw line.
b. A player shall not touch the ball or basket while the ball is on or within the basket.
c. A player who occupies a free throw lane space shall not touch the floor on or across the free throw lane line, nor shall any player 'back out' more than 3' from the free throw lane line. A player who does not occupy a free throw lane space must remain behind the three-point line. This restriction applies until the ball leaves the free thrower's hands.

Just sayin'

gyso

Look at old clips and see how quickly the ball was given to the out of bounds players, now it seems there is wasted time. Ref should just put the ball on the floor and begin a five count.

Lots of small things to speed up the game without cutting the actual length, shorten the half time, cut some of the time outs, perhaps when you get inside of 2 minutes at the end of the game you loose all time outs beyond say 2.Use them earlier or lose them. That should keep the flow going a little better. Plus the time outs are way too long anyway.

Subbing take way to long anyway. If your not at the scorers table when there is a stoppage you don't get in till the next one. The Courts should have more room at the scorers table to allow subs a place to sit and not be in the way.

Agree with GYSO enforce the rules as they are written and the game will move along just fine.

beat

I wonder if a shorter game would help lead to a sustained faster pace?

Might at least be worth the experiment.

Have to agree that limiting the fee-throw nonsense would help.

Of course the the broadcasters that are shelling out BILLIONS to televise these games need to recoup as much money as they can thru advertising so taking away from that time certainly won't be tolerated by the TV industry.

beat

I'm perfectly happy with the game as its now played. I have league pass and also watch a lot of college hoops. All for peanuts per game. Don't think that the 50's, 60's routine of perhaps 4 games a week would satisfy my lust for basketball. By the way. How do you think basketball does in terms of game action time when compared with MLB and the NFL ?  See below link.

http://www.nationalsarmrace.com/?p=475

swish

48 minutes never seemed that long anyways.

4 minutes may not seem like a long time but think how many times there are 4 minutes left in the game and all the things that can and do happen?

Basketball is still a shorter game than Hockey and Football and Baseball and now we want to make it shorter?  I just am not getting this.

If they want to knock almost 10% off the game, they should bring down ticket prices too.  As a matter of fact I think direct TV should give me a refund on my NBA League Pass subscriptions.  That is a lot of games X 4 minutes.  

I was hoping we good increase the minutes up to 60.  

It is sort of like buying a package of chicken wings.  There use to be 2 rows of 9 or 10 wings in a package but now they only want you to get 16 wings....and at a higher price.

dboss

And still they continue to treat the symptoms rather than the disease.  I politely call it auto play.

Sam