Do modern times require larger fields?

I think the rim should be raised in the NBA. Dunking has become too much of the game now and has lost the "wow" effect.

The gimmicky slam-dunk contest was a case in point. Cup cakes with candles? Toy goals with suction-cup backboards? It was stupid despite the TBS shills' pronouncements that Dwight Howard had brought the contest back to popularity.

 

He Supermanned dat dunk.

The only magic dunk contest moment for me was when Darnell Hillman came out of nowhere (may not even have been affilliated with a team at the time) and won. Still, raising the rim would be like shortening or lengthening the base paths. It would create a historical schism.

 

College basketball needs one major rule change: move the 3-point line back a couple feet.

And if college officials called the game the way it's supposed to be played, it'd be a better game overall too. Of course, it'd result in 40 turnovers a game and frustrate the hell out of everyone involved, but at least it'd actually resemble basketball.

 

The 3-point shot is ridiculous in college basketball. Teachers "teach to the test" in public schools and coaches "coach to the arc" in college basketball. It's destroyed the creativity and structure of the game. These days, guards just run ball screens behind the arc until they get a sliver of an opening, and jack it up.

It gave me a great deal of pleasure, last year, to watch Georgetown beat North Carolina with lovely design - easy layups and short jumpers - while the Tar Heels finally went cold and missed their last ten shots or so from behind the three point line.

Then, in the Final Four, we got treated to a feast of long bombs and putbacks. Boring.

 

I want to add that I think Howard is a total liar when he says he intended to throw the ball in the hoop instead of dunking it. Howard clearly wasn't going to make it to the hoop, so he just launched it.

The moron judges were so jazzed over Howard's cape and routine that I don't think they even considered that the dunk looked, well, really stupid.

But that's NBA for you. There's more wrong-headed thinking in that league than just about any.

 

How is dunking too much of the game? I'd bet that there were more dunks per game 15 or 20 years ago than there are today.

Dunks and layups are the ultimate reward of proper execution.

 

At least it's not as bad as the old ACC one the season that conferences could choose the distance of the arc, or whether to even have 3-pointers. The top of the ACC's cut below the top of the key. I remember there was a bit where Vitale made a 3-point hook shot from that distance.

 

Exactly. A 19-foot jumper isn't shit. The guys today can hit that with three hands in their faces.

Move it back, a foot or so inside the NBA line. Hell, move it back to the NBA line. The rim and the free throw line are the same, and we've got kids playing college basketball who are obviously talented enough to be NBA shooters. Move it all the way back.

It would create a totally different offensive game. It opens up the interior and brings back the slashing motion offenses that some teams are already trying to bring back.

As it is now, a good big man or a good zone defense clogs the entire inside of the court up. From the free throw line in, it's football. Someone goes in there, someone gets fouled, and we start all over again. It's boring.