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What to do about free throws?

SoberasHotRod

SoberasHotRod

Well-Known Member
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Any ideas?

Free throws are boring. Who wants to watch people practice shooting? Who wants to watch basketball without defense? Ever since I got league pass I find myself watching games a little behind so that I can forward through free throws

Keep free throws at the end of the game, those are good and suspenseful. Maybe the last 5 minutes of the game or something, but basketball needs to find a way to handle shooting fouls for the rest of the game.

Maybe a disadvantage where you can only have 4 players on offense for a period of time, like the 5th guy has to stay back. I don't know, I don't have the answers, but just know that I don't want to watch free throws anymore.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
Any ideas?

Free throws are boring. Who wants to watch people practice shooting? Who wants to watch basketball without defense? Ever since I got league pass I find myself watching games a little behind so that I can forward through free throws

Keep free throws at the end of the game, those are good and suspenseful. Maybe the last 5 minutes of the game or something, but basketball needs to find a way to handle shooting fouls for the rest of the game.

Maybe a disadvantage where you can only have 4 players on offense for a period of time, like the 5th guy has to stay back. I don't know, I don't have the answers, but just know that I don't want to watch free throws anymore.
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Agreed. I also fast forward free throws when I can. (Except I always watched gobert free throws for some reason)

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Maybe just have side out on all fouls unless it's a flagrant foul until the final 2 min of the game. You still foul out of the game. If you are concerned about more fouls just change it to 5 and your out. I agree the are a boring part of the game. I actually wish they would lighten up on calling fouls. Way too many ticky tack calls.
 
Ron Mexico said:
Maybe just have side out on all fouls unless it's a flagrant foul until the final 2 min of the game. You still foul out of the game. If you are concerned about more fouls just change it to 5 and your out. I agree the are a boring part of the game. I actually wish they would lighten up on calling fouls. Way too many ticky tack calls.
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I think there needs to be a more severe penalty for shooting fouls vs side out or you will get more fouling.
 
Strictly enforce a clock rule on free throws so guys don’t spend 10 mins in each free throw and bring one and ones to the nba so guys don’t automatically get to shoot 2.

I also fast forward through free throws.
 
How about a penalty system like hockey. On a shooting foul the guy committing the foul sits in a penalty box for 1 minute of game time. Leaving his team playing 5 on 4 for a full minute. Or something like that.
 
LogGrad98 said:
How about a penalty system like hockey. On a shooting foul the guy committing the foul sits in a penalty box for 1 minute of game time. Leaving his team playing 5 on 4 for a full minute. Or something like that.
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Log! Missed you man.
 
LogGrad98 said:
How about a penalty system like hockey. On a shooting foul the guy committing the foul sits in a penalty box for 1 minute of game time. Leaving his team playing 5 on 4 for a full minute. Or something like that.
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I thought about that as well, but wasn't sure how you would handle them getting back in to the game without being too disruptive. That's why in my original post I settled on them being limited to defense only.

With all of the leagues of basketball around the world, is nobody doing anything creative with this? The only thing I've seen is the one free throw vs two free throws, but I don't like that very much either.

One thing I just thought of was a 1:1 opportunity. What if instead of free throws the team gets to pick any of their offensive player to go against whatever defensive player they choose.
 
The league's best players supplement their scores based on FTs. They aren't going to change it. Players appreciate it because it is basically a timeout and gives them a chance to recover.

I'd prefer to see a shorter half time, and require FT's to be taken faster. Perhaps have a 5 second timer start once the player receives the ball.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
I thought about that as well, but wasn't sure how you would handle them getting back in to the game without being too disruptive. That's why in my original post I settled on them being limited to defense only.

With all of the leagues of basketball around the world, is nobody doing anything creative with this? The only thing I've seen is the one free throw vs two free throws, but I don't like that very much either.

One thing I just thought of was a 1:1 opportunity. What if instead of free throws the team gets to pick any of their offensive player to go against whatever defensive player they choose.
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Easy, the first dead ball after 1 minute of game time they can sub someone in to get back to 5 players. I think this would be very doable. But they'll never make any changes like this. The product is making lots of money as-is, absolutely no impetus to change anything.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Easy, the first dead ball after 1 minute of game time they can sub someone in to get back to 5 players. I think this would be very doable. But they'll never make any changes like this. The product is making lots of money as-is, absolutely no impetus to change anything.
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There is some times a lot of game time between dead balls.
 
TheGoldStandard said:
The league's best players supplement their scores based on FTs. They aren't going to change it. Players appreciate it because it is basically a timeout and gives them a chance to recover.

I'd prefer to see a shorter half time, and require FT's to be taken faster. Perhaps have a 5 second timer start once the player receives the ball.
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Good point on the time to recover part, I hadn't though of that.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
There is some times a lot of game time between dead balls.
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Then they burn a time out to make a sub.

But what you are saying is exactly why this would reduce the number of fouls committed.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Then they burn a time out to make a sub.

But what you are saying is exactly why this would reduce the number of fouls committed.
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I think it becomes too punitive at that point. I want players to be able to play defense and if there is that big of a deterrent then we won't see as good of defense.
 
TheGoldStandard said:
The league's best players supplement their scores based on FTs. They aren't going to change it. Players appreciate it because it is basically a timeout and gives them a chance to recover.

I'd prefer to see a shorter half time, and require FT's to be taken faster. Perhaps have a 5 second timer start once the player receives the ball.
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5 seconds would be insanely fast. They just need to get the stuff around the FT to happen faster (ie getting the ball to the player faster, making subs faster)
 
SoberasHotRod said:
I think it becomes too punitive at that point. I want players to be able to play defense and if there is that big of a deterrent then we won't see as good of defense.
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There are a million ways to implement a penalty-box situation. Don't get stuck in how one single off-the-top-of-my-head idea couldn't work. Make it just until the next dead ball, without any mandatory time in the penalty box. Make it the next out of bounds play after that one minute. Make it for 4 possessions then the next out of bounds play they sub in. Just make the team sub someone in and that particular player can't play for 2 minutes of game time. Allow the other team to pick a player to bench for one minute of game time with a sub during that time allowed. Tons of ways to implement something like this. This is the frustrating thing with Internet discussions, people get stuck on one single very very narrow line of thought without think outside that to see if something else similar might be worth discussing. Tons of posts to say "nuh-uh" with no real discussion.
 
My main takeaways:
  1. Allow more personal fouls before reaching bonus
  2. Tell refs to call less fouls
  3. Make the FT process quicker through shortening downtime where basically nothing is happening
 
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