NCAA Basketball’s Rule Changes to Make Game Less Physical a Welcome Change
It was obvious college basketball had a problem when Rick Pitino addressed at the Final Four a need to change the style of play that helped him win a national championship.
It took a record-setting year of low scoring and a lot of rants from famous commentators like Jay Bilas, but college basketball has decided to try to fix itself.
The NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee recommended several changes on Thursday that are based upon trying to make college basketball less physical and more watchable.
The recommendations simply need to be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel on June 18 to become part of the rulebook. Luckily, this isn’t Congress; the rules will go through.
It’s not time to drop the confetti from the sky yet, but this is at least an acknowledgment that something was broken.
The changes are an effort to allow freedom of movement on the offensive end and reduce the number of charges called on offensive players. In other words, to turn college basketball back into basketball and not bumper cars.
No more checking and grabbing cutters. No more arm bars. No more shoving.
Raise your hand if you’re confused how this wasn’t already part of the rulebook.
Well, it wasn’t emphasized as much as it will be now. Officials have been swallowing their whistles, because no one wants to see more fouls, right?
That sort of logic is how it has come to the rules committee putting in print what should be obvious. There were 48 free throws shot in a beautifully-played national championship game, and I didn’t see anyone complaining about too many whistles.
The challenge is to get the officials to call the game consistently across the country throughout the entire season. Why this is such a challenge is that each conference is in charge of its own officials. One conference can emphasize a rule, but that doesn’t mean that same rule will be emphasized in every league. This is a very public way of making it happen.
Count me in as someone who is skeptical that the block/charge call will be enforced differently, but again, at least they’re making an effort.
The proposed rule change is that a defender must be set when the ball-handler starts “his upward motion with the ball to attempt a field goal or pass.” The current rule states that the defender must be set once the offense lifts off the floor. In other words, the defender must be in position a step earlier than when he used to have to be set.
It’s never going to be a simple call to make, but this wording at least discourages the kamikaze defenders from sliding under a driver.
Moving the semi-circle under the basket out to where the NBA line is would also reduce the number of charges, but again, at least they’ve done something. Maybe next year.
Now it’s up to the officials to actually call the game this way, which is going to force them to blow their whistles a lot and listen to a lot of complaining from coaches and players.
“The only way to do it is the first 10 games of the season,” Pitino said at the Final Four. “The games have to be ugly and the players will adjust. Then you will see great offense again.”
Pitino is right, and you cannot blame him or any other coaches for encouraging their players to try to use the way the game was being called to their advantage. Louisville’s press benefited from the ability to reach and bump without it being called a foul every time.
Great coaches, like Pitino, will adjust his style accordingly if the game is called the right way.
And if that really happens, our eyes will win.
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NBA Playoff Schedule 2013: Series That Will End in Five Games or Less
The 2013 NBA Playoffs are officially in full swing, with every Game 1 and two separate Game 2 contests in the history books. In that time, we’ve seen all but one team hold down their home court and solidify their status as the favorites in their respective matchups.
The question is, which series will end in as brief a fashion as the opening days of action might suggest?
Thus far, the Western Conference’s playoff structure has come together according to plan. The Oklahoma City Thunder lead the Houston Rockets 1-0, the San Antonio Spurs are up on the Los Angeles Lakers by the same mark and the Denver Nuggets took down the Golden State Warriors in Game 1.
The Los Angeles Clippers now own a 2-0 series lead over the Memphis Grizzlies after Chris Paul sank a game-winner with 0.1 seconds remaining.
As for the Eastern Conference, the defending champion Miami Heat took care of business against the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1. Joining them with 1-0 leads are the New York Knicks over the Boston Celtics and the Indiana Pacers over the Atlanta Hawks.
The Brooklyn Nets took a 1-0 series lead, but the Chicago Bulls stole one on the road to tie it up at 1-1.
With this in mind, every series remains on pace to end in five games or less. The question is, which series will actually pan out in such a dominant fashion?
Before we get ahead of ourselves, that answer isn’t as widespread as it seems.
Miami Heat over Milwaukee Bucks (1-0, Miami)
The Miami Heat took Game 1 against the Milwaukee Bucks in as impressive a fashion as you could possibly ask for. Behind 27 points from LeBron James and 20 from Ray Allen, the Heat held down their home court by a score of 110-87.
That comes after Milwaukee trailed by just seven points entering the second half.
Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis combined for 48 points during Game 1, combining to shoot 18-of-39 from the field. Despite their best efforts, which included Ellis outperforming All-Star shooting guard Dwyane Wade, Milwaukee fell short.
Very short.
Even as the Bucks prepare to host Games 3 and 4, there is no denying how much of an uphill battle this will be. Even if they are to take one from Miami, the Heat have proven to be more than capable of winning on the road.
4-1 would be a successful series for the young and rising Bucks.
Oklahoma City Thunder over Houston Rockets (1-0, OKC)
There are few series with quite as much hype as this clash between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets. A major reason for the excitement is the return of James Harden to Oklahoma City, where he played for three seasons before being traded.
During Game 1, the competitiveness of the series was at a minimum.
The Thunder took the opening game of the series with a 120-91 victory at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 24 points, while Russell Westbrook tallied 19 points and 10 assists.
Harden led the Rockets with 20 points, but did so while shooting just 6-of-19 from the field.
It’s hard to imagine Harden struggling so mightily throughout the duration of the series, as he averaged 25.9 points per game during the 2012-13 NBA regular season. With that being said, the rest of the Rockets have one factor going against them.
Inexperience.
Jeremy Lin, Chandler Parsons and Donatas Motiejunas are all starters that have never played in the NBA Playoffs. Omer Asik has postseason experience, but is limited in terms of his offensive capabilities.
Although Harden and Carlos Delfino are experienced players with offensive capabilities, the Rockets are in an uphill battle against the class of the Western Conference—the sign of a four-to-five game series.
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Bracket Prediction: The field of 68 less than 24 hours before Selection Show
Louisville, Duke, Indiana and Kansas stand as the teams with the deepest résumés.
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Virginia’s bubble gets a little less stable
The Cavaliers fall in the ACC quarterfinals and could have an excruciating wait ahead.
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David Stern: Sacramento’s Kings bid less than Seattle’s
NBA Commissioner David Stern thinks Sacramento needs to offer more to keep its team.
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NBA Podcast: Teams Doing More with Less
Overachieving comes in many forms and against many different obstacles, but these NBA teams are getting it done.
Whether it’s outliving expectations, dealing with financial constrictions or just overcoming a clear lack of talent, we can tip our caps to these franchises.
In this episode of Basketball by Association, NBA assistant editors Ethan Norof and Joel C. Cordes welcome Bleacher Report lead writer Josh Martin to discuss which teams are doing more with less through first quarter of the NBA season.
Check out compelling NBA coverage from these guys and more here.
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Steve Nash Injury: Mike D’Antoni’s Arrival Makes PG’s Absence Less Problematic
When the Lakers were sinking into oblivion under coach Mike Brown, Steve Nash’s broken leg was just another sign of the apocalypse. Now the Lakers are being guided by Mike D’Antoni, and Nash’s injury—and any absence from the court it creates—is no cause for concern.
We’ll get into the change in perception on this injury, but first, let’s take a look at Nash’s recovery.
Mike Trudell of Lakers.com tweeted out the latest update.
As expected, @stevenash is going to be out at least these next 4 games (Nets, Kings, Grizz, Mavs), D’Antoni clarified.
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) November 21, 2012
While this ESPN tweet makes it clear that the “at least” in the above tweet must be noticed.
Nash out indefinitely; Blake to miss four games espn.go.com/los-angeles/nb…
— ESPNLosAngeles (@ESPNlosangeles) November 21, 2012
So, whenever Nash does return, he will do so having missed significant time. After the next four games, the 6-5 Lakers will be 15 games into this season, and Nash has only played in 1.5 of those games.
This was going to be a giant problem when the Lakers were under the previous regime. The team was struggling, and when Nash was playing, his glorious, but specific skill set was being almost completely unused.
He was going to need to learn how to work in the Princeton offense, and Brown was going to have to try and find a way to get him more involved—all while Nash got used to his new teammates.
Mike D’Antoni will not have the same problems trying to figure out how to use Nash in his offense. The two combined to form one of the greatest offenses the league has ever seen while in Phoenix.
Nash knows D’Antoni’s offense to the inch, and the fast-paced, pick-and-roll, well-spaced offense is perfect for him.
The only adjustments that will need to be made now is Nash building chemistry with his new teammates. While it will still take some time for these guys to gel, that will happen much quicker in this offense.
On the defensive end, it is essentially a non-issue. Nash can’t guard his shadow in man. That’s not going to change. Also, the Lakers are used to having a point guard that can’t slow anyone down. The defense can just maintain the same scheme and mentality when he returns.
The important thing here is that Nash gets fully healthy and stays healthy.
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Mike D’Antoni’s L.A. Lakers Will Be More Gun, Less Run
At first glance, the Lakers‘ hiring of Mike D’Antoni doesn’t necessarily seem like the most natural fit. Yes, they have Steve Nash to orchestrate the show and they even have Dwight Howard to play the role of dominant pick-and-roll big man that can team with Nash to run his system’s most popular action.
However, the rest of the roster—even when accounting for Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol—doesn’t really offer the type of players that D’Antoni has had his most success with.
This Laker group doesn’t have the speed players of those old Suns‘ teams that ran at a breakneck pace and got defenses on their heels simply by attacking in the open court. There is no Shawn Marion or Leandro Barbosa on this team.
But even without those types of players the Lakers can still be a very good match for this system, though it will look a bit different than the prototypical D’Antoni-coached team. The Lakers won’t be seven seconds or less, but they’ll still be successful.
This will translate to them playing more of a half-court game to try and take advantage of the talent they do have on their roster. With a roster full of aging players, this will be the most common way for them to produce points from night to night.
However, even though they won’t run as often it doesn’t mean they won’t run at all. They’ll get out on the break, just not in the way we’re accustomed to seeing.
No, we won’t see many plays where the Lakers run classic three-on-twos or two-on-ones to get dunks and layups. Instead, we’ll see more semi-transition plays where good shots are generated on the delayed break:
On this play, you see Nash advancing the ball quickly, but because the defense has done a good job of getting back, there’s not a real fast break chance. So, Nash instead waits for his big man to sprint to the front of the rim and draw the defense with him to paint.
Nash then hits Kobe with a cross-court pass on the wing where he’s open for a jumper. Instead of taking the three pointer though, Kobe instead fakes the shot by elevating and then fires a pass into Gasol for the easy dunk.
Plays like this will be more common for the Lakers than ones where players run for layups and dunks on their own. Because the Lakers lack that elite speed to change ends faster than their opponents, they’ll need those types of actions to get dunks.
Again, the Lakers simply won’t have too many plays where they simply grab a rebound, outrun their opponent and get an easy basket. This isn’t to say that type of play isn’t possible, but when it does happen it will likely be because of a turnover or when their opponent makes a bad play:
Here, the Lakers force a long jump shot that misses. In the scramble for the ball, it gets tipped around and ultimately a Kings player saves it right into the hands of Kobe. Kobe then attacks on the break and ends up throwing a lob to Metta World Peace, who finishes with a dunk.
I only show this type of play because it shows the types of things that will need to go right for the Lakers to get these types of plays and to reemphasize the point that we simply can’t expect them to produce these types of fast break baskets very often.
The Lakers were very fortunate to get this type of play to work for them and while it will be a highlight people will remember, it’s not a play that can be duplicated often.
No, instead the Lakers will need to focus on more on the types of plays we saw in the first clip and that’s when they get out to run at all.
We should also understand that just because the Lakers hired D’Antoni doesn’t mean they’re suddenly going to morph in “Showtime II” and be a fast break team like they’re the Heat. Yes, they can push the ball and be opportunistic. They can even get shots at the rim in transition every now and again.
But what’s more likely is that the team will run in order to set up their half court sets where the increased tempo they play at allows them to run plays against a defense that’s not yet set and produce shots against defenders who are scrambling to catch up to the ball and recover.
This isn’t what people normally think about when the name Mike D’Antoni is mentioned but this is what the Lakers are much more likely to be.
And, due to their roster, that will suit them just fine.
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Will LeBron James Be Less Determined Next Season Now That He Has a Ring
With his landing on the cover of Sports Illustrated while in high school, no one could possibly deny that LeBron James has always had an inordinate amount of pressure on him.
But from the time he told Jim Gray and the rest of the world in July 2010 that he was taking his talents to South Beach to just before that final buzzer sounded in Game 5 of the 2012 NBA Finals, LeBron James faced more pressure to win than likely any player in NBA history.
Since joining Miami, it didn’t matter to the public in the slightest how many points LeBron scored a night or how versatile he was on the defensive end.
It was simply all about the ring.
And now that he has one, and less to prove to the public, it’s a valid question to wonder if he will be less motivated.
Flashback to LeBron’s first season in Miami: In the regular season, he averaged 26.7 points on 51.0 percent shooting, 7.5 rebounds, 7.0 assists and 1.6 steals. In a five-game series win in the opening round of the playoffs against the Philadelphia 76ers, he averaged 24.2 points and 10.6 rebounds.
LeBron followed that up with incredible performances in two more five-game series victories against the rival Boston Celtics and the No. 1 seed Chicago Bulls. Not only did LeBron average more than 25 points per game in both series, he also, after facing criticisms of not being clutch all season, came up huge down the stretch in both series-ending games.
But, as we all know, LeBron struggled in the finals against the Mavericks and the Heat lost.
All the greatness that LeBron put forth in the 94 games he appeared in during the regular season and playoffs prior to the finals meant nothing. He was absolutely crucified by the media, so much so, that he cut himself off from the rest of the world and locked himself in his bedroom after the finals.
Just think about that for a second. A guy who finished that season with a PER of 27.34, was named to the All-Defensive first team and led his team to the NBA Finals was so heavily criticized for not having a ring that he couldn’t bear to watch TV in fear of hearing his name mentioned.
Back to the present: Considering all the he had endured the past nine years and specifically in the prior two, winning that first championship meant an immeasurable amount to LeBron.
LeBron lifted the basketball world’s heaviest weight off his shoulders.
So, will that cause LeBron take a foot off the gas pedal this season?
I mean, this guy entered the 2011-12 season hungrier for a championship that any athlete in recent memory because he knew what he faced if he entered another offseason ringless. Getting that monkey off his back did silence the majority of his critics, who absolutely had to be motivating him to succeed.
Regardless, the answer is definitively no.
Before he even set foot on a court in a Heat uniform, LBJ made it very clear that he joined the Heat with the expectations of multiple championships.
LeBron knows that the NBA players recognized as the greatest of all time hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy more than once.
So, it’s no surprise he told Sports Illustrated after this year’s finals that he’s “not satisfied with one.”
And he can’t be. LeBron isn’t covered like any other athlete in professional sports, and with the Heat being the favorites to win another championship this year, even with last season’s title, he stands to face heaps of criticisms if they fall short of that goal.
But still, having already won a ring, LeBron has to enter this season more focused on winning for his legacy than silencing more of his critics.
LeBron wants to be remembered as one of the greatest to ever play. And with that as his goal and his incredible competitive nature, expect LeBron to be plenty motivated to try and bring another title to South Beach.
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J.R. Smith expects the Knicks to win a championship and ‘nothing less’
This offseason may have brought a shift in power across the NBA, but few believe that power has gone to the Knicks. In the Eastern Conference, the defending champion Miami Heat should be even more dangerous with the addition of Ray Allen and a now-confident LeBron James. In the West, the Lakers have managed to add Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. Those teams are easily your two favorites for the NBA Finals.
Coming off a disappointing 2011-2012 season in which they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs, the Knicks have bolstered their bench by signing veterans Jason Kidd and Marcus Camby. They also brought back J.R. Smith, who confidently said he is expecting “a championship” from the team this upcoming season.
“Nothing less,” Smith said according to the NY Post. “If we settle for anything less, we already start off losing.”
Kidd and Camby are big names, but it remains to be seen if they can make a difference at ages 39 and 38. Smith did acknowledge whe…
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