How Do We Feel About These Proposed NBA Rule Changes?

My initial take? I don’t hate it. We see these type of recommendations all the time, and frankly all three of these make sense to me on some level. This is nothing major or anything that will drastically change how the game is played, so it would be weird to me if someone were against this. Let’s look at all three one at a time

14 Second Shot Clock

I am all for whatever makes the game faster, so moving this from 24 seconds to 14 seconds on offensive rebounds seems like a no brainer. This is already how things are done in FIBA play, so it makes sense to have the NBA adjust as well. I’m sure of all the rule changes this may be one that has some detractors, but honestly who gives a shit if a team has 10 fewer seconds. They normally just take it and dribble around anyway before initiating their offense with around 14 seconds so I don’t think we’ll see that much of a difference. Instead this will give us more possessions, which everyone should be in favor of.

I’m especially excited to see this at the end of close games, where a team will no longer be able to get an offensive rebound and then just dribble out the clock. It’ll theoretically give us more thrilling endings and puts the pressure on guys to have improved mental composure in hectic scenarios. Love this rule change.

Simplification of clear path fouls

Maybe this is a personal preference, but I would love if the NBA really hit hard with this type of play. There is nothing more annoying then when a team is about to get on a fast break, and even if there is one person back, the offensive player is fouled at half court, stopping the play. Technically it’s not a clear path foul, but it’s still bullshit. They should instill some sort of penalty for that. Maybe just a tech and the ball or something along those lines. If you’ve watched any game done by Jeff Van Gundy, this may be his #1 gripe in the game today. He thinks they should get two free throws and the ball if this were to happen. In Europe/FIBA this is how it’s done, and this would be another adjustment I would have no problem with. I just find it weak as hell whenever a team does this, if you don’t want the fastbreak, don’t turn it over.

Now as to what that simplification really is, we’ll just have to see, but I am on Van Gundy’s side with this one.

Expanding what a “hostile act” is

Pretty hilarious that one of these rules would potentially help speed up the game, while this one may call for more replay, thus slowing things down. Even with an expanded definition, this is still going to be fairly subjective in my opinion. I’ll be interested to see what this new definition entails, because there’s no way they’ll be able to tell if something that was considered a gray area play now as definitely hostile. I feel like the league already does a good job with those questionable plays at the head and things of that nature, so what more could this be? If someone sets a hard screen or something? That would be kind of lame. I’ll reserve judgement on this one until we get the full details, but I would be pretty bullshit if there was a 50/50 play in a big playoff game or something and this new rule allowed them to go to replay over something minor, and the result ends up being worse than it should be. Who knows if that would actually happen, but it is something players are going to have to consider moving forward.

I’m all for making the NBA a better product on the court, and these small changes could very well do that. Really I only care about the first two because I think those will have the biggest impact, but it made me think. If you could propose a new rule change that isn’t listed here, what would it be?