NBA Rumors: Exploring four bold changes the NBA should embrace in an attempt to help solve their ratings issues.
It wasn't that long ago that the NBA was considered one of the rising leagues across the world. To a certain extent, it still is. Basketball, as a whole, is growing as a much more global sport. However, specifically, the NBA's ratings are down. It's at the point that the issue can no longer be ignored and, if they wanted, the league could make some adjustments to help deal with this situation.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has made no indications that he wants to make changes to help improve the product of the game because he still doesn't believe there's an issue with it. However, I'd argue that making the NBA product better isn't admitting fault or even a bad thing. Instead, it's something that will only help grow the game at a more accelerated pace. Ratings aside, let's explore four changes the NBA should be open to if they want to improve their product and league.
Shorten the regular season
If the NBA wants to add more intrigue and importance to their regular season, there's reason to believe that shortening the regular season could be a worthwhile move. If the NBA season was 60-ish games, it would make every game count that much more. The league could essentially move everything back a month and make the start of the regular season around December while still ending in June.
There has been a call for the NBA to explore shortening the season but they've yet to do it because it will likely have a huge impact in their TV deals. That's something the league would certainly have to figure out but if the league does want to make their regular season matter, shortening it could be one path toward accomplishing that.
Ease up on the hand-checking rule to allow for more physicality
If there's one thing the NBA got right about how they played the game of basketball during the 1980s and into the early 2000s, it was how physical the game was. Over the past two decades, the NBA has pretty much eliminated hand-checking on the perimeter and it has made the game less and less physical. I believe that allowing for more physicality could help make the game that much more watchable for the average fan.
One gripe when speaking with casual fans is that there are too many whistles and too many players playing on the perimeter. Easing back on the hand-checking rules could help solve the issue on both fronts. It would also make playing defense that much easier for teams on the perimeter which seems almost impossible to do at the moment.
Embrace FIBA's goaltending rule
Another rule that the NBA could consider making is eliminating the goaltending rule as they know it by adopting the FIBA's goaltending rule. This is a move that would give more incentive toward rim-protecting centers and allow for even more activity in the paint.
In the FIBA goaltending rule, players still can't interfere with the ball when it's on its downward trajectory but they can as soon as the ball touches the rim. The NBA should adopt this rule in an attempt to allow their athleticism to be on showcase even more at the rim. It would add another layer that helps make FIBA basketball unique. It's an interesting small change that could help bring some added flavor to the NBA game.
Allow player to jump from High School to the NBA
This may not be a rule change that would help the NBA product in theory, but it would certainly add another layer to evaluating the storylines across the league. The one-and-done rule needs some adjusting as the NCAA goes through its own revolution in the NIL era. At this point, allowing high school players to make the jump to the NBA without having to make a pitstop at the college level would probably help both products.
Even though there have been hints at the NBA possibly moving in the direction of the one-and-done rule, it's unknown when, or if, that will happen. The NBA just needs to rip the band-aid off as this is a move that would add much intrigue to not only the NBA Draft but also at the start of every season. Having not seen many of these highly-touted prospects aside from their high school highlights, there would be a slight ratings bump just out of pure curiosity for some of the bigger names.
The NBA may not be in "trouble" at the moment but the drop in ratings can't be ignored. There are ways the league can improve its product if they truly want to. And at the end of the day, that's ultimately what it comes down to - is the league serious about the possibility of making a change to help the product improve?