NBA commissioner Adam Silver has always maintained that he is open to discussing potential changes, even radical ones. Silver cares about tradition, and he hasn’t spent the last 10-plus years implementing weird gimmicks, but dating back to his first Board of Governors meeting on the job, he has wanted the league to be able to adapt when necessary.
“You could tell right away that it was going to be different than any meeting we had before,” an owner told Lee Jenkins, then of Sports Illustrated, in 2014. “More open, more inclusive, more collaborative. Any idea that came up, he said, ‘I want to take a fresh look at it. I want to take a fresh look at everything.'”
With that in mind, when Silver appeared on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Wednesday, Patrick asked him to share the wildest idea that the NBA has considered.
“One that’s only been discussed a little — I wouldn’t put it necessarily in the category of being so wild — is potentially two free throws for a foul on a 3-point shot,” Silver said. “I don’t necessarily think I would do it in the last two minutes of a game, but I think that’s something interesting.”
Hmm. A rule change like this would benefit aggressive perimeter defenders. Ball pressure and physicality are already trending upward, and this would lessen the penalty for what is now the worst outcome of that pressure and physicality. I’m not sure this is necessary, and if this were implemented, it wouldn’t be particularly consequential. According to pbpstats.com, there have been 610 3-point shooting fouls in 1376 games leaguewide this season, which means the average game features 0.44 of them.
Silver is definitely right to suggest that this wouldn’t make sense in the last two minutes of the game. If you think it’s annoying now when teams foul up three late in a game, imagine what would happen if teams were incentivized in certain situations to foul 3-point shooters on the shot.
A second wild idea, Silver told Patrick, is changing the length of a quarter from 12 minutes to 10 minutes. Silver described himself as “a fan” of this, but said that he was “probably in a minority” on it.
“As we get more involved in global basketball, the NBA is the only league that plays 48 minutes,” he said. “And I am a fan of four 10-minute quarters. I’m not sure that many others are. I mean, putting aside what it means for records and things like that, I think that a two-hour format for a game is more consistent with modern television habits.”
Silver clarified that “people in arenas aren’t asking us to shorten the game,” but the change would likely be welcomed by at-home viewers. He referenced that Olympic basketball games and college basketball games are generally about two hours long. The same is true of WNBA games. Over time, he said, he would like to help create “a more consistent set of rules globally around the game.” In theory, the NBA moving to a 40-minute format could be a part of that.
“Incidentally, if you went to a 40-minute game, with the minutes around load management and resting, it would be the equivalent of — I don’t know the exact math — taking like 15 games off the season,” Silver said. “And I don’t think most fans would be disappointed if it was a two-hour presentation instead of a — our game is actually about two hours and 15 minutes now.”
Just for the sake of accuracy: Making every game eight minutes shorter would be the equivalent of cutting 13.7 games from every team’s schedule in terms of total minutes played. I doubt that would have the same positive effect on player health as actually removing 13 or 14 games and spacing the schedule out more, but I’m not a sports scientist. (Also, particularly in high-stakes games, who’s to say teams would collectively cut their star players’ minutes by about 17% just because the games are about 17% shorter? Maybe Tyrese Maxey would still average around 38 minutes and just get much less in-game rest than he does now.)
Personally, I like that the league has discussed this particular change, but that’s admittedly because I watch a ton of games and this would make it more efficient. If you love the idea, though, don’t get too excited. Silver was careful not to imply that it’s about to become a reality.
“It’s such a dramatic change to the game,” Silver said. “I think something like that would have to be talked about over time.”
Silver also addressed the notion that players are taking too many 3s these days. His comments on this subject have varied recently: In December, he said that he didn’t think the 3-point line needed to be moved back and he wasn’t sure that the sheer volume of 3-pointers was a problem; earlier this month, he said many of the same things, but added that “we will tweak it” and “we will correct those issues.” When Patrick suggested — not entirely seriously — that the league simply remove the 3-point line during the NBA Cup, Silver pointed to the “incredible” skill level of today’s players and didn’t exactly take a position on whether or not they are taking too many 3s.
“Is there too much 3-point shooting in certain situations? Maybe,” Silver said. “But I also don’t want to overreact to what we’re seeing in the game. Because the game goes through transitions. I think the game is incredible right now, day in and day out. I think some of the criticism is a bit unfair. And that goes back to my earlier point: that the league needs to do a better job teaching about the game so that there’s real appreciation for what people are seeing out there. And again, ratings are fine. We have enormous global interest. People like what they’re seeing right now on the floor. So I don’t necessarily buy into the premise that it’ll be a better game if you eliminated 3-point shooting.”
