In Reply to: To me, the advancing the ball thing seems artificial. posted by ej on September 14, 2023 at 09:20:35
As the people playing the game grew bigger and bigger (and more athletic), the big men were coming to dominate the game. The lanes were packed solid and the team with the dominant big guy won.
They adjusted by first widening the lane and then established the three point shot. The latter has opened up the game - and made it largely guard-dominant at least at the elite level. (More extremely athletic bigs have lately begun to balance that to some degree, anyway, depending on how agile the big really happens to be.)
But the real problem is that the people outgrew the original dimensions established for the game. A ten foot high rim was terrific in the 19th century and was okay through the first half of the 20th, but today it makes for a game of three point launches and dunks. And those are the highlight and spotlight plays of the ten o'clock news as well which further influences kids learning the game.
Arenas already exist around the current courts. Give me the magic genie and i'd widen the court by ten or so feet and elongate it by the same distance and i would raise the hoop to 12 feet and force the players to actually make shots to score. Then we could debate the 3 point shot line distance as long as we wish - or leave it where it is.
One other thing - my father's pet peeve was the five foul rule, eliminating from the game players around whom their teams were built and who the fans were coming to see play. i would actually change that to make the 5th and 6th fouls lead to foul shots AND possession of the ball and you can toss the guy with the 7th foul (just to get rid of guys who go for intentional fouls or such. (Same rules on 1 and 1s and 2 shots after so many team fouls.)
But the arenas are already built around current dimensions and that's unlikely to change (without the help of that magic genie and his lamp thing)