Paul Pierce continues his blogging for Boston.com with a piece today on what he'd do if he ran the NBA... and the world. In addition to dumping the age limit... here's what he'd change about the L:
- Shorten the season to 60 games: Every year somebody gets hurt. That's a combination of wear and tear in preseason games and regular season games.
- Raise the rim 3 inches: The athletes today are crazy. You see the way guys are jumping these days. I would raise the rim 3 inches. Then, you have to learn the art of the jump shot. You'll have to know how to play this game a little bit better then. Raising the rim, you'll see increasing play. You'll see increasing fundamentals. I'm telling you.
Since we all know that there's no way advertisers would allow 22 games to be cut from the season... let's focus on the "raise the rim" argument... which is interesting. How do you do it without destroying an entire year's worth of shooting (or more)? Do you do it incrementally, like a half inch per year? Or do you just do it and let everyone get used to it? And did Paul check with a shooter like Ray Allen before coming up with this?
Personally, I'm a big advocate of widening the court. I feel like now, more than ever, we're seeing guys step out of bounds on the sidelines. It's crowded out there. And the court dimensions were laid out where everyone was much smaller... both in height and in mass. Look at the size of everyone. Almost everyone out there looks like a freakin' bodybuilder. Even Pierce, who isn't winning any pose-downs, is a wide-shouldered 6'7", 235 wing player. That's a big dude right there. Widen the court and let these guys have a little more room to maneuver before you go hiking the rim up at all.
By the way... follow the link to find out what Pierce would do if he ruled the world (very cool thing for our troops) and what he'd change about himself.
Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images