HoopIdea: Giving Credit for Basketball Home Runs and Strikeouts

I wanted to add some baseball-inspired ideas (in honor of opening day) to TrueHoop's interesting project to help make basketball even better. Coined "Hoopidea," they've already had lots of good ideas about improving bad teams and bad defense.

My first idea is regarding blocked shots, similar to baseball's strikeout.
"If a defensive player can block an offensive player's shot so that it does not reach the rim, his team automatically receives possession."
Current situation: While crowd-pleasing, a blocked shot is not valued very much within the game itself. It seems most guards are instructed not to try too hard to block shots, lest they draw a foul. And when a center blocks a shot, the ball merely often goes back to the player who shot it, who now gets a second chance as the center is landing. It would be, as if, a pitcher who strikes out a batter then also had to run home, grab the baseball, and throw the batter out at first for it to count as an out.

Improved situation: This gives defenders an incentive to go for ball on tight last-second plays instead of always holding back to avoid a foul. It also makes a shot-blocker much more vital to his team than before, and increases showy collisions in the paint. It makes it less valuable for, say, a Tyler Hansbrough to throw up a wild shot in the lane in hopes of getting fouled or drawing a charge.

My second idea is regarding fast-break points.
If a team can score before the other team has any players within the circle (or within the key), the basket should be worth three points.

Current situation: Despite the number of great guards in the league, we still fail to see many up-tempo teams. Running teams have had a rather tough twenty years since the Showtime Lakers. During playoffs, teams get more cautious and less likely to run. Thus we get treated to slow playoff basketball with few incentives to run or make more risky passes. Also, steals are less valuable because often a team will hold the ball rather than break for the basket. Basically, a basketball "home run" where the offense makes a hit that none of the defenders can touch should be worth more than a single.

Improved situation: The emphasis on scoring quickly helps balance out the slow-it-down offense so that teams are more willing to play hurry-up on some possessions. Deeper teams, able to run more, are also rewarded with this method. This also can make late-game possessions a little more interesting. A breakaway steal and dunk is now worth 3, not 2, so it's more rewarding to press and gamble rather than lie back in a zone.

NBA Videocast: Who can Beat Boston or Los Angeles?

I taped this two weeks ago. It's not that great, but since it's the day before vacation and your standards for content are low, I'll re-post it here. Hey, at least my shirt is kind of cool. More videos like this (ok, better than this) to come. Let me know what you think by e-mail or comment.

Pure Sports: Ballin' at the Graveyard

I already got in my Wednesday post yesterday, but here's a little something in case I can't get back to my computer this week. Check out ballinatthegraveyard.com; it's a documentary (in progress) on pickup ball at a basketball court in Albany, New York. Here are a few clips; language warning applies here. I'd love to play there sometime.

Pricing in Basketball via the Free-Agent Market

I am fascinated by who's getting overpaid in the basketball free-agent market, and who's getting underpaid. Five or ten years ago, the players being overpaid tended to be the big men: Juwan Howard, Erick Dampier, Adonal Foyle, etc. But now, young bigs like Darko Milicic and Drew Gooden are getting paid somewhat normal contracts. Eight million a year for a young starter at PF who was a former high lottery pick? Yes, nowadays those aren't bad deals. It does proves that the MAX ceiling is definitely too low; I think that if the market determined prices, we'd be looking at 24-32 million a year contract for the best players (4x the price of an average starter).

But look who's getting overpaid--Rashard Lewis? Vince Carter? The players now being overpaid are tall jump-shooting scorers with the occasional ability to go inside. The market is now over-valuing tall players who can make small-ball line-ups work. So why is this happening?

One reason for prices of big men to go down relative to jump-shooting forwards could be scarcity. Now that we can get big men from Europe, Australia, and Asia (Yao Ming, Andrew Bogut, etc.) as well as Africa (Mutombo, Bol, etc.), I think that there are more big men available than before. Thus, the prices are finally falling. However, tall jump-shooting forwards are becoming more scarce. The problem with this idea, though, is that Europe is filled with tall jump-shooting forwards.

Another reason is that small-ball has truly taken over; so instead of having a 6'9" PF and a 7'1 C in your line-up, you run out two 6'10" PF/C types instead who can run the floor. To me, I think this may be the reason. I haven't believed some of the small-ball hype in the past (none of the final four teams in the NBA playoffs played small-ball), but when it affects the way GM's spend money, then it must be true.

So what do you think? Why aren't GM's throwing money at any callow starter who stands 6'11" in his stocking feet?

AV Wednesday: Pure Sports

Every so often, I like to post videos that don't have anything to do with professional athletes. I call those videos "pure sports" as they are of competition from the D III college level on down. Here are two videos of amateur athletes in action.

The first is of Andy, a reporter for his high school, getting pulverized while trying to return a female volleyball player's spikes. Yes, I think this is funny:


The second is of a girl's basketball team in Greece. I'm not sure what the ages are, but what I did notice is that the quality of play is improving in women's basketball leagues. Some of those moves or shots I would have some trouble executing; I haven't been always able to say that in the past.