The league had a competition committee, looking for ways to increase scoring. They made a number of changes in the rules designed to increase game scores. What you see today is a direct result of that effort.
If we played all the games on the moon the reduced gravity would lead to more dunking and reduce injuries.
And we could just let guys like Harden & Westbrook float out into space to never play ball again!!!!!!
There still is illegal defense. It's just called defensive 3. Also, teams rarely run a zone or press because it just doesn't really work at the NBA level.
I liked the old days when a foul was a real body punch or an obvious situation. The worst was the ticky tack foul era of the early millennium when Rasheed was called of for being on the court.
Fair enough, but they reworded the rule in 2009. They’re still awfully lenient with it in my opinion...
Link or it didn't happen. I've never heard of this ever. Edit: Nvm... I remember. They just fixed some wording. The rule didn't change.
No one runs pure zone, but things like having a big sit back to corral pick and rolls, or refusing to guard a non-shooter on the perimeter to operate as a floating defender and other forms of unconnected defenders are how defensive schemes incorporate zone concepts now that they couldn't do before when you had to be within three feet of an offensive player and you could only double-team on the ball (which is what I meant by "illegal defense"--defensive three-second is a separate violation in which you can't spend more than three seconds in the paint without actively guarding an opposing player).
