The NBA reportedly is exploring the possibility of expanding the dimensions of the basketball court to accommodate the growing size and increased athleticism of players.

NBA president of basketball operations Rod Thorn and vice president Kiki VanDeWeghe also acknowledged in an interview with ESPN.com that the league office had informally weighed the possibility of introducing a four-point shot.

Thorn and VanDeWeghe, in an interview during the All-Star break, spoke of the concepts mostly from a hypothetical standpoint but conceded that both ideas have been presented for discussion at a league level.

The NBA has employed a 94-by-50-foot court since the 1940s.

“Making the court bigger - it's an interesting idea and we've actually looked at it,” said VanDeWeghe, a former NBA All-Star player and head coach.

“We keep a list of ideas on what we should do and how we can make the game better, of course. But arenas are obviously built in a certain way and that would take a lot of adjusting to actually make the court bigger.”

Thorn brought up another thorny issue.

“Those seats that are very close to the court are obviously very expensive seats to start out with. And most of them come right up to the floor,” said Thorn, a longtime former NBA general manager.

“You could probably extend it lengthwise easier than you can sideways. So there are a lot of things you have to look at there.”

The NBA adopted the three-point shot from the old American Basketball Association starting in the 1979-80 season.

As for the prospect of a four-point shot, Thorn said that, too, was “something that's come up” as an informal proposal.

Copyright © 2014 Chicago Tribune Company, LLC
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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

The NBA ought to accommodate the dearth of good players by contracting before they accommodate anything else. This lack of competitiveness is pathetic. Everyone is waiting for the second round of the playoffs. Well, at least I am.

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They will relocate but never contract. They can relocate a team and by 7-10 years of teams for the chosen wang whippers to beat up on.

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10 Pt shot in the Rock and Jock games?

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Zero chance of contraction, especially with revenues being at basically an all time high from what I've heard since the new CBA was assigned. I do agree though, it would be great to see 4 teams contracted.

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How far would they make it?? Maybe like 28 feet and 26 from the corners? I don't know that seems silly to me

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"If you're not first you're last"

Yup, don't get me wrong - I know it probably won't happen, but it'd sure be nice if it did. A redistribution of talent is exactly what the league needs to inject some competitiveness into this sorry product. Can't wait for the second round when pathetic franchises like NYK, Toronto, Milwaukee, etc., are all far away from live television cameras.

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Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

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The Vancouver and Charlotte mk2 expansions never should have happened. Yeah, it sucked when the Hornets moved away, and the Memphis Grizzlies turned out to be a pleasant surprise (after like ten years), but they should have added Toronto, capped it at four divisions of seven, and been done with it.

7x4 would have been perfect for the NHL, too, for that matter, and yet they're talking about adding another two teams. And they'll probably be Seattle and Las Vegas, just to really fuck Canada in the mouth.

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I like the idea of a bigger court. The 4 point shot is just retarded.

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I don't know about the NHL, but in basketball I simply don't think there are enough insanely talented players to populate a 30+ team league. This is different in the NFL where I don't think too many teams will hurt you because football is easier to master at a professional level than basketball (at the NBA level), so you may not be lacking for talent if, say, the NFL expanded even more. But in basketball you water down an already thin talent pool. The result is the comical talent disparity we see from team to team on a daily basis.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

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if youre going to make it bigger, it has to be wider more then it needs to be longer. a guy on the side can barely fit his feet behind the 3point line without going out of bounds. teams rarely use the space near half court.

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I wouldn't say the NHL talent pool is as diluted as the NBA's. I mean, what could be?

The problem facing the NHL is that in spite of terrific international growth, the KHL has done quite a bit of expanding itself. As a result, decidedly talented but non-elite European players stay home and have their job positions filled by North American players who may be less talented, but are more willing to play in the NHL, often for less money. That's the other side of it, the money: I have my suspicions that the NHL is perfectly happy to have Alex Ovechkin but not Alex Radulov, the Sedins but not the Kostitsyns, Tuukka Rask but not Cristobal Huet. Europeans are expensive, moody, and harder to market, so if you can just have the best of the best as novelties and leave the pretty good ones home, so much the better. The NHL could support 30 or 32 teams if we were absolutely assured that the rosters were filled with the world's best players. As long as a considerable number of players decline to play in the league, we can't be assured of that. (EDIT: the 30 or 32 teams would also have to be placed in 30 or 32 markets that can financially support the NHL, something the league has never wanted as part of its business plan.)

I don't think this is a problem the NBA has on any large scale. Maybe a few guys at the far end of the bench say "fuck it" and go back to Greece or Serbia, but I can't think of many solid rotation players who have defected right in the thick of things.

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Instead of expanding the court, why not let them just play in the stands. I'm sure Bob & Marilyn from Downer's Grove would be just giddy to see LeBron flop a foot away from them.

Bottom line, they're not going to knock out the row of the most expensive seats. Again, we go through this every year with the NHL, too. "Make the ice wider!", as if adding another 15 feet of ice is something every arena can easily do, and as if 200'x100' ice will actually make the game better (it makes it worse). It's not quite the same in most NBA arenas, because there's enough space on the floor to add a few feet, but there are a few buildings where it might be a tight fit because the arenas were designed as basketball-first rather than hockey-first. San Antonio and Indiana come to mind.

As for four-pointers, I suppose you could give four points for a shot behind the center line, but why? Why would I want to watch guys desperately jack shots from that far down the court for anything but a buzzer-beater?

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It would actually be a must-watch for any game Stephen Jackson and JR Smith play in.

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Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

could give new life to Antoine Walker

Jeff Van Gundy suggested they should widen the court so that they take away the corner three which is shorter than the shots near the top of the circle.

The problem with the NBA is not the lack of talent, but the lack of available superstars. LeBron, Wade and Bosh tipped the scales in the East. What I mean by teaming up in the East they also made the Cavs and the Raptors lottery teams. Not that the Raptors were very good after the Vince Carter years, but the reality is that when stars team up that makes other teams worse.

The NBA has limited options for teams to get better. The Bulls sold out for years after Jordan left, but they couldn't get anyone in free agency. The fact that Dwight Howard and the other superstars don't want to play in Chicago means that the Bulls cannot improve their situation without drafting better players. You can't get better players without better picks and you can't get better without trades or losing.

If anything the NBA should have rules about superstars and how many can be on a team. They have to make rules so that teams can be more competitive. What about a rule that teams under .500 can offer free agents 20 percent more money (salary-cap free) than teams over .500? Or what if an over .500 team must pay 20 percent more on the salary cap if they sign a player to a max deal?

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The corner three also requires you to squeeze into a tight space where one misstep puts you out of bounds and forfeits possession. That's probably why it's worth the extra point more so than the distance, especially with players being bigger such that we're even talking about expanding the field of play.

I wouldn't make the NBA's salary cap any more complicated than the accountant-porn it already is.

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Huh? Isn't that kinda the same thing ?




Wow what genius analysis there. Take a superstar away from a team and they get worse. The Raptors are #3 in the East right now btw



holy shit you're a fucking idiot

they need to expand the court width wise, no doubt. This will never happen but the NBA would be much more wide open and entertaining if they went to 4-4.

I kinda like the bad teams can pay more money for top tier free agents. Why not? They already reward bad teams with draft position...

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

There are enough superstars in the NBA. It's just that the good players have chosen to only play for winning teams.

The Raptors are benefiting from one of the worst Eastern Conferences in recent history this season. They would not be a playoff team in the Western Conference. The past 3 years prior to this one the Raptors were terrible. The fact that they are doing better this season doesn't change the fact that they were bad when Bosh left.

The NFL has a franchise tag. The fact that a good player is drafted by a bad team and then wants to go to a good team is bad for the league. The NBA has to have competitive balance if they want to have a league worth watching. It is predominantly driven by stars and keeping stars out of small markets makes the league in many cases unwatchable. The NBA is completely different from all the others sports because it has fewer roster spots and stars make a bigger difference than any other sport.

_________________
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

is this like some kind of sequential vortex ?

sorry Mini. Better drop this line of thinking.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

so wait. the Raptors were good, but then Bosh left and they sucked. But you just said the good players have chosen to only play for winning teams. The Raptors were a winning team. why did he leave then. you say there's enough superstars . but then you say its one of the worse eastern conferences in recent history. do you think if there were more SUPERSTARS IN THE EAST IT WOULDN'T BE SO FUCKING BAD

i can't believe i'm conversing with mini ditka . fuck my life

Bagels you just don't get it. The way it works in the nba is the more you win, the less likely you are to pile up losses, according to modern statistics. Since superstars tend to be better than players who are not superstars, the teams they're on are more likely to win games against teams that don't have superstars, so as long as they score more points than the other team gives up. As long as the bulls continue to fail to score more points, the less likely they are to win games decided by who can score more points.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Going with 4 on 4 would seem to solve both problems: the need for a bigger court, and the talent dilution across the league. But I'm not sure about the latter. If you dropped the 5th-best player from each team, would that make the Heat relatively stronger?

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I'm not too concerned about dynasties. I'm more concerned with entertaining basketball.

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Ба́бушка гада́ла, да на́двое сказа́ла—то ли до́ждик, то ли снег, то ли бу́дет, то ли нет.

If memory serves, those were the 25 and 50 point shots...

...I think the 10 pt shots were just spots on the court behind the 3 point line.