5 rule changes that Detroit Pistons fans would like to see happen

The NBA season is on hiatus until further notice, so we asked Detroit Pistons fans what new rules they’d like to see in the NBA.

With the NBA season currently under suspension, it goes without say that the league officials have their hands full trying to come up with ways to overcome this unprecedented obstacle. We may not see the Detroit Pistons play again this year.

While focusing on finding a way to allow the 2019-2020 season to resume will undoubtedly be the top priority, this time off also gives the league time to consider other rule changes.

We took to Twitter to ask our followers what rules they’d like to see implemented in today’s NBA. Let’s start with the most realistic one.

Rule #1: Restructured season schedule

None of our followers suggested this one, but it could certainly be a likely possibility. Fans and experts have been speculating ever since the COVID-19 pandemic began that the virus could potentially force the league into a new schedule.

This new schedule could have games beginning as late as December, and have the Finals go well into August. This would (for the most part) allow the NFL to dominate the fall, and give fans more to watch in the summer, where currently the MLB owns July-September.

There have been rumblings of a newly structured schedule all season, but they were just that, rumblings.

The NBA’s calendar year could be so severely impacted by this suspension that they’re forced into completely changing their setup. Not just the actual games, but the draft, free agency, summer league, and everything else would need to be re-dated.

Rule #2 A slight tweak to assists

This was our first suggestion, and it’s long been a rule change that fans want to see.

If a player passes to someone who then draws a foul, if the player makes both of their free throws, it should count as an assist for the player who made the initial pass.

This would’t do much to improve the actual game itself, but it’d certainly improve player’s individual number across the board.

Rule #3 Offensive foul if the shooter initiates contact

This is already sort of a thing in the NBA, but it’s not enforced at all. One of the more frustrating plays in basketball at any level is when a shooter pump fakes, gets the defender to jump, and then launches themselves into the defender and pretends that the contact was initiated by the defender.

“Just don’t leave your feet if you’re the defender” is what you’ll often hear as a defense for that but it’s just incredibly frustrating.

Jeff suggests here that it should be an offensive foul. Although in the moment with how annoying it can be, it certainly feels like the offensive player should be punished for it, we shouldn’t go quite that far.

If anything, maybe we just stop bailing out the ball handler with a whistle. Just make the play a no-call. They often resort to this when they’ve found themselves in a bad situation, and it’s just flat out annoying.

There’s a difference between a shooter doing a good job of drawing contact and blatantly leaping into the defenders chest in order to create to appearance of contact.

Hopefully officials will be able to police this better down the line.

Rule #4 One foul added when going into overtime

On a personal level, I’ve been a longstanding advocate of this rule change.

The first game that comes to mind was on February 27, 2016 when Golden State played the Oklahoma City Thunder. If this doesn’t ring any bells yet, it was the game where Stephen Curry hit one of the most unbelievable game-winners in the history of basketball.

By all accounts this game was amazing, and was one of the best of that entire season. The Warriors were chasing a 73-9 record and a Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook led team was giving them trouble.

After a miraculous effort by Golden State, they manage to push the game to overtime where just around 60 seconds in, Durant commits his sixth foul and is now out of the game.

This takes one of the leagues top players out of one of its top games. It’s frustrating and takes away from the overall product. It’s pretty easy to think that had he been able to continue playing, events unfold in different ways and maybe Curry doesn’t get to attempt that shot.

Rule #5 The four-point line

This is probably one of the more divisive topics in basketball when it comes to rule changes. Adding a four-point line is something that was embraced by Ice Cube’s Big3 league, and it’s worked out for them.

As we continue to see the range of NBA players increase on a yearly basis, it’s not outside the realm of possibility to think that they could reward players for that by giving them a chance to score more points.

How far out it would be, and if it would arc like the three-point line does remains to be seen. If the NBA was to ever consider something like this, it’d almost certainly be tested in the G-League first.

At the end of the day, it may just be a matter of time.