In an effort to prevent games from being dragged out by tedious trips to the free throw line, ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz reported that NBA has discussed eliminating every trip to the line to one shot.
Around last season’s All-Star break, preliminary chatter began among the league’s basketball operations folks and rule geeks about the prospect of reducing all trips to the free-throw line to a single foul shot. D-League president Dan Reed and Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey were the closest thing to co-sponsors of a bill. Nobody was proposing anything to be fast-tracked, but an imperative to figure out ways to shorten pro basketball games gave the idea some life as something to consider implementing in the D-League.
The concept was this: A player fouled in the act of shooting or in a penalty situation would attempt only a single free throw. If that player was shooting a 2-point shot or in a penalty situation at the time of the foul, the free throw attempt would be worth two points. If that player was fouled in the act of launching a 3-point shot, he’d go to the line for a single shot worth three points.
I don’t like this idea. I messes with the integrity of the game. Game 7 of the NBA Championship with the game on the line down by 2 and your star player is fouled on a 3-point attempt, he should have to earn every one of those 3 points by making 3 free throws.