that's a great bit of hyperbole Ouchie
The average NBA team gets 92.01 possessions per game
The average NBA team scores 98.49 points per game
That works out to 1.07 points per possession
Given this rate and 2 FTs per possession that would equate to 184.02 FTs attempted per game
Let's take a bad FT shooter - Shaq for example - who for his career shoots 52.4% from the FT line
If he stays with his career average over those 184.02 FT Attempts he will score 96.42 ppg. This is about 2 ppg less than the average ppg of "playing normal"
There would be some players out of a job with that strategy - of players averaging more than 6 ppg during this past regular season the worst FT shooter was Josh Boone @ 45.6% - the next is Shaq @ 50.3% - then you have Antoine Walker @ 53%
The next guy with an offensive impact would be Emeka Okafor at 57% - but even at that low of a percentage, if you give him 184.02 FTs he will on average score 104.89 points - which would be an increase in scoring
Emeka ranked 380 out of 436 guys who attempted a FT last year - Ben Wallace would be out of a job, but most guys we know and love would be unaffected
most teams would be able to shape a roster and actually score more
also keep in mind the logistics of how many possessions you could actually do this - if you foul out your entire bench that is 42 possessions (7*6). That leaves your starting 5 with 5 fouls each for another 25 possessions.
So after you go through you 67 possessions, then what? You are still a solid 25 possessions less than what the average game is now and the remainder would have to be played perfect
i'm glad the NBA stood firm on this one
that's a fantastic bit of analysis! i'm not being sarcastic, i found that a fun read.
that said, if you make any player, particularly a bad FT shooting player, take that many FTs in a game their arm will tire and their percentage will likely decrease considerably. particularly if they're forced to do this night in and night out. i think taking it to this extreme would make more than a few players obsolete. of course it'll never get to this point. but i wouldn't mind seeing a coach with nothing to lose go to this extent to show just how dumb a rule can be if not properly drafted to avoid extremes.
good legislation doesn't have loopholes. bad legislation results in things like tax shelters that skirt the essence of the law. if you want to keep a rule like this, look at all the possible outcomes and design it to prevent the absurd. otherwise you risk the absurd.
