No longer will all 30 NBA general managers be voting on rule changes. And really, why should the guys in charge of basketball operations teams be in charge of rule changes? That makes sense.
Under the direction of David Stern, the NBA has put together a smaller committee made up of owners, GMs and coaches that will streamline the process, come up with recommendations then bring them to the owners for a vote. To hear Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News tell it, Stern did this to get a smaller committee of his people he could control in place, as opposed to the independent minded GMs who were making the decisions before.
So what is this new group going to attack?
Stern’s new committee is expected to work on two major rules changes right away: Adopting the international rule for goaltending, meaning that balls could be legally knocked off the rim or backboard that now would result in a basket; and penalizing “floppers….”
As for flopping, Stern recently came out strongly against the tactic, after the league fined Indiana coach Frank Vogel $15,000 for saying before the Miami-Indiana series that the Heat is the “biggest flopping team in the NBA.”
Flopping and calling guys on flopping has become a big issue these playoffs. The common perception is that European players do this the most, but I dare anyone saying that to watch the Los Angeles Clippers — with American born Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Reggie Evans — and say that is the case. The question becomes how to do this without asking the referees to now judge the intent of the players, which has its own risks.
Stern has been big on the internatonal goaltending rule for a while — once the ball hits the rim it is far game to be knocked off or tipped in, there is no “over the cylinder” rule. If a shot goes up and bounces off the rim you can just grab the ball right off it. Some players (and GMs) have been hesitant to do that in the NBA because imagine if Andrew Bynum, Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee and other big men get practiced at this? The rule would certainly clear up what can be a gray area call at times, but at what cost?
However, Stern has wanted it for years, so…
By the way, here is the makeup of the new competition committee. Decide for yourself how under the thumb of Stern it will be.
The members are: owners Dan Gilbert (Cleveland) and Joe Lacob (Golden State); GMs Bryan Colangelo (Toronto), Mitch Kupchak (Lakers), Kevin O’Connor (Utah) and Sam Presti (Oklahoma City); and coaches Rick Carlisle (Dallas), Lionel Hollins (Memphis) and Doc Rivers (Boston).
