“It makes no sense”: the potential new rule suggested by an All-Star!

“It makes no sense”: the potential new rule suggested by an All-Star!
“It makes no sense”: the potential new rule suggested by an All-Star!

By Joël Pütz | Sports journalist

The NBA has changed a lot over the past decade, including when it comes to rules. Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson has also proposed a new measure to be applied on the field in order to put an end to an incomprehensible situation.

It’s no secret that the NBA has given pride of place to offense for years. Beyond the democratization of outside shooting and a more frantic pace of play than ever, this is also felt in the regulations which now especially protect players in the offensive phase. Sometimes rightly so, with the cylinder rule which theoretically allows shooters to be able to fall back without being hampered by an overly sticky defender.

That being said, and although this measure was taken in response to an impressive number of injuries linked to such cases (including Kawhi Leonard in 2016-17), some stars in the league believe it should go even further. On the Knicks side, Jalen Brunson says that the rule should not only apply to jump shots, but in general to all scenarios involving a shot:

Jalen Brunson advocates for protection of attackers under the basket

I told a referee and he said, “That’s interesting, I never thought of it that way.” You know, when you’re shooting a three-pointer and someone goes underneath you, you twist your ankle, they call a foul, maybe a flagrant one. So when I go to take a layup and the ball is in the air, I also have to be able to land it safely.

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And then every time I take a layup, they’re like, “Oh, the ball’s in the air, so whatever happens after that doesn’t matter.” I tell them, “So what happens if I take a layup and the ball is in the air and someone tackles me? » That doesn’t make any sense. You protect the shooters on the court, which I understand, but it’s the same thing.

If the battle under the circle is no longer as physically tough as it was in the 90s, NBA players often remain beautiful babies and the contact can therefore be quite intense. For JB, it would therefore be a question of giving the same protection to those who go to the basket as to those who draw from afar. He takes his own case as an example:

When you get to the circle at full speed, you let go of the ball because you’re trying to go over the defender and he’s coming at you, and that’s not a foul. Last year we played OKC at home. At the end of the match, I think I equalized. We led by one point. I tried for a layup and got clipped by two guys in the air. I asked for the fault. I was told that the ball was already in the air.

Jalen Brunson hammers it, the players under the circle must be just as protected as the shooters. Except that this would also only hamper opposing defenses a little more, already having very little advantage from the changes in the regulations…

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