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The writers that cover the NBA for SI.com (Sports Illustrated) had a roundtable to discuss changes to the current rules that they would like to see instituted. Click over to take a look.
One rule that I would like to see changed put into play is a soccer-style "advantage" call. For those that are unfamiliar, this is a way to keep the flow of the game going after a foul. In soccer, the ref has the ability to decide whether to call the foul immediately, or if he judges that the team favored in the foul call has an advantage that could lead to a scoring opportunity. Think of those plays where Team A gets the ball and dumps it off to a breaking player, only for the ref to simultaneously call a loose ball foul on Team B. Team A gets penalized a scoring opportunity, only to have the ball pulled back for a throw in from Team B's side of the court. Egregious.
What rule would you like to see changed?
Hassan Whiteside got a better rating on NBA2k than Rudy Gobert. Some players care about these things. Whiteside was proud of his rating. Jazz fans were up in arms. Whiteside is getting out of control. His ego lead to a Twitter beef with Draymond Green, who cut the darling new big man down to size. From Tom Ziller's excellent morning newsetter, Good Morning, Lets Basketball:
Mandatory mention that August Downbeats suuuuuuuuck
The Clippers were recently fined $250k by the NBA for offering Deandre Jordan a very against the rules $200k endorsement deal with Lexus (It must have been with some local dealership because national endorsement deals tend to pay MUCH more, right James Harden and the $200 million you got from Adidas?).
Basically, this is considered a way to circumvent the current rules of the CBA, which is not allowed. Here's a question for you, Dunkers: What company would the Jazz illegally offer an endorsement deal to a player? Here are some ideas:
Living Scriptures
Caffeine Free Diet Coke
Any one of a dozen companies in the energy sector
Ford
Is anyone following the Summer Forecast series at ESPN.com? A couple of days ago they released their forecast for the Western Conference standings. Where did they put the Jazz? 9th. They predict a final record of 40-42, which is an improvement of just 2 wins over last season. Why so low?
Do the folks at ESPN rate Exum VERY highly and deem him that important to this team or do they rate the players low enough that they think they have topped out? That's essentially what is being said here. Would you consider this a successful season? How much improvement does this squad need to show before the Jazz FO has to reevaluate the future of the team?
Tomorrow Rudy and Les Bleus take on Tibor Pleiss and the German National Team (Germany's hoops team doesn't have a nickname, that I could find. What a shame. The soccer team is called Die Mannshaft, which is amazing).
According to our friends at Salt City Hoops, the game is at 11:15 am. Good luck to both Jazzmen!