10 Second count

[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by ChuckElias

I really don't understand the rationale behind doing away with it.

Just my opinion.

Chuck

Look at the theory behind the shot clock and the 5 second count. There's two reasons behind the shot clock; to encourage scoring (which is a basic principle of the game) and to reward good defense if the clock runs out. I don't believe the 5 second count really does either to anywhere the same degree. After all, the 5 second count can terminate if a player passes to a teammate further away from the basket and, without a shot clock, a team can still "hold" the ball until the end of the quarter without taking a shot. Besides, it seems incredibly inequitable to me to reward a team because one of its players happens to be standing within 6 feet of a ball handler for 5 seconds.

My suggestion is to go to a 24 second shot clock and eliminate the backcourt and closely guarded counts, totally. The game will speed up somewhat, there will be more shooting which is the basic reason for keeping score, and you still will reward team defense if they play well for a reasonable amount of time.

One thing I haven't thought through is whether eliminating the 10 second backcourt counts would have an effect on the amount of full court presses used during a game. You still will reduce the time an offense has to set up for a good shot, but the reward is not so immediate.