More NBA traveling...

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by mcuban

Im back

The question really is a 2 parter

1. How can you change mechanics to catch travelling

or

2. How can you simplify the rules so that some of the nuanced travels are no longer travels. Do we make it 3 steps ? And why not ?

Across the board we are going to be looking for ways to make the life of an official easier. How can we simplify the rules and remove some of the more difficult calls.

As has been said here before, players will adjust.

I think we make the game too hard for the officials

Anyone have ideas on how we can simplify the rules ?

Simple, officials need to get full support for calling those travels that everyone says are not "obvious" or are just "technically traveling", to include telling coaches they can't complain about travel calls that are made.

Originally Posted by mcuban

Im back

The question really is a 2 parter

1. How can you change mechanics to catch travelling

or

2. How can you simplify the rules so that some of the nuanced travels are no longer travels. Do we make it 3 steps ? And why not ?

Across the board we are going to be looking for ways to make the life of an official easier. How can we simplify the rules and remove some of the more difficult calls.

As has been said here before, players will adjust.

I think we make the game too hard for the officials

Anyone have ideas on how we can simplify the rules ?

Officiating is as much rules knowledge and judgement as it is knowing where to look when. Even with a 1 on 1 matchup you have to referee feet, body, and arms at the same time. Sometimes you have to split your attention or pay more attention to one area which allows stuff to fall through the cracks. Imo traveling gets the short straw when it comes to reffing the contact versus reffing the feet, and rightly so.

I think the way traveling is officiated is a problem. I only see maybe one obvious travel per game (out of 180ish possessions in an NBA game) that goes uncalled. I could care less about the less obvious, "technical" ones, but it's not like the refs are missing those on purpose -- they have more important stuff to look at.

Edit: I went back and looked at the Jimmy Butler play in the OP. Lead could have seen it, but he was probably watching the defenders. Slot couldn't see the feet through the backs of three players, and Trail (who probably would have picked this up had he stayed at FTLE) bailed early following the rotation. I'd chock this one up to bad positioning by the Trail. How do you fix this? Either get refs who are better at positioning or add more eyes on the floor.

[Pantherdreams]

Originally Posted by mcuban

Im back

The question really is a 2 parter

1. How can you change mechanics to catch travelling

or

2. How can you simplify the rules so that some of the nuanced travels are no longer travels. Do we make it 3 steps ? And why not ?

Across the board we are going to be looking for ways to make the life of an official easier. How can we simplify the rules and remove some of the more difficult calls.

As has been said here before, players will adjust.

I think we make the game too hard for the officials

Anyone have ideas on how we can simplify the rules ?

If you want things to be simpler for officials or simplify the rules there are easy ways to do that.

1) You write your rules with clear and easily identifiable markers for being in our outside the rules.

ie. The NCAA moved to and then away from "upward motion" vs leaving the floor on block/charge situations because "upward motion" was too difficult to determine or judge at the speeds of plays. So examine what humans can and can't see to write your rules to match ability. Some have suggested increasing court size would increase sight lines. Simplifying rules language to automatics and look fors does the same thing. THe automatic contact rules now mean officials have more time/attention to spend on footwork because after the first touch they don't have to judge the 2nd.

In terms of travelling maybe you say the ball has to be on the way to the floor or have hit the floor before the back foot comes out to make that easier to judge. Or eliminate words like simultaneous from jump stop rules so officials. Even saying once a player gets both feet down either can be their pivot foot means less look fors. I'm not saying any of these are good ideas just makes things simpler.

2) Make the measure of good officiating more to do with consistency of correct calls vs avoiding ball calls. The mentality of call it only if you are sure encourages letting go or missing of calls by officials in the same of fairness and good judgement. Where as if you called a call a specific way in a specific situations and 98% of the time you are validated, 2% you got wrong. Then you would have a call that was being made 100% of the time the same way rarely inaccurately and teams/players would adjust. KNowing the call is coming and is being called consistently makes the game just as "fair" but without the confusion over what is and isn't being called. Not what is currently taught but again simpler you just have to live with mis-calls vs MIssed Calls.