More NBA traveling...

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.