Let's Get Crazy: Jeff Van Gundy Wants To Speed Up NBA Games By Eliminating Halftime And Free Throws Until The Last 4 Minutes

[Source] - “So my most radical one is to eliminate free throws until the last four minutes,” Van Gundy said. “If you get fouled on a shooting foul, you just get the points. You don’t go to the line. And you don’t go to the line for technical free throws. They’re just points. Then I would eliminate halftime. I think halftime is the biggest waste of time. Or I’d reduce it to five minutes so you could go to the bathroom and come back out. This whole idea of what goes on at halftime I think is so misunderstood. It’s a lot of either praising what just happened or correcting. But you could do that in two minutes out by the bench in an elongated timeout.

Okay, so this is an answer in response to how you'd speed the game up like baseball. The difference is, I don't think basketball needs sped up. The first answer is simple. Speed up reviews. They are becoming a waste of time at all levels. It should just be 30 seconds long. If you can't make a ruling in 30 seconds, call on the court stands. No more 3 minute reviews to add .4 seconds to the clock or to try and see if someone grazed the ball with a fingernail. That's how you speed up the game. 

As for the free throw thing? That's batshit crazy. I like Van Gundy, but automatically giving points for a foul? No thank you. Part of the game is the pressure of hitting a free throw. You have to earn the points. Plus we're talking about NBA refs here, right? You have no idea how they are going to call an individual game. You get one whistle happy and all of a sudden you're getting 40 points from fake free throws. 

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Halftime? You have my attention there. I agree that it's somewhat pointless. There aren't that many changes made or changes that can't be made in an elongated timeout. But the key is being able to rest and more importantly use the bathroom. Can't be running back to the locker room like Lamar Jackson to take a piss or even more importantly drop a halftime deuce. I can't imagine taking a halftime shit, but that seems like an important wrinkle in the way halftime currently is set up. 

I actually love the baseball pitch clock. Games were far too long. I like knowing I can get in and out of a game in like 2 and a half hours. I don't want to commit 3.5 hours or something to a game. But basketball already has all the clocks. Eliminating free throws would be so insane that I truly think we'd see the dumbass 4-point line first. Kinda hope Breen brings this up with Van Gundy and Mark Jackson just to see Jackson lose his mind. No doubt that Jackson would hate this.