I'll make this short and sweet:
- No more 'Chauncey Billups fouls': I am being slightly hypocritical here, as Luis Scola, Kyle Lowry, and Von Wafer did this multiple times in the playoffs, but Billups has always been the primary perpetrator. In calling Chauncey out, I am referring to the foul call that occurs when a player shot-fakes, causes the defender to go up into the air, and then jumps forward with no intention of actually shooting, but rather with the intention of drawing contact. Sasha Vujacic drew a foul against Wafer after Von jumped into him on the sideline. It was a horrible call (but I still cheered for it, of course). What the NBA needs to do is this: 1. Call the foul on the defender only if the player on offense jumps straight up like he is trying to shoot. Otherwise, if the shooter jumps forward in any way, where it is clear his only purpose for doing so is to draw contact, then 2. Call an offensive foul. Consider this the closest the NBA will come to penalizing "flopping."
- Something needs to be done about "blocking" fouls: This happened last night, when LeBron James tripped and knocked over Mikael Pietrus in the process, but drew a foul and sent the game into overtime. At some point, the NBA will need to address the term "blocking foul." How much contact does it take to "impede progress?" It's a shame that the premier basketball league in the world has suddenly become a ballet. The minute a player falls to the ground after any sort of contact, a whistle is blown. Then, to appease the crowd, if a player is completely leveled thereafter, the referees let the game continue. It's become all too common. I don't have any specific ideas. Perhaps you folks do?
- There needs to be a defined rule for what you can and can not do to front the post: I have never seen a more varied exchange of whistles than what I saw in the Portland/Houston series. On some nights, the referees would let Joel Przybilla absolutely maul Yao Ming. On others, he would be called for the slightest amount of contact. The NBA needs to do something similar to what the NFL does. Offensive lineman can only do so much to hold off a pass-rusher, and there is a defined rule for what they can and can not do with their hands. The same thing needs to be applied to post play in the NBA.
However, I really don't expect much of this, if any, to be changed at all.
I'm going out of town soon, but it's not like I'll be missing anything. This has been quite the boring offseason thus far for the Rockets.