New York Knicks president Phil Jackson recently talked about the idea that the NBA could benefit from a 4-point line as well as a slightly longer shot clock.
Former NBA coach and current New York Knicks president Phil Jackson recently talked about the notion of professional basketball getting a few updates to how the game is played. Among them was Jackson advocating that the league add a new line for players to hit a 4-point shot.
According to an interview with Today’s Fastbreak, Jackson suggested that the line should be “about 35 feet out,” as it could help teams “catch up in what are now blowout games.” In addition, Jackson said adding six more seconds to the shot clock could help things as it would help give more time to get low-post players involved. The extra time on the clock would also lead to more ball movement and harder working defenses, in Jackson’s proposed rules change.
While the 4-pointer seems to make sense, it could also potentially cause more blowouts as well. Stephen Curry has been known to knock down a long distance shot or two, and not always right behind the three-point area. A quick five 4-point shots from a team puts the opponent in the hole by 20 points, and in need of some quick scoring as well. Nonetheless, it could make things interesting with new strategies to tie or win games in the final moments.
Some analysts are suggesting that the four-point line might be something that the league first institutes in the D-League to test it out before it ever makes its way to an NBA court near you, while the shot clock time extension will probably never happen. A slowed-down game would probably be the major drawback of adding more time to the current 24-second shot clock.
Of note, the Knicks ranked seventh in the league in terms of opponents’ three-point shot percentage this past season, while the Warriors ranked second. As long as long-distance threats like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson of Golden State exist in the NBA, it’s hard to see a new line worth another extra point not helping them run the score up even more.
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