Horrible ideas… it’s not basketball.

…not reading the comments in that article if you’d like to keep your sanity.

then trying to change it.
1) Example 1: The tie. If Monson understood soccer and it’s point system (3 points for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss) he would start to realize that a tie is not a tie, in that the home team is expected most of the time to get a win (and 3 points) and thus a tie for a hometeam actually means losing 2 important points. Conversely a tie on the road is worth much more than a tie at home.
2) Example 2: Low scoring. Low scoring is what makes soccer interesting. One goal either way can totally changes the complexion of a game. Who gives a crap in basketball until the last 2 minutes if a team scores a (field) goal or not.
3) I can’t stand to watch basketball anymore. I love the game, but the modern game has been ruined by too many stoppages (every 2 minutes at least), too much control from the sidelines and too little autonomy from the players. Basketball would be much more interesting if they changed the rules to be more like soccer. Imagine basketball if you had only 3 subtitutes and no sub reentry during the game. Imagine basketball with no timeouts. Imagine basketball where the players had to improvise and adapt on the fly, and the coach only had halftime to make adjustments. I think it would be a lot more interesting (and I could actually watch an entire game in an hour instead of 3).
Basketball, Football and Baseball have all mutated from how they were played 30-40 years ago. Players just try to execute a pre-determined plan (like robots) that a coach directs. Quarterbacks don’t call their own plays, baseball has very little improvisation allowed.
4) Flopping and time wasting is not soccer, anymore than hockey has to be fighting. It’s there because of how rules are currently interpreted. You could get rid of feigned injuries very quickly. If play is stopped for an injured player, the ref could not allow the “injured” player to re-enter the field for at least 5 minutes (you could sub for him immediately).
5) Call the advantage rule more like hockey. Now a ref has to decide whether to call a foul or play advantage pretty quickly (at least they let it go longer than they did before). When there is a foul, the team fouled should get to continue to play until it loses possession at which time (if a goal is not scored) the free kick goes back to the point of the foul. Like hockey, the fouled team could throw everyone forward with no fear of being scored on. If the team that fouled, fouls again during the time of advantage it would be an automatic yellow (or red) card. If it were to player’s advantage to stay on his feet diving would be eliminated. Refs would call more fouls without having players have to go down to convince the ref to call it (look how many fouls are not called on Messi because he doesn’t go down).
6) Start calling and cracking down on grabbing, especially during free and corner kicks. Players must keep their arms at their sides, not wrapped around the attacker. This would open up the penalty area and more goals would be scored.