re: #167 Feline Fearless Leader

If you really wanted to drop scoring in basketball you could do two things:
1. Allow all defenses including zones
2. Go back to the high-school and rule book definitions of traveling, double-dribble, and carry - and enforce it that way. None of this 3-steps in order to make a jam crap.

The real major difference between the sports beyond the surface played on is that one has a dedicated goal tender.

Some fair points there.. But these are pro’s we talk of..Not high school kids or rules..These are men and the very best in the world..They play with men’s rules.
Now..For quite a few years now the Pro’s can play a legal zone defense..You see it sometimes..Young folks use a zone and it is great when you are playing tree toppers. It prevents the advantage under the basket.
So these guys are pros. The big men can kill you at 18-20 ft. When Durent at 6’10” Shoots lights out from downtown.. You as a couch are screaming at your big guy to get his fatass out there and guard him.. Big guards like Kobe force your wing guys to get up on him..And a pick and roll will kill a defense. ( see: Stocken and Malone )
So really you need to guard your man and collapse when you can to a zone like defense..And the complexity of rotations are really simple.. When a man commits to guard the guy with the ball.. He leaves a space on the floor..You rotate a man to cover his area but that leaves a man open..
That man being covered is the weakside rotation responsibility. Idealy it is under the basket but just as well be a wide open man in the corner.. Now you understand how a weakside can be under a basket which is, by defination a strong side..It’s the freaking basket.
That’s why zones are limited in the pro’s.