# Rearranging NBA teams **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** basketball-nba\ **Created:** [March 31, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023 "2022-03-31T01:37:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/21 "2022-04-02T03:06:49Z")
Just idly pondering numbers: 12 players per team, 30 teams in the league, assuming every team has both a starter and a backup center, that’s 5 teams worth of centers. EDIT: A couple thoughts came to mind: When facing a center team, I guess just foul them every possession? Centers can’t shoot free throws for shit so that would be almost as good as a steal. Though I think you get ejected after 4 or 5 fouls so you couldn’t intentionally foul _every_ possession. You could, however, _aggressively_ try to steal nonstop all game, and then when you did get called, too bad, so sad, good luck shooting! Also, the hockey version, where teams are divided by point scorers. My money’s on the lowest scoring division because they’d be the only teams with goalies. ---
**Author:** ![Roger\_That](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roger_that/32/8505_2.png) [@Roger\_That](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_That)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/22 "2022-04-02T08:15:36Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > the two extreme divisions (the very shortest, and the very tallest) would be the ones which would be least successful in the long run. I agree. But I’d pay a lot of money to watch them compete against each other. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/23 "2022-04-02T14:38:38Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Just idly pondering numbers: 12 players per team, 30 teams in the league, assuming every team has both a starter and a backup center, that’s 5 teams worth of centers. To be fair, there are probably at least a couple of non-centers who would end up in that super-tall division. The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo is listed at 6’11", and is also listed as playing power forward. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2022, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/24 "2022-04-02T16:09:54Z")
If I Google ‘Who is the starting center for the Milwaukee Bucks?’ Google says Giannis Antetokounmpo. Regardless of the official position designations, it all comes down to who is your team’s ‘big man’ and who backs him up. Those two guys are moving to the tallest division. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/25 "2022-04-06T18:06:44Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > EDIT: A couple thoughts came to mind: When facing a center team, I guess just foul them every possession? Centers can’t shoot free throws for shit so that would be almost as good as a steal. Though I think you get ejected after 4 or 5 fouls so you couldn’t intentionally foul _every_ possession. You could, however, _aggressively_ try to steal nonstop all game, and then when you did get called, too bad, so sad, good luck shooting! Sixth foul and you’re out. The problem with this theory, though, is that it obviously won’t work. Centers tend to be much worse foul shooters than other positions, **but they are still good enough that this strategy will murder you.** The average NBA center shoots about .710 from the charity stripe. Handing people a .710 shot is a recipe for losing every game by forty points. Shaq was famous for being bad at free throws and even he shot .527, which was 1. bad by comparison to the league average, and 2. below his normal shooting percentage, but “Hack A Shaq” still didn’t work, because cutting Shaq to .527 from his usual .582 (the 10th highest of all time) wasn’t worth piling up so many fouls you were running out of guys late in the game. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/26 "2022-04-06T18:14:41Z")
Good info, thanks. That surprises me that even the bad shooters are that good. If you had asked me to guess Shaq’s free throw percentage I would have guessed high 30s. Yeah okay, so the ‘aggressively steal all game’ game plan wouldn’t work so hot. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2022, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023/27 "2022-04-06T18:21:16Z")
Wilt Chamberlain is another big man who, despite being athletic and a generally all-around amazing athlete, was terrible at free throws, to the point that, when he was in college, he toyed with shooting them as slam dunks, as he was capable of leaping to the basket from the free throw line from a standing start. However, it appears that he only did this once in a game (a public scrimmage, at that), and the tactic was eventually banned anyway. But, even Wilt had a .511 free throw success rate, compared to his .540 field goal rate. (Early in his career, he also regularly averaged a dozen or more free throw attempts per game, as teams were clearly trying the ur-Hack-a-Shaq approach.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rearranging-nba-teams/962023.md?page=1)