Basketball On The Internet.

THERE'S a massive difference between innovation, innovation for innovation's sake and gimmickry ... and sadly this time the WNBL has confused the trio as it "trials" three possible rule changes at its preseason tournament in Townsville. Justin Nelson? Sorry buddy, this time you got it wrong.

Now don't get me wrong. Nelson is a master innovator. His work with the Bulleen (then) Melbourne Boomers at their State Basketball Centre home games back in the day packed the venue and made for a truly memorable night out. It was second to none.

He's a doer, not a procrastinator. You may know the old saying - "committees take minutes and lose hours". That isn't Nelson's go. He's a full speed ahead guy who won't suffer fools gladly, or fall in with the "but we've always done it that way" brigade.

Back now with the WNBL as its Chief Operations Officer after revolutionising the New Zealand NBL - more on that shortly - he is unquestionably the mind behind the original proposal of six rule trials, mercifully reduced to three.

I say mercifully because one of the proposals, having a "designated player" allowed a sixth foul, was at best unrealistic, at worst capable of unsettling a team boasting more than one "star".

Here's the problem with two of the three new rules being trialled at the Townsville Tip-Off. They're counter productive.

On the one hand, we now will see a potential of two points awarded for one free throw. OK. On its own, it doesn't sound too crazy.

But then here's another innovation. Player Only Timeouts.

Now I ask you, when do you already REGULARLY see player only time-outs?

If your answer was during the on-court team huddles when free throws are happening, then pat yourself on the back. 

So on the one hand, we remove two free throws to only take one when it is DURING the taking of the first that player only time-outs already happen. So we're effectively removing the organic player only time-out. But hey, we also are introducing player only time-outs! Say what?

Totally and completely unnecessary tampering for no real advantage to the game.

The third rule of Immediate Inbounds (in the Backcourt), in other words no referee touching the ball, is a good one for sure. That will speed up the game, allow for exciting transition basketball and basically remind us dinosaurs that actually, yes, that once WAS the rule before some FIBA genius changed it.

The other gimmick suggestions dropped into a bin, where they belonged.

But here's the rule almost universally desired, that Nelson and his WNBL outfit overlooked.

Bringing back the jumpball.

Leave the arrow BS to under-10 and under-12 basketball, where it is productive. But by killing the jump, FIBA killed the host of strategy and tactics that went into mastering it and also of rewarding players who busted their butts to force a jump, only to have the arrow pointing for the opponent.

Nelson devised one of the singularly most creative innovations over the ditch in NZ with the advent of his Rapid Fire League.

Rapid Fire games were played before the NZ NBL matches and I rank it as among the most clever concepts to enhance and develop talent.

The rules were simple.

Rapid League is a 4 x 4-minute quarter game played before the main game.

There is a minimum 25-minute break in-between the end of Rapid League and the start of the main game.

Rapid League teams could only suit-up the (7) players named on the bench for the main game.

The starting 5 players in the main game were ineligible to play in Rapid League.

Clubs were encouraged to have an assistant coach lead the Rapid League team, but coaches in Rapid League could not call any timeouts.

Coaches could call substitutions to speak with their players, but the only other time is the one-minute breaks in-between quarters and a two-minute break at half-time.

Any overtime period consists of one-minute on the clock and starts with a jump-ball in the middle circle.

Clubs were allowed to wear different uniforms and have different sponsors to the main game, helping teams raise more revenue and attract more sponsors while also producing different uniform designs. 

Brilliant.

The WNBL could have used that idea, along with jumpballs and no backcourt inbounds officiating interference as three solid innovations.

"We want to make sure we take the fans on the journey with any innovations because they are critical to the success of the WNBL," Nelson said in a recent WNBL press release.

That's all well and good, but as that other old saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Innovation for innovation's sake is a slippery slope. Enhancing the sport? That's another matter.