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We have a diverse set of HoopIdeas in this week's Five for Friday, including a gem mined from a March 1958 issue of Sports Illustrated. But though the topics vary, all the HoopIdeas featured this week have a common goal: to speed the game up and make it more free-flowing.

Be sure to send us your own HoopIdeas using the ways detailed below!

TWEAK INTENTIONAL FOUL RULES
Intentional off-the-ball bonus fouls are penalized by two free throws to be shot by a player chosen by the shooting team that is on the floor at the time of the foul. Any player with the ball in his hands is at risk to be fouled and sent to the free throw line. But hugging a bad free throw shooter at half court is bush league and should be dealt with by the rulebook. -- Andrew M. Grimsrud

1958 HOOPIDEA: BASKETBALL PENALTY BOX
Seeking to curb what he called "a long parade back and forth between one free-throw line and the other," Colorado State University AD Fritz Brennecke convinced CSU's head coach, John Bunn, to try playing with a penalty box instead. Read the full story at Sports Illustrated (via Ron Bronson)

OVERTIME PERIOD IS FIRST TO 11
Turn off the game clock, but leave on the 24-second shot clock. Each team gets two timeouts. On all non-shooting fouls, the team that is fouled gets the option of shooting free throws or inbounding the ball (to prevent hack-a-thons).

With this format, the object of overtime is to maximize each possession, as either team can win in as little as four trips up the court. Imagine the tension every posession, as a bevy of strategic questions come into play.

Do you go for three early in O.T. to build momentum? With no clock, when does it make sense to use your timeouts? Imagine if you are a point guard bringing the ball up with your team down 10-8. Do you play it safe and go for two or pull up for a game-winning 3? -- Tolu Thomas on Google +

STRICTER DELAY OF GAME RULES
New Rule: after a team scores they can't touch the ball. No throwing it to a ref or kicking it to stop the other teams transition. -- Asad (@AsadVIDEO) via Twitter

NO CHARGES WITHOUT THE BALL
A player can only take a charge if the attacking player has not yet released the ball (on a shot or pass). These tweaks would promote more active defenses rather than mastering a technique that attempts to cheaply take advantage of a rule that is in place for safety. A defender should not be rewarded for placing himself under an attacking player in the air who is pulling up for a floater to avoid contact. The defender does not impact the shot while at the same time creates an unsafe and avoidable scenario. -- Mark Bernard Reis

Check out previous Five for Fridays: May 18 | May 11 | May 4 | April 27 | April 20 | April 13 | April 6 | March 30| March 23 | March 16 | March 9

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

You can give us your ideas and talk with us and other fans in the following places:

• Twitter: Go to @HoopIdea and tweet to us with the hashtag #hoopidea

• Google+: Go to our HoopIdea Google+ page and discuss

• TrueHoop: Read our HoopIdea posts here and contribute on the conversation page

• Email us at hoopidea@gmail.com

And for the truly ambitious: Shoot a short video of yourself explaining your HoopIdea, upload it to YouTube and share the link with us on Twitter or Google+.

HoopIdea wants to #StopTheFlop. To spotlight the biggest fakers, we present Flop of the Night. You can help us separate the pretenders from the defenders -- details below:

Mario Chalmers, who made three of four 3-pointers in Game 6, is becoming the Miami Heat's version of Lakers championship era Derek Fisher. Disruptive defense, spot up shooting ... and, of course, flopping. Chalmers has even mastered Fisher's ability to draw fouls by driving headlong into traffic and tossing the ball toward the basket.

Last night, he drew an offensive foul (video) on a moving screen from Roy Hibbert with Fisher's typical flair for the dramatic.

Working the play-by-play, ESPN's Mike Breen points out that the referee on the scene got the call right, but Jeff Van Gundy was still annoyed by Chalmers' act and suggested a flopping rule similar to the NHL's restriction on "Embellishment":

Breen: Well, Hibbert was clearly moving. You can say that he flopped, but that’s a foul.

Jeff Van Gundy: You see that’s where my flop rule will come into play. If you flop, even if you were fouled -- which he was -- you’re not gettin’ it!

Maybe Chalmers would "get it" in Jeff Van Gundy's world, but his theatrical reaction and the discussion it sparked was enough for him to get our Flop of the Night.

When you see an egregious flop that deserves proper recognition, send us a link to the video so we can consider it for Flop of the Night. Here's how to make your submission:

• Alert HoopIdea to super flops with the Twitter hashtag #FlopOfTheNight (follow us on Twitter here).
• Use the #FlopOfTheNight hashtag in Daily Dime Live.
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

Early in the second quarter of Game 6 between the Pacers and Heat, Miami's Dwyane Wade drove left, took a little contact, missed a layup and fell to the ground.

Foul.

When Wade stepped to free throw line, the yellow-wearing Pacers faithful in Bankers Life Fieldhouse invented a new cheer. It took them a few tries to get it right, but eventually it was clear, even on YouTube the next day.

"He's a flopper!" Clap clap, clap-clap-clap. "He's a flopper!" Clap clap, clap-clap-clap.

Flopping has been a major topic of this playoff series since before these two teams even took the court, when Indiana Coach Frank Vogel publicly warned the referees that the Heat players have a tendency to embellish or even invent contact.

ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy reacted quickly to the chant on the national TV broadcast:

“This," he declared, "is the first time I’ve ever heard an NBA arena chant 'He’s a flopper.' ... We are making progress, America! Let’s eradicate the flop."

"You really have started a movement," replied Mike Breen.

Van Gundy elaborates on his anti-flop platform in an interview with 98.7 ESPN New York (as transcribed by SportsRadioInterviews.com):

I would like to see a two-pronged attack to the excessive flopping that is overtaking the NBA. One as you said if an official can see the flow of the real game that a flop occurred than the foul that brought about the flop is negated and the flopper is assessed a technical foul.

I think the league office, they have a lot of people working for them, go back through every game and any exaggerated contact that is a flop during a game you start accumulating technical fouls. You accumulate points that will eventually lead to suspensions.

You’re not looking for the ones that are minor. You are looking for the ones where a guy is definitively trying to trick an official because to me tricking an official is not an NBA play and I think it’s gone where teams have one guy who would flop to now where our stars are doing the flopping and that’s not good for basketball.

Van Gundy has been railing against flops for years, and the reaction in Indiana showed that this season fans across the league are catching on in a big way.

The NBA has created a new competition committee to consider rule changes. The first meeting is in June, and there are hints -- from David Stern's public comments, to arena-wide chants in Indianapolis -- that stopping the flop will be on the agenda.

HoopIdea wants to #StopTheFlop. To spotlight the biggest fakers, we present Flop of the Night. You can help us separate the pretenders from the defenders -- details below:

Paul Pierce is one of the most expressive players in the NBA. Whether he's yelling as he yanks down a rebound or making this face on a drive to the hoop, Pierce has a way of making it so even the fans in the nosebleeds can feel his pain.

Sometimes, it seems as though Pierce has built ways to embellish contact into the fabric of his game. Here he draws an and-one foul on a jumpshot over Evan Turner (Video). A close-up replay shows Turner isn't even touching him. But from the wide angle view (and the view of the official), thanks to wiggling extremities, it looks like Pierce is taking a punch to the gut as he releases the shot.

Perhaps that herky-jerky style that so flummoxes defenders can have the same effect on the officials.

Twitter also spotted another potential Flop of the Night from Pierce in Game 6, so we might as well show you that one too.

Watch Pierce's legs (Video) go limp during this blocking foul on Lavoy Allen. The bump is there, but it's almost entirely incidental. Still, Pierce's legs buckle like ancient pillars in an catastrophic earthquake.

Also worth noting: Ryan Hollins and Rajon Rondo's smiles as they pick Pierce back up.

Even without the acting, Pierce would likely have gotten this call, so it doesn't win Flop of the Night. But it does merit recognition and the attention of aspiring thespians everywhere.

When you see an egregious flop that deserves proper recognition, send us a link to the video so we can consider it for Flop of the Night. Here's how to make your submission:

• Alert HoopIdea to super flops with the Twitter hashtag #FlopOfTheNight (follow us on Twitter here).
• Use the #FlopOfTheNight hashtag in Daily Dime Live.
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

In the mid 1970s, legendary Celtics coach and team president Red Auerbach gathered several NBA stars, and a veteran of refereeing, to make a video. The goal? To end flopping.

That's right, nearly four decades ago, Auerbach was the Pied Piper of what has become the Stop the Flop movement, as you can see on video.

"Coaches today in high school, college and pro, are teaching the players how to fall! This is unreal!"

The Auerbach in this video is not a man who minds jabbing a finger at the camera to make a point.

Auerbach leads players like Wes Unseld and Mike Riordan through flopping scenarios. After Riordan hits the deck, Auerbach quizzes him. "Did Wes Unseld hit that man hard enough to knock him down? What went through your mind, Mike? What was your purpose when making that pick?"

Riordan says that initially he was "trying to free my teammate Elvin Hayes here for a jumpshot or a move to the hoop without the ball. But also, if I could get away with it, to draw a foul on Wes in setting that pick. To fake a foul, in other words. That was the second purpose."

Auerbach brings Hall of Fame referee Mendy Rudolph into the conversation. Rudolph jokes about how "Mike went and did some 'Hollywood acting." Rudolph's advice: Don't call a thing.

Auerbach directs another scenario, with another flop. Rudolph says "it was a great acting job by Clem Haskins. Now the contact between Mike and Clem was totally incidental, and again the officials should ignore it completely to eliminate this kind of acting in our game."

Then Rudolph adds another option for officials: "If they’re smart, again, to stop it, to stop it early in the game: Call a blocking foul on this man right here, and he’ll stop falling on the floor picking up splinters on his backside.”

"Well I happen to agree with you," says Auerbach. "I am very, very much opposed to this kind of basketball.”

"We’ve got to stop this sort of play in the NBA," replies Rudolph.

Auerbach: "Exactly!"

Auerbach closes the video by turning to the camera and addressing viewers:

This segment is not aimed at referees, believe me. It’s aimed at coaches, it’s aimed at players.

What are we going to do about it?

Let’s clean this thing up!

Let’s not hurt the game.

• Ramona Shelbourne with a great profile on Kobe Bryant and the Lakers at the end of another disappointing season: "The circle of people Kobe Bryant trusts is small and getting smaller. In the last year, he has lost too many of them. Phil Jackson retired and is reachable only by phone now. Lamar Odom lost his way. Derek Fisher was traded. Pau Gasol has faded. Andrew Bynum isn't worthy yet. Only general manager Mitch Kupchak remains. Kupchak's place with the Lakers is different now. Everything is. The team let many of its longest tenured employees go during the lockout. Scouts, equipment managers, strength coaches, front office personnel. All discarded for unsatisfying reasons. Like Bryant, Kupchak's job is harder now. He has fewer resources. His options are limited. He took his big shot by trading for Paul, but it was taken away before it became a reality. After that, there was almost no way to make it right. At least not right away. But knowing and accepting are different things."
• Ric Bucher reports more bad news for Billy Hunter and the National Basketball Players Association, which is under investigation from the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan.
• Carlos Boozer is easily the worst frontcourt defender on the Bulls, and probably shouldn't have received an All-Defense vote. But his teammate Joakim Noah, the best defender on a top-3 defense, should have been a first- teamer.
• On the New York Times, Rob Mahoney takes a good hard look at the rebounding matchup in the Western Conference Finals: "No team closes out defensive possessions more effectively than the Spurs, and few are more capable of capitalizing on the offensive boards than the active and athletic Thunder. But the offensive rebound isn’t merely an end in itself. By extending possessions, the Thunder have the potential to derail San Antonio’s early offense, even if also has the potential for great risk, should the Spurs secure a defensive rebound quickly and cue the break. It’s a gambit that could go either way, making success all the more important."
• Courtside fashion icon Jimmy Goldstein on Russell Westbrook's duds: "I smile when I see Russell Westbrook's fashion choices. Wearing glasses without any lenses in them I don't think is something I admire, but if the players want to look like mirrors, that's their prerogative."
• Latrell Sprewell wasn't old school, he was Old Testament.
• Ben Wallace drives WHAT?
• Even when he misses, Ray Allen helps the Celtics just by being out on the court.
• The Thunder won't be showing their games outside the arena anymore, following a shooting after their Game 5 win over the Lakers. It's understandable, but a shame; that seemed like a very cool scene.
• On The Classical, Danny Chau argues Russell Westbrook has an organizing presence, in his own way: "Westbrook, with no discernible system in place in Oklahoma City, makes his teammates better by streamlining his duties on the floor. A traditional point guard is entrusted with the duty to create and reset plays. For the Thunder, that trust is dispersed three ways. On any given possession, Westbrook, Durant, or Harden are handed the reins to the offense. With three different styles of attack, there is no one identity to fall back on. Westbrook, by ceding some control to other playmakers, reinforces his structure of trust. It’s the closest Westbrook comes to molding the offense in his image. Tradition dictates the importance of maintaining control. For Westbrook, success relies on letting go."

The Boston Celtics had a better regular-season record than the Philadelphia 76ers and feature three future Hall of Famers, a championship pedigree and some guy named Rajon Rondo.

There is a reason they were the favorites to squash the 76ers.

But one thing the Celtics are not is young and athletic, especially with Avery Bradley, who leads Boston in both departments, nursing an injured shoulder.

Philadelphia, on the other hand, has some of the best athletes not just in this series but in the entire league. Jrue Holiday, Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young are in an elite stratosphere of athleticism where soaring, did he really just take off from there?, one-handed fast-break dunks are possible.

Yet Philadelphia’s advantage in athleticism has hardly come to bear in its second-round series with Boston and it now trails 3-2. Part of the problem, of course, is that Boston -- when Rondo isn’t inventing a new hoops language in the fast break -- has a way of forcing teams to play its grinding style.

But the other half of the equation has been Doug Collins and Philadelphia's willingness to play Boston's game, rather than abandoning certain regular-season principles to exploit the Sixers' one advantage and tilt the game in their favor.

Run, don’t walk

When Holiday and Iguodala get rolling in the open court, they become a watered-down version of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James -- two phenomenal athletes who can start the break with a rebound or steal and are just as likely to finish the break with a thunderous dunk as they are to make the assist.

The 76ers have converted reliably off of turnovers and run-outs, but they still miss out on all kinds of early-offense opportunities by routinely walking the ball up the court.

Because Boston doesn’t even try to get offensive rebounds, the Celtics typically have plenty of bodies back. But early motion from sprinting 76ers can foul up the Celtics’ defensive organization, yielding early mismatches and four-on-four-type situations that the 76ers can attack.

Instead of immediately looking to set up the offense, the first five seconds of the shot clock should be “Jrue time,” in which he pushes the ball to probe and pressure the Celtics before conceding to a five-on-five, half-court possession.

The 76ers turned the ball over less than any other team during the regular season, which is a result of the design of Collins’ half-court offense. But 14 of their 15 Game 5 turnovers were in the half court, where Boston's smart defense can cut down angles and passing lanes. Perhaps counterintuitively, the 76ers can play a cleaner game by rushing a bit.

Spacing

The 76ers' continuity offense relies on a lot of dribble handoffs and side pick-and-rolls. These are great for getting big men open 17-footers, but they don’t produce a ton of drives to the basket because the Celtics -- after five games -- know the pattern and because the weak side is rarely properly spaced.

For instance: one one-dribble handoff in Game 4 gave Holiday a sliver of daylight to blow past his defender -- except the other three 76ers were all standing within 15 feet of the paint!

More high pick-and-rolls in the middle of the court for Holiday may be a simple solution.

The Celtics defend side pick-and-rolls as well as anyone this side of the Bulls. So keeping the ball in the middle, with shooters like Iguodala, Lou Williams and Jodie Meeks in the corners, can give Young -- who is easily the best pick-and-roll dive man at Collins’ disposal -- the space he needs to slash to the rim. With three shooters on the court in Game 4, Young’s fourth-quarter dives yielded dump offs to Lavoy Allen for layups as Boston’s wings arrived late from their rotations off of shooters.

There’s also the issue that a continuity offense like Philadelphia’s -- as opposed to San Antonio’s “motion weak” set -- can rely on non-playmakers to break down the defense. A more spread drive-and-kick attack will let Philadelphia’s big men besides Spencer Hawes do what they do best: finish.

Less Evan Turner

With spacing in mind, it’s time for Collins to take a real hard look at severely limiting Turner’s minutes. Aside from his heroic driving layup at the end of Game 2, he’s been terrible in this series. His playoff PER has dipped to 9.7, but he’s still playing 35 minutes a game in Round 2.

This is great news for the Celtics, who have gleefully abandoned Turner on defense any time he is more than 10 feet from the rim. He’s making 24 percent of his midrange shots while making only 40 percent of his rim attempts, because -- though he’s reasonably athletic -- he’s had a real hard time finishing with Kevin Garnett and Greg Stiemsma waiting for him at the rim.

Turner often looks like a good player -- he’s got all the moves. He will spin and cross over and generally look like a genuine scorer, except the ball hardly ever goes in and he doesn’t work his way to the line all that often. The Celtics' defense was designed to handle iso-heavy scorers like Kobe Bryant, so suffice to say it works pretty well when Turner decides it’s "iso time."

But his individual ineptitude is just the start of the problem. Because he can’t shoot, his presence makes it harder for Philadelphia to get the floor spacing it needs. One dimensional though they may be, at least Meeks and Williams demand attention outside the paint, which makes Holiday and Iguodala much more difficult to defend in pick-and-rolls.

Whenever Philadelphia has three viable 3-point shooters on the court, its athletic guards have more space to attack and its clever big men have room to make those nifty interior passes.

Can Doug Collins adjust?

The 76ers play a very, very controlled style and this is a deliberate result of coaching. Collins says he wants his guys to make plays (he famously told Jrue Holiday to make it happen in the Chicago series) but his continuity offense doesn’t always put them in position to be their best.

Focusing on getting everyone up court immediately and then freelancing for early pick-and-rolls and dribble attacks -- basically what the Denver Nuggets did against Los Angeles -- might be a solution.

The problem is that Philadelphia has a lopsided roster, with fast, dynamic wings and some slow, plodding big men. Specifically, Hawes and Elton Brand, their best big men during the regular season, aren’t equipped to play a style that relies on speed and athleticism. The continuity offense fits them well, but in this series it’s been the more athletic combination of Allen and Young that’s really given Boston trouble.

At this point in the season, it’s a tall order to ask Collins and the 76ers to overhaul the focus of the offense in time to pull off an upset.

But they are the underdog, and making such adjustments is what underdogs often have to do to exploit whatever advantage they can claim, rather than simply relying on what got them to this point. It’s a risk, but the bigger risk is doing nothing.

What is Pau Gasol worth?

Many believe this is the central question of the Lakers' offseason.

Gasol was integral to three straight Finals appearances. He out-fought and outplayed Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett in back-to-back Finals victories. But careers and perceptions change quickly in L.A. and, to many, it now appears imminent that Gasol and the remaining $38 million on his contract will be traded this offseason.

Three top Lakers writers break down Gasol's place in the Lakers' future:

• OC Register’s Kevin Ding (who noted Gasol had a plus/minus of minus-53 for the second round): "It's abundantly clear now that the triangle offense is long gone that Lakers can use some perimeter pizzazz and tenacity a lot more than they can use Gasol's versatility-turned-uncertainty. But even if Gasol averages 50 points and 30 rebounds in the Olympics, the Lakers have a further complication in that they are trying to reduce their payroll in the wake of the post-lockout luxury-tax penalties and revenue sharing that have changed their landscape. Because of that, trading Gasol for a great player who has another massive contract isn't what they really want, either. The Lakers might have to go that route and figure out some money things later, as they were willing to do with their aborted deal for Chris Paul before the season."
• ESPN LA’s Dave McMenamin: "Bryant publicly demoted Gasol to the third scoring option during the regular season and then called him out in the playoffs for not being the aggressive scorer he once was. That makes Gasol the first to go. Call up Houston. Call up Chicago. Call up Minnesota. Call up Orlando. See whether interest is still out there. Better yet, call up all 29 other teams and maybe even go the draft pick route. This year's draft is widely considered to be the deepest in nearly a decade. Gasol turns 32 in July. He's played 11 years in the league plus put in a ton of time overseas playing for the Spanish national team. He averaged 12.5 points per game during the playoffs. History will show he was a vital piece of the Lakers' championship lore, but now is not the time for nostalgia. He's the first domino."
• ESPN LA’s Brian Kamenetzky: "He's supremely talented, versatile and a true team player capable of elevating any good team to elite status, and perhaps of pushing a near-elite team over the top. On the other hand, he won't transform a Brooklyn-esque loser, is very expensive, on the downside of his career, and short of being sent to a team in Spain, won't energize a season-ticket base. Finding a new home for Gasol isn't a simple proposition. The same contract prompting the Lakers to move him will make many teams hesitant to take him on."

The analysis above agrees that Pau is: expensive, talented, seven years older than Andrew Bynum and perhaps not the best fit, emotionally, with Kobe Bryant (though that seemed to be working just fine a few years ago).

The Lakers need more depth and fewer gargantuan contracts, so all signals point to Gasol's departure. Indeed, the Lakers have signaled that they are ready to part with him and, though the transaction was canceled by the NBA, the thwarted three-way deal that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers still provides the most accurate measure of Gasol's value.

Back in December 2011, the Rockets were willing to give up Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Goran Dragic in exchange for Gasol.

That’s quite a haul, and a similar trade this summer would supply the Lakers, who counted on Steve Blake and Devin Ebanks for important rotation minutes in the playoffs, with real punch off the pine.

But after a disappointing postseason, does Gasol net the same goodies?

It’s true 2012 was Gasol’s worst scoring season of his NBA career by a point, though his rebounding and assist numbers remained constant. And it’s true that Gasol played farther from the basket on offense than at any time in his career.

It’s also true -- and this is important -- that Pau Gasol is a center. The Lakers managed to end up with two excellent 7-foot players, so Gasol, the more versatile one, plays power forward, but he’s a center. And it’s hard to overvalue a center who rebounds, defends, scores and passes like Gasol. The fact that the Lakers have surplus of this kind of player is borderline obscene and the reason many thought they could contend this season despite their obvious flaws.

They have options.

Perhaps Bynum would draw a better return.

Or maybe instead of ditching Gasol or Bynum, the Lakers could, like the San Antonio Spurs, simply extract more value from their cheaper pieces. After all, the combined salary of Kawhi Leonard, Gary Neal and Danny Green is less than the Lakers pay Steve Blake.

But it won’t be possible for them to get anywhere near the salary cap with their big three -- or even their two bigs -- on the books.

See, here’s the real issue for the Lakers, the one that makes moving Gasol or Bynum seem inevitable: Kobe Bryant’s spectacularly huge contract.

Last offseason, Henry Abbott first noted what an albatross this contract would become:

"Bryant is due to draw a salary of $25,244,493 in 2011-2012, $27,849,149 the following year and $30,453,805 in 2013-2014, when he will be 35. The cold hard question for general manager Mitch Kupchak would become: Which Laker team is better, Bryant and $32 million or so in supporting cast, or $60 million in the best players money can buy without Bryant?

...it may be time to find out if Bryant might consider waiving his no-trade clause. He is such a big name that he may, even under a new CBA, fetch the Lakers a player or two in addition to salary cap relief.

Then there's the final, unthinkable option: It has been discussed that the new CBA may have an amnesty clause, that lets teams buy out players and send them on their way. Depending how it's negotiated, this could include salary cap relief. And if so, would the Lakers use it on Bryant?”

Whether or not they knew league-wide austerity measures were in the offing in 2010, when they gave Bryant his last big extension, there’s no debate that, in basketball terms, the Lakers drastically overvalued their star wing. He is now a volume scorer who is still an excellent player, but the fact is that players better than him -- like Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul -- are paid way less. Even supposing that, despite his age, Bryant's game somehow remains at its current level, the market price for a superstar has fallen precipitously since his last contract.

By the time Kobe's current contract nears expiration, it will be one of the worst in the NBA -- not because he will have deteriorated beyond recognition, but because the outrageous sum will have such a limiting effect on the Lakers' options.

So perhaps instead of wondering what Pau is worth, we should be asking different questions:

Is it worth $30 million in 2014-15 to see Bryant retire a Laker?

To many, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

But what about on the court -- is he worth more than Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined?

Because that’s how much he makes.

Is he worth destroying the most formidable frontline in the NBA?

Because, as everyone seems to tacitly acknowledge, that’s how much Kobe Bryant costs.

• Jeff Green was nearly the victim of a deadly sneaker avalanche.
• James Jones would be embarrassed if he missed a 3-pointer by as much as he missed this dunk.
• Philadunkia's Tom Sunnergren on the ageless Kevin Garnett: "The careers of professional athletes end, as a general rule, about the way Hemingway described going bankrupt: slowly, then all at once. An injury — say a knee sprain that happens in a February 2009 game in Utah — occurs, never fully heals, becomes a chronic, lingering source of discomfort, then, as the player fights through it, adjusts, maybe unconsciously to mitigate the pain, a host of other maladies spring from the adjustment: calf strains, tendonitis of various stripe, back pain. Bio-mechanical breakdown ensues. Eventually, they’re a shell of themselves. A copy of a copy; like that Michael Keaton movie, but even harder to watch. A season later they’re on a golf course. Kevin Garnett, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, is not on a golf course right now.
• Mike D'Antoni, from his interview with SI's Jack McCallum: "Could you use the word 'resign?' It hurts when I even hear the word 'quit.'"
• Lovely visuals illustrating that Kevin Durant has surpassed Kobe Bryant as a crunch time player.
• Neil Paine (Insider) points out that even if Kobe Bryant outplays Kevin Durant, Durant's supporting cast has the advantage: "Bynum and Gasol have been good in their own right during the postseason, but neither can give Bryant the kind of secondary scoring punch that Westbrook brings to Durant and the Thunder. Then there's Harden, not only the game's best sixth man, but one of its top players, period. During the regular season, he took on a similar possession load as Gasol and Bynum and was far more offensively efficient, averaging a staggering 1.254 points on possessions he was involved in ending. In the playoffs, he has ramped up his usage while still maintaining a sky-high efficiency, one of the big reasons the Thunder have the NBA's No. 1-ranked offense during the postseason. That's why the numbers are so clear-cut. Whether you're a PER proponent (Westbrook/Harden 22.1, Bynum/Gasol 21.6) a Win Shares per 48 Minutes guy (Westbrook/Harden .193, Bynum/Gasol .173) or an Adjusted Plus/Minus guy (Westbrook/Harden plus-2.6, Bynum/Gasol plus-1.8), all the advanced stats say the Westbrook/Harden combination is a better and more productive duo than Bynum and Gasol."
• Gonzaga's Robert Sacre, a legitimate 7-footer with good hands and decent athleticism, says all the right things at the Nets 2012 Draft combine.
• An inspiring bench is a beautiful thing.
• Is Andrew Bynum's best season ever tied to his revamped running form? Ethan Sherwood Strauss, writing on The Classical, investigates:" When I asked Lakers trainer Garry Vitti about the foot strike change, he explained that although this had indeed taken place, the evolution of Bynum’s movement 'was much deeper.' Vitti elaborated, 'Because of his gluteus medius weakness he had is known as a trendelenburg gait where his glute med couldn’t stabilize his pelvis … with increased strength of his glute he was able to control his pelvis better which translated to him being able to get his body over his forefoot which would allow him to propel himself more efficiently.'”
• Daily Thunder's Randy Renner with a statistical nugget that is as much a condemnation of the Lakers' passive defense as OKC's steady offense: "The Thunder has produced a turnover turnaround in the playoffs. During the regular season OKC led the league by averaging 16.3 givebacks a game. In the playoffs that number is down to 10.5 and that’s the best in the league. During this series with the Lakers the number is even better as the Thunder has averaged just 8.3 turnovers a game."
• USA Basketball releases its roster for the 2012 Select Team, which is sort of the Dream Team junior varsity.
• What was Roy Hibbert thinking?
• Brett Koremenos digs into Evan Turner's struggles for HoopSpeak. You have to wonder: If Turner wasn't a top 2 pick, would this be the case: "Currently, Turner’s 9.97 playoff PER ranks 114th amongst players who’ve seen a postseason minute. 114th. That’s out of 155 players who have seen the court in the postseason. This would be fine if he were one of the human victory cigars at the end of the bench, but Turner is playing 34.3 minutes per game in the postseason."
• It's funny what matchups end up being consequential in the playoffs. For instance, the Celtics are really having trouble with the Lavoy Allen-Thaddeus Young front court combo.
• Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol can combine to create some beautiful basketball, but this year they've drifted apart on the court.
• Without Chris Bosh, the origami paper-thin Miami Heat are proving that the "Big Three" model is dangerous, right? Not so, writes Heat Index's Tom Haberstroh: "Of course, the San Antonio Spurs offer a compelling counterargument. They actually have more of their payroll wrapped up in their trio than the Heat, but they seem to be doing just fine. Interestingly enough, the Spurs have taken the opposite approach to surrounding their Big Three: find younger diamonds in the rough and develop them in their system. While the Heat went wild for veterans on the wrong side of 30 years old, the Spurs plucked Gary Neal, Kawhi Leonard, DeJuan Blair, Tiago Splitter and Danny Green. The Spurs might not have gone the safe route with veterans, but their players have higher ceilings and a greater chance to provide more bang for the buck."

Some key moments of Game 4 between the Clippers and Spurs were not basketball at all. And with bricklayers like DeAndre Jordan and Reggie Evans parading to the line, it was a decent reason to change the channel.

"I hate it," says Gregg Popovich, the Spurs coach who made the whole thing happen. "It's ugly. But it's something that's available."

What he's talking about is what used to be called "Hack-a-Shaq," where, instead of playing defense, or grabbing a rebound to get the ball back, a team simply fouls a horrible free throw shooter, often with the ball nowhere in the vicinity, and forces them to struggle through the freebies.

It should probably be called "Hack-whoever-Gregg Popovich-says-to-hack," these days, though, as the Spurs dominate this field.

And yet the coach who does it most hates it. Fans hate it. Players, surely, prefer to play, not hack. Surely this is no referee's idea of a game well played. Even David Stern is on record against it. In 2008, Stern railed against hack-a-Shaq tactics to ESPN.com's J.A. Adande, saying he didn’t like "the idea that, 'Hey, look at me, I'm going to hit this guy as soon as the ball goes into play, even though he's standing under the other basket.'"

If everybody hates it ... why would it ever happen?

Because -- as an unintended consequence of the current rules is that in certain situations -- breaking the rules in this precise way can give a team an advantage.

In other words, the rules made Gregg Popovich do it.

Imagine if the penalty for robbing a bank was that you had to give half the money back. The rules, in that situation, would essentially beg people to rob banks.

Change the rulebook, though, and you can say goodbye to this forever. Nobody will miss it.

How to change the rulebook?

We're open to ideas. But here's a basic principle to consider: Breaking the rules should never help your team. If teams are breaking rules to gain an advantage, clearly the penalties are out of whack.

Now in basketball, there's something odd, that most sports don't have. We have a longstanding tradition of fouling intentionally to get the ball back. It happens late in almost every close game. Some of you might be thinking that any rule that eliminates Hack-a-Whoever would need to somehow preserve that.

To which we'd say: You sure about that?

One simple solution: Let fouled teams decide if they'd rather have the free throw, or the ball out of bounds. After any foul, Hack-a-Whoever or otherwise. You'd quickly have no reason to foul to get the ball back, because fouling would not get you the ball back. Then you'd also get a lot more games ending with a lot more basketball being played. And who's against that?

JOIN THE CONVERSATION HERE:

You can give us your ideas and talk with us and other fans in the following places:

• Twitter: Go to @HoopIdea and tweet to us with the hashtag #hoopidea

• Google+: Go to our HoopIdea Google+ page and discuss

• TrueHoop: Read our HoopIdea posts here and contribute on the conversation page

• Email us at hoopidea@gmail.com

HoopIdea wants to #StopTheFlop. To spotlight the biggest fakers, we present Flop of the Night. You can help us separate the pretenders from the defenders -- details below:

On this edition of Flop of the Night we go back to Friday and Game 3 of Lakers-Thunder to give James Harden special recognition for this improbable flop of Lakers guard Steve Blake (video).

Here's what flopping expert Shane Battier said about noted Luis Scola: “The more hair you have, the better. My boy Luis Scola, he’s got that long hair and when it gets sweaty and he starts flopping and flailing, it looks like he’s getting murdered out there.”

New theory: James Harden’s enormous beard acts in much the same way.

Harden has a history of playoff flops -- this one against the Dallas Mavericks had Jeff Van Gundy and Mike Breen chuckling -- but the audacity of this acting job is truly admirable.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Blake finds himself trailing Harden around a ball screen. That's where Harden wants to keep Blake, so he blatantly hooks him with his off arm to prevent Blake from getting back in good defensive position.

Then, perhaps sensing that foul is about be called on him, Harden suddenly lurches forward and throws his arms -- and beard -- in the air, while Blake remains absolutely stationary. What's so amazing is that usually a flop comes in reaction to something the other player does, whether or not the contact is genuine. But here, Blake is just a prop in Harden’s performance.

It’s worth noting that the referee who made the call had a terrible angle on what actually happened. He just saw Harden’s reaction and gave him the benefit of the doubt. This is exactly the kind of flop that an instant remote review system could set straight in a matter of moments.

When you see an egregious flop that deserves proper recognition, send us a link to the video so we can consider it for Flop of the Night. Here's how to make your submission:

• Alert HoopIdea to super flops with the Twitter hashtag #FlopOfTheNight (follow us on Twitter here).
• Use the #FlopOfTheNight hashtag in Daily Dime Live.
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

There's been lots of speculation as to why Dwyane Wade was so painfully ineffective in Game 3 -- including reports that he may actually be in pain.

On the NBA Today podcast, Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute attributed some of the Heat star's struggles to the absence of Chris Bosh.

Later in that same podcast, David Thorpe notes that Wade simply looks like he's lost a step, and Paul George is doing a great job of using his incredible length and quickness to cut him off in isolation sets.

But Wade is also one of the best in the league at using pick-and-rolls to feast on defenses, and it's on those opportunities that his lack off aggressiveness is truly puzzling.

Perhaps we should doff our caps to Pacers coach Frank Vogel for designing a sharp strategy to neutralize the dynamic wing on this action.

Or maybe not.

Over on Pacers-themed blog Eight Points, Nine Seconds, Jared Wade goes to the tape, and finds no such wizardry.

An overwhelming majority of the times that LeBron, Wade and Chalmers have dribbled off a high screen, they have found themselves open. The guy defending them is busy fighting through the screen and the big man, as previously mentioned, is hanging back five feet in “free-safety/rim protection” mode. So they are open. It’s just that they are open in a way that they are unaccustomed to being open.

That has generally not deterred LeBron from being effective. He has still found many ways to score and create for teammates. Most impressively, he has resorted to a little running floater in the lane that I have hardly ever seen him take. It really is amazing. To deal with an unfamiliar way of being defended, he has basically created an entirely new weapon.

LeBron has also consistently found other ways to ensure that the Heat’s pick-and-roll attack — one of the most vital aspects of Miami’s offense — continues to be productive regardless of how it is defended.

In striking, baffling, puzzling contrast, Dwyane Wade has shown no such ability to adapt.

The video above is a horror flick for Heat fans.

Throughout the series, he has been confounded while coming off the screen with the ball. He has turned it over repeatedly, missed pull-up jumpers, missed floaters, missed layups, thrown poor passes and generally just been useless leading the pick-and-roll in all three games.

There really is no good way to explain exactly why such a talented player is having so much trouble making the right decision when he finds himself virtually unguarded dribbling off a screen. In this respect, two Wades are baffled.

In the clip above, just look at how many little hiccups there are in his attack and how indecisive his actions generally look. LeBron’s hesitations, on the other hand, are measured, change-of-pace moves that help create more space to attack.

Dwyane's hesitations just look like a guy who is clueless on what to do next.

It doesn't sound good, but we've seen this number before from Wade.

He struggled to do much of anything against the Celtics -- a team renown for its consistently excellent pick-and-roll defense -- throughout the regular season last year, then torched them on 52.5 percent shooting in five games during the playoffs.

For all the speculation about LeBron James' mental makeup, Wade's inconsistent effort (not to mention that blown layup at the end of Game 2) has largely gone uncriticized. The hometown hero with a ring to boot, Wade has escaped the sort of inspection many feel LeBron demands.

Maybe Wade just needs a day off to uncork another vintage performance.

But if the Heat can't recover from his current funk? Then, for the first time since he and James joined forces in Miami, it may be Wade who has to do the explaining.

From HoopIdea to Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel to NBA commissioner David Stern, flopping has been a topic of conversation during the NBA playoffs.

So this week, Five for Friday spotlights HoopIdeas from Twitter, ESPN comments, Grantland and Google+ that detail how the league can address flopping, and how anti-flopping rules would be enforced.

DO AWAY WITH THE BLOCK/CHARGE CALL

We need to start thinking about block-charge calls in an entirely different way. We need to realign the incentives for players on the court. We need to discourage any play that forces the referee to make a call. We need to urge players to play the game as if the officials weren't there, and not require such taxing use of their imaginations to do so. We need to do as much as possible to restore basketball to its purer, less whistle-prone, origins. We need to let the game breathe. -- Eamonn Brennan on ESPN’s College Basketball Nation Blog

BUILD A FLOP COMMITTEE

How about the NBA creates the proposed Flop Committee? If you accrue flops during the season, you start the next game with an automatic foul. And that keeps going every two flops after the first six. — Sam, New Orleans

Simmons: I'd go even further — once you get to 10 flops for the season, after every ensuing flop, you start the next game with TWO automatic fouls. -- From the April 20, 2012 Bill Simmons Mailbag on Grantland

PENALTY FOR "EMBELLISHMENT"

Whenever a player exaggerates the contact between he and another player, the referee can call a foul on the player who exaggerated the contact regardless of who committed the actual foul. This would surely discourage excessive flopping. Also, it would have an immediate impact on the game the exaggerated contact occurred, as opposed to a review process which would produce a punishment at a later date. -- Chris Nichols (A similar rule is already in place in the NHL)

ENFORCE FLOPS AS TEAM VIOLATIONS

Treat flops like 3 second violations. Offensive flop -- turnover. Defensive flop -- 1 free throw and the ball. -- Adam Schleman from the TrueHoop Comments

PENALIZE FLOPS LIKE ILLEGAL DEFENSE

They should [penalize flopping] like the illegal defense, except shoot free throws on the first flop. -- Keith Schoultz via Twitter.

Check out previous Five for Fridays: May 11 | May 4 | April 27 | April 20 | April 13 | April 6 | March 30| March 23 | March 16 | March 9

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

You can give us your ideas and talk with us and other fans in the following places:

• Twitter: Go to @HoopIdea and tweet to us with the hashtag #hoopidea

• Google+: Go to our HoopIdea Google+ page and discuss

• TrueHoop: Read our HoopIdea posts here and contribute on the conversation page

• Email us at hoopidea@gmail.com

And for the truly ambitious: Shoot a short video of yourself explaining your HoopIdea, upload it to YouTube and share the link with us on Twitter or Google+.

HoopIdea wants to #StopTheFlop. To spotlight the biggest fakers, we present Flop of the Night. You can help us separate the pretenders from the defenders -- details below:

Today we bring you not one, not two, but three egregious flops from two of the game's finest players.

LeBron James is the most dominant athlete in the NBA, capable of leveling an entire team with an inspired run of unstoppable drives to the rim. So his willingness to exaggerate contact tends to drive fans nuts. Last night James found himself trapped against the sideline with David West and Danny Granger closing in on him. Out of any other options, and unprompted by contact, he essentially fell out of bounds (video) to preserve possession.

It happened right in front of ESPN's Mike Tirico, who called LeBron's performance "an extraordinary swan dive."

Not to be outdone, Tony Parker proved to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin that when it comes to flopping they still have much to learn. Parker's first flop came when a nudge from Chris Paul sent him careening to the floor (video).

The call was a big one -- it put Paul on the bench with three first half fouls.

But his best flopping work (Video) of the night came just 20 seconds later, and at the expense of Blake Griffin.

After chasing down a loose ball in the back court, Parker had only a handful of seconds to recover possession and get off a shot before the shotclock expired. Wary of this fact, Griffin chased him along the sideline to force Parker to use up the clock.

Instead, Parker used Blake's effort to draw a foul and rescue the possession.

With the benefit of replay, ABC play-by-play man Dan Shulman explained that instead of being fouled, "Tony Parker initiated that contact. He grabbed the arm of Blake Griffin, and made it look like he was being grabbed."

But the official who made the call was trailing the play, and only saw Parker's "reaction," not the shenanigans that prompted his wild flailing.

When you see an egregious flop that deserves proper recognition, send us a link to the video so we can consider it for Flop of the Night. Here's how to make your submission:

• Alert HoopIdea to super flops with the Twitter hashtag #FlopOfTheNight (follow us on Twitter here).
• Use the #FlopOfTheNight hashtag in Daily Dime Live.
• E-mail us at hoopidea@gmail.com

• Isn't it time for James Harden to get his own shoe? And should it be modeled on this?
• Video of the 9-0 run that sealed Game 2 for the Thunder.
• John Hollinger argues that R.C. Buford should have been Executive of the Year (Insider). The trade Buford made with Larry Bird (who won the award) that sent George Hill to Indy for Kawhi Leonard is just one example of Buford's unappreciated brilliance: "That's a solid move for Indy, and for the chunk of the league's GMs that just throw stuff at the wall and hope something sticks, that's about as deeply as they saw it. But for San Antonio, I don't think people realize what a spectacularly good trade this was. Not just because it gave the Spurs a defender at the 3 who proved better than people expected, but because of the cap ramifications. Leonard is on a rookie contract and will make $1.8 million, $1.9 million and $2.9 million in the coming three seasons; Hill, meanwhile, will re-sign a somewhere between $5 and $7 million a pop as a restricted free agent. Over the next three seasons the Spurs will save about $12 million as a result of making this trade, without losing anything on the court."
• Meanwhile, ClipperBlog's Charlie Widdoes doesn't understand why Clippers GM Neil Olshey didn't win EOY: "The Clippers made a bigger improvement this year than the Pacers, and no one can question that they did so because they got Chris Paul. When you get a player of that caliber and the move works as planned, history says you get rewarded with the Executive of the Year award. It doesn’t matter how it happened, when LeBron James signed with the Heat, Pat Riley won the Executive of the Year award. In my mind, when you get Chris Paul, every other executive has to top that."
• Even after Duncan retires, the Spurs will be good for as long as Gregg Popovich and his system are in place.
• The Celtics clamped down on their pick-and-roll defense in Game 3.
• Chris Bosh's absence puts a strain on LeBron James, and reveals just how terrible the Heat's top role players have been.
• Do fans in Indiana have the swag to pull this off?

• Mike Meister, founder and head coach at the Thunder Sports Institute, e-mails a question some stat geek may be able to address: "Looking at how the Thunder made their comeback reinforces what I teach my teams: Players love to practice halfcourt shots or running 3s, but mine get chewed out for it all the time. My experience with almost 70 teams and my own playing experience is that you win more games with layups and free throws than you will with jumpers, especially 3s. I don't have access to Synergy or Elias, but I scanned through articles and tend to find more instances of this trend. My question, which maybe will be something you would look into anyway, is: Are more NBA games won on free throws and layups than on jumpers? Especially deeper mid-range and 3s. I know overall for the game, yes, but just looking at crunch time scoring and maybe especially the last two minutes."
• What can the Clippers do to slow down the Spurs offense? Perhaps they'll try to make Boris Diaw a scorer.
• So Bill Laimbeer and Isiah Thomas walk into a diner ...
• We noted on Wednesday that the Lakers and Thunder don't draw a lot of charges. (TrueHoop reader Michael's great point: Teams with quality rim protectors, like these two, don't have to resort to charges to stop layups and dunks.) Charges are not the same as flops. But they are prime opportunities to flop. And sure enough, there won't be a Flop of the Night today, for the simple reason that after a night of Sixers, Celtics, Lakers and Thunder, we can't find clear video of an obvious flop. Now, if history is any precedent, tonight's action, which includes the Heat, Clippers and Spurs, will feature plenty.
• The Brooklyn Nets logo has roots in old New York City subway signs.
• Has Sebastian Telfair found a home in Phoenix?
• Grantland's Michael Kruse digs deep into why we don't have ads on jerseys: "Tradition is an incomplete explanation. That $370 million sits fat like a hanging curve. It takes a special kind of credulity to think owners of teams in major American sports who are so resolute in all manners of revenue extraction simply shrug their shoulders here because of some particular reverence for convention. Ads on jerseys will unsettle the fans? They will not. It'll be like new Facebook or something, when everybody bellyaches for about 10 minutes and then it's just Facebook. We'll get used to ads on jerseys, and fast, and the owners know this. Because we always do. Because we get used to things like the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl and extra points getting kicked into not just a net but an Allstate ad. That's a Coors Light Cold Hard Fact. So what's really the reason for this country's faux-prudish reluctance to put ads on jerseys?"
• How one man learned to love the Spurs.
• Chris Paul and Eric Bledsoe have been a tremendous combination in the playoffs, and were in the regular season too ... so why don't they play together more?
• Rashard Lewis made $23,336 per minute of basketball played this year.
• SI's Zach Lowe on James Harden's role in Oklahoma City's end-of-game offense: "Oklahoma City players attempted 120 shots in the regular season during games in which the scoring margin was three points or fewer in the last three minutes of regulation and overtime. Durant and Westbrook took 103 of those shots, per NBA.com. Harden took five. He made one. James Harden, Sixth Man of the Year and likely All-Star next season, made one basket the entire season in the last three minutes of a close game. He has already taken five such shots in six postseason games, compared to six attempts for Durant. This is a sea change happening instantly, a strategic switch so dramatic you almost wonder if Scott Brooks has been waiting all season to unleash Harden on unsuspecting defenses.
• Thunder fans react positively to their Game 2 win. (Via @Okastro)
• Wait, left-handed Greg Monroe is actually right-handed?