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King
Totally agree with you about foul trouble strategy. I hem and haw about the timeout rule. On the plus side, having 'in media res' timeouts IS a distinctive rule among the major sports. Players are rewarded for attentiveness (or penalized for a failure in this regard: Chris Webber). And defenses are reward in that their opponents waste timeouts.
Still, the rule is certainly annoying, especially as it interrupts the flow of the game. You mentioned hockey as one of the models for a rule change, so how about the following change, which would solve the timeout problem and the poor strategy of benching players in foul trouble: penalty boxes!! Instead of clock stopping and players taking boring free-throws, you have 5 v 4 for a minute or two. Fouls would drop tremendously, and action would speed by.
