This past week Charles Curtis report, Why WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne wants to lower the rims from 10 feet, in USA Today's For the Wn, wrote a story about lowering the rims from 10 feet. I read a to of stuff, like anybody else reading this now. But this idea stayed with me and it probably did because I'm spoiled on superior women's collegiate volleyball.
I have to agree with with this.
"But when look at other sports like volleyball, their net’s lower," she continued. "Golf, their tees are closer. It goes on and on. Tennis, they play [fewer] sets. Why not lower our rim and let every single player player in the league play above the rim like the NBA can?"
Lowering the rim would bring a vertical game I've mostly seen in volleyball. If that net was 10 feet high nobody would watch it, let alone play it. And the net isn't, it's 7'4" (2.24 meters).
Volleyball is also a very different game in the jumping, though. Volleyball is dominated by two foot jumps, or even taking 1 step, to get up on the net to make a play. You let those same athletes get a running start and I think they could get up another few inches with the rim and have players still hammer down a dunk.
You could go as low as 7'6" and still get a significant change to the game. But you have to be careful. If the rim is too low you have 10 people standing around a waste basket. You want play away from the basket, good shooting, high screens. So is 8 feet too low? High?
