It's a good time for another mailbag (read: content ideas are running low at the moment), starting with a big-picture question on the next big shift in basketball. I've got enough for a two-part mailbag, so if you're looking to get a question in, tweet it to me or email me.

Unpack The Courts

What's next in the evolution of basketball? 4 point line? 11 foot rims? Add 3 pounds to the ball?

— Koernelius, 3rd degree shut-in black belt (@DJKoerndawg) May 20, 2020

After reading Kirk Goldsberry's essential book, Sprawlball, on the evolution of shooting in the NBA and what the future may hold, I'm convinced the next major rules change will involve an attempt to deemphasize the three-point shot and bring the midrange/post game back into greater prominence. While I love today's pace-and-space era, particularly in comparison to '90s-style bully-ball, I sympathize with critics who'd like to see a significant swath of the court get utilized again.

Goldsberry suggests several potential rules changes that could fundamentally alter and modernize the game. One that's easy to implement and could have a significant impact is decreasing the size of the free throw lane. The reason that area is often referred to as the "key" is that it originally looked like one:

When George Mikan became too dominant on the interior, the NBA doubled the width of the paint to 12 feet, which is still the standard in the NCAA and high school. The NBA widened it even more, to 16 feet, in the 1960s in a successful attempt to prevent Wilt Chamberlain from averaging 50 points a game again. Shrink the lane back down to six or eight feet and suddenly post players have more prominence again because they can operate from closer to the hoop. This also opens up some space in the midrange area.

Goldsberry has a number of suggestions for altering the three-point line, including an idea that's picked up steam elsewhere: eliminating the corner three-pointer, which is now shorter in both the NBA and NCAA after the latter's move to the FIBA line last year. While the corner three has become a bit of a cheat code, particularly at the NBA level, I'm not a fan of getting rid of it.

Instead, I'd prefer a more drastic measure: widen the whole court. In the NBA and NCAA, the court is 94 feet by 50 feet, and that's been the case almost since basketball's inception, when the three-pointer didn't exist, nobody played above the rim, and being 6'8" made you a behemoth. (Mikan, the dominant force of the '50s, was 6'10".) The court wasn't designed with players of today's size and athleticism in mind; nobody could imagine how far the game would come from its set-shot origins.

You know how hockey in Olympic-sized rinks is way more fun than the smaller NHL standard? Basketball could get a similar jolt. Widening the court lets you move the three-point line back to a uniform distance. That makes all of those shots more difficult while eliminating the short corner and adding more space to operate inside the arc. Skilled shooters would still be able to launch threes, we'd see much less of centers and other marginal shooters chucking from long range, and players who could create off the dribble would gain more importance even if they weren't knockdown gunners.

That's a game I'd like to see. As basketball continues to become more three-or-layup-or-nothing, I expect we'll see major rule changes to get some offensive diversity back into the game.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the mailbag.]

How to Attrition?

How much turnover is too much and do you get the sense we should expect higher turnover with Juwan (vs. Johnny B)

— Poofas_JR (@PoofasJ) May 20, 2020

Ideally, you want to be replacing 2-4 scholarship players every season—you can usually expect and absorb the loss one or two starters (whether seniors or early NBA entries), an experienced rotation player, and a playing time transfer. Michigan has obviously dealt with more than that in the last couple years, first when Jordan Poole and Iggy Brazdeikis left early to varying degrees of surprise before John Beilein also exited the picture, then this offseason with three underclassmen transferring out of Juwan Howard's program.

While the two coaches have different recruiting styles that'll result in changing expectations for the type of attrition—you can anticipate more one-and-dones under Howard—I'm not sure the level of turnover will actually change much. This offseason should hold as an exception; all three transfers were Beilein recruits who likely thought they'd have bigger/different roles last season. Having that combine with two senior starters graduating and a third starter testing the draft waters is more a stroke of bad luck/timing than anything else.

Once Howard is able to balance out the roster, which may take some time given all the openings for 2021-22, I don't think we'll have too many offseasons of massive turnover, or at least not any more than you'd expect for a competitive high-major program. While Howard has targeted one-and-done types, Beilein (often unwittingly) had his fair share of one- or two-and-dones—if anything, Howard should be in better position to replace those guys because he knows the deal up front.

Meanwhile, Howard has added some "program guys" like Terrance Williams who should be around for four years, and he's done well on the transfer market under difficult circumstances. We're seeing him mold the roster to his vision for the program after taking over another coach's team, which almost always leads to attrition of the expected and unexpected varieties. Future offseasons should be less eventful.

The Future of Crisler

what if it didn't require a rivalry game to fill the lower bowl [Bryan Fuller]

Now that our society is taken out of group experiences causing us to value them more, and seniors are a lot more reticent to go out in groups, how will these two factors improve the atmosphere at Crisler in the years to come?

— Gordon (@gord93) May 20, 2020

I... well...

I'm going to withhold additional comment.

Shelter-At-Home Tips: Video Games

Got any good video game recs during all this? #mgomailbag

— Wade Goodell (@WadeGoodell) May 20, 2020

A part of this pandemic experience that's been eye-opening as a person with a chronic illness who's been mostly housebound for the last few years is that I've been more social during this time than I have in years because the rest of society has had to shift to something that's been a large part of my reality.

In high school and college, me and two of my closest friends spent most of our time together either outside playing sports or inside playing sports video games. We were those guys waiting outside GameStop for the midnight release of NCAA and Madden each year. We'd build dynasties together until the sun came up and spend rainy days playing round-robin head-to-head tournaments. One trip up north featured a series of Fight Night Round 3 so heated it almost derailed the vacation.

One friend still lives nearby, the other does not. When the latter would come into town before the pandemic, we'd get together and relive those days. When COVID-19 hit, we talked him—the final holdout—into getting a PS4 of his own, along with copies of the latest Madden and NBA2K. The 2K download finished before Madden arrived in the mail, so we picked three NBA teams, did a league-wide fantasy draft, and began an online franchise.

The game itself is fun. There are some bugs and exploits, as with pretty much any sports game, but the overall gameplay and look is remarkable. What's been way better, though, is throwing on the headset a few times each week and spending a couple hours in what amounts to a three-way call with two friends who aren't always inclined to pick up the phone—I'm the same way—and yammering away about virtual trades, draft prospects, and the upcoming playoffs.

It's been the perfect distraction for these times. We've spent a lot of time wondering why we hadn't started doing this years ago. There are no plans to stop whenever the pandemic ends.