OT: The Charge Call needs to go

I guess I have two thoughts that are born both of my offiiciating and coaching experience.

As a coach, I would argue that taking a charge is playing good team/help defense. It is better than letting the offensive player score (NBA style). It is better than reaching across and trying to strip the ball - almost always will foul the guy instead.  As an official, it just makes it a difficult call to be sure that if the player is ever late, you call the block and make them pay for being late - not make them pay for attempting to draw a charge.

Also from a coaching perspective, if a team does a decent job at help defense, then your offensive players need to gain control. Pull up for a 8-footer. Hit a ball reversal for an open three.  Drop it off to the help-defender's guy. If a player is going full out "I'm drawign a charge on every possession," then he should be a predictable player and an easy one to beat.

Then eliminating the charge will only lead to more abuses of those then current set of rules.  You'll have offensive players taking straight off to the basket, even through players...because if there is any contact then a foul will automatically go on the defense.  If I were a coach or even a player under those rules I'd go right after their best player and run right into him/her over and over until he fouls out.  That's not basketball.

What happens when a defensive player actually moves his feet and has priority to a given spot on the floor before the offensive player gets there and the offense just bowls him over?  The offense wouldn't give it a second thought...they'd plow right into the player and draw the foul.  The offense currently has to adhere to good defense.  In the no-charge league, to the offensive player, this stationary defensive player makes a good target to plow into and draw a foul.

Eliminating the charge would be a free for all for the offense.  Yes, it would make the lives of every official easier not having to think about any charges and coaches wouldn't have to complain about the gray area between the two calls but taking it out of the game would bring more headache to the game than most probably realize.  Guys like Aaron Craft would foul out in minutes with his quick feet and ability to beat a guy to the spot on defense before the contact comes.

You may be annoyed with the game with charges.  It would be much much much more annoying without charges.

I know you can play defense without taking a charge, and the thought of someone trying to take a charge in a pick up game is comical. However, I would argue that in general pick up games are garbage basketball, and good defensive rotation is fun to watch if executed properly. I just think if you take the call out, offensive players will take advantage, and they already get all the advantages anyway. I think (B1G road games aside) that officials do get it right more than wrong, and I guess I don't see it as a huge problem.

You've got it backwards. In the 1980s, almost every game in the NBA went into triple-digits for both teams. The Bad Boy Pistons were known for their D, but they surrendered over 100 points per game in 1988-89 (which was still considered outstanding, as most teams were giving up 110).

The 1990s were when scoring dropped sharply. I think it was partly due to expansion watering down the talent level (going from 23 teams to 29) , but defense and athleticism in general became much more valued than before. A lot of the superstars of the 1980s were one-dimensional, offensive specialists. That changed in the '90s. Scoring is up slightly compared to the '90s, as the talent pool has expanded to fill out 30 rosters (the U.S. population has grown, plus the game has spread more internationally). Still, games are much lower-scoring than they were in the '80s.

Here are offensive efficiency numbers. In both college and pro basketball, an average team scores about 1.00 points per possession.  Interestingly, every team in the NBA has a lower offensive efficiency rating (by a significant margin) than Michigan basketball does.  Now, I think we have a very good offensive team by NCAA standards, but we aren't NBA-good.  We're just facing much less-talented defenses. 

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/offensive-efficiency

The NBA scores were much higher in the '80s. Check out the scores from the last Lakers-Celtics series in the '80s (1987).

I disagree.  The defender has the right to that space.  It's not like the defenders are running into the offensive guys.  They are getting to that position to be in the way should the offensive player try to drive to the basket.  All the offensive player has to do is pull up a couple feet beforehand and shoot a short jumper if he wants to avoid contact.  The fact that many players are too undisciplined to do this is not the defender's fault.  The offensive player does not have the automatic right to go to the rim unimpeded.

Then you're advocating something entirely different than the OP.  If you think the rule should be altered slightly, that's another story (though I still disagree). 

That said, you don't have any way of knowing what the defensive players' intentions are.  How can you tell whether he "wants" the ball handler to pass/shoot or run him over?  He's going where the player wants to go, forcing him to make a choice (which is an improvement over a lay up).  I'm sure the defender "wants" to take a charge, because that would result in a turnover, but that's not the only thing he trying to force.  That's just best case scenario.