 When one basketball team is trailing another and the clock starts winding down they have three problems One they need to score points two They need to stop the other team from scoring points and three they constantly have less and less time to accomplish this So what's the easiest option when you don't have the ball you found the other team on purpose? This solves one of their problems because it stops the clock ticking down toward their inevitable doom Of course They also have to hope that the leading team misses their free throws so that they can again get the rebound run Down the court get another basket and then repeat the whole process over again if this sounds like an unlikely way to get a win That's because it is the problem is there's no alternative So while it's only a small chance teams continue to do it It's difficult to put an exact number on it But intentional files occur in somewhere around half of NBA and NCAA men's basketball games But they almost never result in a team coming back to win Nick Elam the fearless hero of today's story calculated that out of 535 NBA games in which a team fouled late the fouling team still lost in regulation 96.6% of the time Only 0.4% won in regulation while the other 3% just forced overtime According to a highly rigorous study conducted by me based on one random NBA a game I watched the clock stops for about 40 seconds for a player to shoot a pair of free throws So an extra two intentional fouls in half of NBA games means that fans are watching players stand around for over 13 hours in a season for basically no reason. Let's go folks time is money Okay, so what's the solution here Elam came up with a hybrid duration format Which has since been dubbed the elemending because that sounds better a game with the elemending would have two portions Hence the hybrid format will use the NBA and their 48 minute games for an example The game would be completely normal until there were three minutes left in the fourth quarter at this point The next time place stops two things happen first the game clock is turned off and second a target score is determined At this point you're probably wondering if intentional files really are that big a deal And why do we need to bring long division into this but here amount so we have two hypothetical basketball teams Let's call them the Celtics in the Lakers. There's an errand pass and the ball goes out of bounds with two minutes And 58 seconds left. We're gonna turn the clock off now They're not the shot clock that stays and to calculate our target score All we have to do is add seven points to the leading teams total since the Celtics are winning 80 to 75 Our target score is 87 points. In other words, the first team to score 87 points is the winner No matter how long it takes the Lakers no longer have a game clock to contend with and thus they only have two goals Score points and prevent the Celtics from scoring points, you know playing basketball They have no incentive to foul because all they would do is put the Celtics on the line Which would give them a high likelihood of scoring and getting closer to the target score The interesting thing though is that it doesn't just solve the intentional foul issue in a normal game The winning team gains an advantage from holding the ball as long as they can't just to drain the clock Which is also not much fun to watch But this is no longer the case because now they have the same goal score points and stop the other team from scoring points It also eliminates the trailing team from rushing down the core to breakneck speeds Just to chuck the ball up at the hoop as quickly as they can and this in turn actually increases the chances of a comeback Because now that they don't have to worry about fouling the closest guy in sight It will reward teams for playing good basketball rather than getting lucky by throwing up wild shots Why seven points though? Good question. I'm glad you asked three minutes The portion of the game we're eliminating is one sixteenth of a 48 minute game while seven points is about one 16th the total points a team scores in an average NBA game In other words on average it would take a team three minutes to score seven points Now theoretically the game could be over in just three possessions a pair of two pointers and three and the game is over But on average a team scores one point per possession So it will likely take a little longer than that the threat However that they could end it very quickly would spur the losing team on to play harder Elon points out that while most intentional files only occur in the final minute Only eliminating one minute by using the same ratio would mean that the target score would only add two or three points Thus potentially ending the game on the next position and that's too boring Wouldn't this eliminate the buzzer beater though kind of it would eliminate the dramatic scene of the game winning shot Taken with the ball hanging in the air as time expires while the whole arena watches with baited breath Except no, I lied because it wouldn't eliminate that at all Remember a game where the target scores 87 we can easily imagine the Lakers making a comeback and tying the game at 85 points You're really gonna try to convince me that the creation of a next-shot wins scenario would be boring I don't think so and actually if that wasn't good enough Literally every game with the e-limiting features a walk-off winning basket How does an alley-oop from half court to win a game sound on the excitement scale all games would end on a basket Not some guy holding the ball at center court for 20 seconds while everyone else starts shaking hands and high-fiving Spike Lee There's got to be something wrong with this though, right? There are a number of issues that people have raised with it But nothing that under analysis seems to be anywhere close to the current format in the intentional foul issue is If you want to read a compilation of them, I'll link Elon's page of responses in the description at over 22,000 words. It's quite thorough Elon has said that it's a constantly evolving idea and it can easily be adapted to switching up the target score or changing How certain situations are handled the basketball tournament Which is a yearly tournament that any team can enter and has a winner-take-all prize of two million dollars Started to use the e-limiting in 2017 their response has been overwhelmingly positive They did find a bit of a bug in the system in which teams that were one or two points shy of the target score began intentionally fouling the other team when that team was three points shy of the target score This would take away the option to shoot a three-pointer Force them to shoot only two free throws and give the fouling team a possession again But the good news is this was counteracted by a simple role change for the tournament coming up this year In which a fouled team in the untimed portion of the game gets one foul shot and possession of the ball Which frankly wouldn't be horrible in regular gameplay as it's just more incentive not to foul And it would keep gameplay going So the e-limiting stop the clock with three minutes left Add seven to the winning teams total to determine your target score and have at it. There's no more over times There's no more dragging the game out There's always excitement at the end of the game and everyone gets home a little earlier