Joe Mazzulla's wild NBA rules proposals include power plays and fights – NBC Sports Boston

There are few minds that work like Joe Mazzulla's. As you might expect, when the Boston Celtics head coach was asked Tuesday about rule changes he would like to see in the NBA, the wheels immediately started turning.

Marc Bertrand, co-host of 98.5 The Sports Hub's Zolak & Bertrandbegan Tuesday's exchange by asking Mazzulla what he thought of a radical proposal to eliminate the corner 3-point shooter by making the 3-point line end about seven feet above the baseline.

Mazzulla countered with an even more radical proposal: a power play.

“Basketball is one of the few sports that doesn’t have a power play,” Mazzulla said, as seen in the video player above. “…Let’s say you get a technical error or let’s say you get a foul, you get that one shot, but you don’t really get rewarded for it because if you miss it, you don’t get the reward for it.” take one Foul.

“So there should be something like a power play where if you get a foul or a technical foul you have to play five-on-four for five seconds or three passes.”

In ice hockey, players have to go to the penalty box for two minutes while their team is playing outnumbered. Mazzulla would like to see a similar setup in basketball, but with a shorter time frame and the player serving his “penalty” on the other side of the court.

“I think we should introduce power plays where if you commit a foul, the player doesn't play the ball to the side, but goes to the other side of the half court and can't leave the half court circle until about three seconds later,” said Mazzulla.

That's a pretty creative proposal, even if there's very little chance the NBA will consider such a drastic change any time soon. But we're guessing Commissioner Adam Silver would prefer Mazzula's power play to the coach's other proposed rule change.

“The biggest thing we're robbing people of from an entertainment perspective is that you can't fight anymore,” Mazzulla said. “We should bring the fight back.

“I mean, if you're going to talk about stealing entertainment from the league, what's more entertaining than a little scuffle? How come they get to clear the benches during baseball? How come they’re allowed to (fight) in hockey?’ And every time someone gets clubbed, you don’t have to go to the monitor to see if there’s been a crime.”

If you know anything about Mazzulla, it's a good fit for the Celtics coach, who regularly practices Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and loves martial arts.

“I just don’t understand why some sports are allowed to clear the benches,” Mazzulla added. “They have clubs and guns. Not us, we only have a ball. I mean, the other sport has one of the hardest surface playing instruments with a puck and sticks, and yet we're not allowed to throw a little bit?”

It is not yet known whether Mazzulla will be invited to the next NBA Rules Committee meeting, but we would like to see him present some of these ideas to Silver and Co.