New rule: for every overtime period played, all players, not just the ones who get in the game or are on the court at the start of the period, but truly all players, get one extra foul to use. The 6-foul limit was designed for 48-minute games; it only makes sense to increase the limit if the amount of minutes increases.
I just called up Adam Silver to tell him about this new rule which would’ve really helped Deandre Ayton tonight. I have his personal cell number (no, I’m not sharing it with you), and he’s always happy to talk to me about stuff that’s going on in the NBA or ideas I have for a better product. So I told him about this, and he was like “That sounds like a good idea in theory, but the refs already can barely count higher than 5 so if we go too much above 6 weird things will start happening.” and then he just hung up on me. What kind of weird things? I tried calling him again but this time he didn’t pick up, so I left a voicemail telling him that people don’t just hang up on DownToBuck.
Ayton, as implied, fouled out at some point during the dizzying blur of overtimes that concluded this epic Suns-Wizards battle. He was on his way to 30 points, which would’ve been a nice repartee to Thomas Bryant’s 31. Instead, Bryant wins this matchup handily despite having half the offensive skill as Ayton. I don’t know if the roasting will ever stop for Ayton; he’s always been known as an iffy defender, but allowing a player like Bryan to score that much on perfect shooting is a whole new level of iffy.