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Unfortunately, it's nothing significant, and any real alteration of the struggling game is being put on the coaches and game officials, who will be asked to change what has become an exceedingly boring brand of basketball over the past five years or so. The league-wide average was only 91 points a game this past season -- the lowest since the 24-second clock was introduced in 1954 -- and only the Sacramento Kings averaged 100 points.

It's a purely cosmetic effort.

"The (competition) committee wanted things to change," said Rod Thorn, NBA vice president of operations. "We think we've put some things in place that will put us in a little bit better balance offensively and defensively. And we changed the illegal defense guidelines to get teams to play a little quicker."

We'll have to see about that.

In a rather surprising move, the committee has decided to allow any sort of defense on the strong side (or ball side) of the basket, with man-to-man stipulations on the weak side.

The other change is a player backing down the defender off the dribble below the foul line extended has five seconds to shoot, pass or just pick up the ball or it is a violation.

Following a violation, the shot clock will go to face value or 14 seconds, whichever is higher, instead of 24 seconds.

And last, a prohibition of forearm checking by the defense except below the free-throw line.

So the real change is coming in the way the game will be officiated, which makes the alteration of style over the past decade dubious at best.

"What we'd like to see are more fast breaks ... more opportunity shots like we used to have," Thorn said. "We want more possessions. When we were having teams all averaging more than 100 points and shooting 49-50 percent, there were 12-15 layups a game. It's not that the outside shooting was that much better."

The intermediate outside shooting was better. The 3-point shot has taken away the in-between jumpers in high school and college too, just as it did in the NBA 15 years ago. Now it has been a generation of a different kind of game. Offense today is all about dumping the ball into the low post and rotating the ball quickly enough for a 3-pointer or a one-on-one situation at the post.

They are encouraging changes in approach. The only problem is, they didn't change the rules enough to warrant that. If they really wanted to evoke a change in the NBA, then they should have just legalized zone defenses, shortened the shot clock from 24 to 20 or 21 and widened the lane.

"The advocates of any defense all said it would force teams to push the ball up the court," Thorn said. "We haven't gone there yet. We'll just have to see where this goes first. We didn't want to do anything drastic."

They obviously didn't.

Thorn lamented that nearly all 29 teams run the same offense. Teams don't push the ball like they used to for a number of reasons, not the least of which is less talented teams attempting to limit the number of shots taken.

"When the NBA was at its best from an offensive standpoint in the late '80s," Thorn said, "we were shooting the ball about 88 times a game. Every team in the league had a secondary (fast) break, which means if you didn't have a (full blown) fast break, you still took the break and you took an open shot of 15-18 feet. You didn't recycle it back out and use all 24 seconds. If you had it, you took it. All teams did."

Again, we're talking about coaching style and defensive approach. It appears Thorn and his committee are dreaming. Sure, there are some teams that will speed it up. But these rule changes amount to nothing more than a tweak.

It's a haircut that is nothing more than trim around the ears.

The real change will come in the manner in which the game is officiated, and they're counting on the players and coaches making the adjustments.

"It's gonna be a little bit harder to play this offense now," Thorn said. "There's going to be different looks. In every sport, about every 10 years, you have changes in the offense. In football, you had Mouse Davis' run-and-shoot. Think about it, in basketball we haven't had any innovation in a long time. What we're saying is, let's see some different looks and some innovation."

Sorry Rod, unless defensive hands are completely tied, the game remains the same.

This and that

The rumors persist about Dennis Rodman going to the Milwaukee Bucks, and general manager Ernie Grunfeld didn't deny it. "He's the great rebounder of our time," Grunfeld said. "It's definitely interesting." ... Scottie Pippen to the Lakers for a package that includes Glen Rice and others continues to make the rounds, too, as Lakers coach Phil Jackson is doing a great job of stoking those fires behind the scenes. ... The NBA will test for marijuana, ecstasy and PCP for the first time ever in training camp, as opposed to just cocaine and heroine. Veterans will only be tested in training camp, unless the league is notified for just cause. Rookies will be tested during camp and three other random times. The Players Association prevented veterans from suffering the same fate of four tests. The first time a player tests positive for marijuana, he'll be asked to enter a program, the second time, he'll receive a $15,000 fine, and from then on, it will be five-game suspensions without pay. ... The irony is not lost on the management of the Vancouver Grizzlies that the city plays host to the NBA Meetings beginning on the same day (Thursday) that Bill Laurie bought the team from John McCaw. Laurie, whose wife is a billionaire heiress to Wal-Mart, just recently bought the St. Louis Blues NHL franchise and the Kiel Center, where the Blues play. But Laurie, who lives in Columbia, Mo., is a basketball junkie who played at Memphis State and tried to buy the Denver Nuggets. There is little doubt he will move the team to St. Louis for the 2000-2001 season or the one after. "We haven't heard anything definitive about that," Grizzlies president Stu Jackson said. "But we would be naïve if we didn't think anything was possible with the future of the team. And it's difficult because we feel we've improved the team a lot and there's going to be backlash from this."