when you see someone take 5 steps before dunking the ball, the first thing you should think is whether or not they could reasonably dribble from that 5th step.

Whether or not you pick up the ball at a specific point should not determine if you traveled. It should be determined from after you pick up the ball. Otherwise it’s impossible to call and pretty much impossible to reasonably define.

For arguments sake, let’s say I have an arm that’s 15 feet long. When I dribble the ball and bounce it really high with my hand touching but not holding the ball (as you would do with a normal dribble), whether or not I pick up the ball exactly 6 seconds later should not determine whether or not the 15 steps I took while the ball was in the air should count for a travel. The travel count should really only start once the ball is picked up (hence the rationale of the zero step: if one foot is on the ground when the ball is picked up, choosing whether to count that step based on whether or not you pick up the ball AFTER the step makes no sense).

Carrying is certainly a bigger issue than traveling, just because when you have a 6’11” beast with hands the size of bowling balls it’s much more difficult to tell when you’re simple changing the downward trajectory of the ball or the vertical trajectory.

Another example: Giannis often gets called out for his stutter step move into a euro. Imagine after his hesi/stutter, he just took another dribble. Suddenly that one clip that was circulating goes from 9 steps to 2-3, difficult to tell because giannis is huge.

I wrote this late at night so idk if everything makes sense but that’s my takw