They say that the game will slow down, not speed up, and direly forecast a return to final scores in the 60s. As usual, the answer is probably somewhere in between, somewhere in the medium range, out there around 12 feet from the basket, a place from where, incidentally, nobody can shoot anymore. Zone defenses will now be played. And if you thought that they already were being played, well, uh, you're right. The referees just won't be tweeting the occasional technical for them now.
Purists tend to think that legitimizing the zone constitutes blasphemy.
They argue that the intent of the zone is to restrict movement. Reformers counter that this is the next evolutionary step, and they reason that if the athletes in the NBA really are the finest in the world, then they will adapt and adopt. They always have. And they probably will. There are, incidentally, some coaches who either will be pulled along in the wake of these changes or will drown in it.