Should "hockey assists" count as an assist in basketball?

In the game of basketball, we have seen major changes in the rules from the shot clock, the 3 second lane, to the three point shot. I also do think that we should consider "hockey assists" as an assist in basketball.

Pros

• Recognition is given to players for initiating plays that lead to the pass which made the bucket. These are commonly known as "hockey assists" where in ice hockey, up to two players can be credited for a goal being scored. Watch this video for a hockey assist in the NBA:
  

In this play, Kevin Garnett gets an assist after Paul Pierce made the bucket. However, realize that Ray Allen passed to Garnett before the pass to Pierce. If two players get a dime like in the NHL, KG gets a dime, but so does Ray because he had the awareness to get it to KG to make that pass.

• The use of having two people get assists in basketball could encourage more team play since players love racking up stats, and assists when two people get them are a measure of team play much more than a regular assist with a selfish player. Some players could try to rack up assist numbers by holding the ball for a long time, and then dish it out at the last minute. Basketball has become more iso-oriented in recent years thanks to MJ, AI, and Kobe.
  

Cons

• Assist totals could be inflated when compared with earlier players. God knows how many dimes Stock or Magic could've had if they got credit for passes leading to the current basketball assist.
  
• Given the nature of ice hockey, you can't really have too many isolation plays. As good as Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby and the Sedin twins are when they're handling the puck, turnovers are much easier to come by and goals are much harder to make than they are in basketball.
  

Best example of a two man assist in the NHL. Part of the first pass is cut off, but it still shows the point. This is a hockey version of an alleyoop slam dunk.

The Cavs did this one year. LeBron was far and away the team leader.

yes. But make them different from regular assist that way your 'cons' don't exist.

To tell the truth, I always thought that was lame about hockey.

I don't think people need that stat. Plus, like you put Stockton and Magic's hockey assist would just make heads explode.

A high scoring hockey game is like 4 to 5 goals.

A high scoring basketball game can range from 115 to 120+ points.

I think it's an easier stat to use in hockey.

Soccer also allows two people to get an assist but given the nature of soccer on a larger field, there aren't many times where two assists are given for a goal.

In hockey, there is some differentiation on assists, at least in the box score. For the NHL, the player who made the basketball assist (pass to the scorer) is the primary assister, and his name shows first in the box score. The second name, if applicable is the secondary assister.

In the goal you saw, Alex Ovechkin and Tyler Sloan both got assists. Ovechkin got the primary assist because he passed to Semin for the goal, and Sloan (you see his quick pass somewhere in the hockey video).



Box score for the game is here to show the differentiation between primary and secondary assisters):
http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/boxscore;_ylt=Ah8fqattSdwgiYIvlmoq2B4rvLYF?gid=2010111423

Here is another basketball translation of the sick hockey play we saw by the Caps where you see a secondary assist:


Points for Deandre Jordan
Primary Assist: Drew Bledsoe (passed to Jordan)
Secondary Assist: Al-Farouq Aminu (who passed to Bledsoe)

What I could see is a primary assist (current assists become primary assists), secondary assists are the new stat, and TOTAL ASSISTS. Kind of like how rebounds are differentiated between offensive and defensive rebounds.

statkeepers are demanding a raise if this happens...

I want to throw in something here.

Not all passes leading to made field goals should count as assists. Here is an example:


With current basketball rules:
Points given to Sue Bird for a three point shot
Assist to Tanisha Wright (who passed to Bird)

If pure hockey rules were in effect, the inbounds passer (I don't know who it was) would also have an assist. However, given that the point guard, Tanisha Wright dribbled the ball down court multiple times and passed it to the shooting guard, Sue Bird for the three, there is no
secondary assist given.

If I added secondary assists as an official stat, and inbounds passer could get the dime in one of two scenarios:

1.The inbounds passer on this play passed the ball to Wright who passes it to Bird who makes a shot with Wright not dribbling the ball.

2. The inbounds passer on this play passed the ball to Wright who dribbles once but no more than twice, then passes it to Bird who makes a shot.

3. If scenarios 1 or 2 happen, then Bird dribbled the ball once but no more than twice, then she makes the shot, these assists still are counted.

Kind of hard for me to explain without showing videos and more videos.

One more scenario of a nice play involving multiple players where a similar play in hockey would have multiple assisters, but in basketball there's one assist:


In hockey, Stoudemire gets a bucket
Primary Assist: Steve Nash
Secondary Assist: Leandro Barbosa

Even if a secondary assist rule applied, Barbosa doesn't get a dime because Nash dribbled four times before Amare got the pass for a dunk.

I Love you wrote:

statkeepers are demanding a raise if this happens...

They deserve it. I hope we don't see a stoppage in play to see who gets secondary assists though. I showed two examples where NHL two assist opportunities don't apply in the NBA.

No, it's a dumb idea

If they were recorded...it'd be hard to keep track of.

Also if they did keep track, it should be separate from the normal assist.