re: Should basketball coaches be able to decline free throws?

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Wrong. With one minute left, it behooves the team who is ahead to keep the ball rather than shoot free throws. This creates a scenario far worse than what we currently have. The trailing team inevitably will keep fouling, and the only thing that will happen is a lot of inbound plays. What we have now is way better.

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If I'm a coach who is up 2 with a minute left, and my guy who is an 85% free throw shooter gets fouled, there's a damn good chance I have him shoot those and try to stretch to a two possession lead, than risk having to inbound the ball with that slim a lead (remember, if team that's down doesn't foul, and I don't convert, they now have the ball down two...so coaches would not foul on purpose in this situation).

Also, as to your point about "a lot of goons on the bench with zero fouls", that also doesn't make sense...a foul resets the shot clock, so if your strategy is just "foul relentlessly with my bench guys", you will either have all your bench guys foul out without ever gaining possession, or those guys will get torched by the opposition before they can foul.

You have yet to post one thought in this thread where I go "that's actually a good point." Like I said earlier, the only real objection I can imagine would be that there would still be the same number of fouls, just that they'd be followed by inbounds passes. But, as was the point of this thread, the team who is getting fouled should get to weigh the risk/reward of trying to extend with FTs or inbound against pressure.