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NBA timeouts could see changes after testing conducted in the D-League this past season.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES |
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has made no secret of the league’s interest in changing basketball to appeal to a younger audience with a shorter attention span. In January for the NBA London Games, Silver spoke about the need to compress the length of the game with the league evaluating the number of timeouts allowed in a game’s final two minutes.
HEATHER BREEN
Vice president, sponsorship strategy and activation, MKTG
■ SUGGESTION: Every free throw situation should be one shot for either two or three points, depending on the shot attempt which drew the foul
““In the NBA, free throws account for 18-20 minutes of time in an average NBA game and they just aren’t compelling. This would make that process quicker and probably more exciting, since you are relying on one shot. Hopefully it would force players that aren’t to become better free-throw shooters. It would also make it a non-dead ball situation, eliminating the substitutions during the free throw, which would also speed up the game.””
The NBA’s D-League serves as a petri dish in addressing ways to speed up the flow of the game, especially during the last few minutes where timeouts bog down the action. For example, the D-League this year tested a new rule that uses “reset” timeouts in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime. This experimental change does not allow teams to huddle during the timeout, and if a team does huddle or stops the ball from immediately being put back into play, they are charged a delay of game warning followed by a technical foul. The league also tested a new rule that reset the 24-second clock to 14 seconds after an offensive rebound. This falls into the category of getting to game action faster.
The NBA, through the D-League, also tested a measure that limits the length of instant replay to 75 seconds, except for fights or other altercations.
The D-League this year also tested a new policy that allows a coach’s challenge over personal fouls or any other play that triggers a replay except for flopping. Each team gets one challenge in the fourth quarter or in overtime. It empowers the coach to get calls right, but it does insert a stoppage point in the game.
The impact of these experimental rules changes will be evaluated by the league’s NBA’s competition committee after the season.
— John Lombardo
