THERE are a number of rule modifications in the 72nd renewal of the U.S. National Basketball Association, which unwrapped a week ago.
They include: reducing the total number of timeouts, shortening the length of timeouts, tightening up the halftime break, and restricting how many timeouts can be called in late-game situations.
The idea on the game-play tweaks, according to Byron Spruell, the NBA president of league operations, was to “fulfill our goal of improving game flow and pace of play. Fewer stoppages and less time without action, especially at the end of a game, will further enhance the viewing experience for our fans.”
With that in mind, here are some of the rule modifications in the NBA during the 2017-18 wars:
1-The maximum number of timeouts per game has been decreased from 18 to 14. The amount of timeouts was reduced by four in the last two minutes. Each team will have seven timeouts per game, with no restrictions per half.
2-All team timeouts are now 75 seconds. In the previous framework, “full” timeouts were 90 seconds and “20-second” timeouts were 60 seconds (huh? Mathematicians found it hard to explain this anomaly to world hoop fans). Both “full” and “20-second” ceasefires have been scrapped and substituted with team timeouts.
3-All four quarters will have a pair of mandatory timeouts (one per team), which will take place after the first stoppage under the seven- and three-minute marks.
4-The under-nine-minute mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth quarters have been eliminated.
5-Each team can enter the fourth quarter with up to four team timeouts.
6-Each team is limited to two team timeouts after the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter or upon the resumption of play following the second mandatory timeout of the fourth quarter. Under the old setup, each team had three timeouts in the final two minutes. Under the new scheme, teams get two timeouts in the last three minutes. Coaches now need to think twice before calling back-to-back timeouts or when teams trade timeouts during a single inbounds play.
7-Each team has two team timeouts per overtime period. Previously, a team had three.
Changes regarding game flow are as follows:
1-Referees will be assessing a delay-of-game violation if a free-throw shooter ventures beyond the three-point line between attempts.
2-Halftime will now last exactly 15 minutes for all games, starting immediately upon the expiration of the second quarter. A delay-of-game penalty will be issued if a team is not ready to start play at the expiration of the halftime clock. Good move. Halftime ceremonies – such as jersey number retirements and other special events – have often extended way past the allotted 15-minute break that sometimes affects player routines.
Another change in the NBA starting this season is the NBA trading deadline. The deadline for player exchanges has been moved up in February from the Thursday after the All-Star Game to the Thursday 10 days before Sunday’s annual midseason classic.
The 2018 All-Star Game, the 67th of its kind, will be held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 18, meaning the trade deadline will fall on February 8. The 2017 edition was held at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana last February 19 and the trade deadline on February 23.
The NBA felt the All-Star Game has a life of its own and player trade speculations should not, in any way, overshadow the festive activities such as what happened to problematic All-Star frontliner DeMarcus Cousins, whom the Sacramento Kings jettisoned in a trade while the game was going on and shipped to the New Orleans Pelicans to join forces with another All-Star frontliner Anthony Davis, who was on his way to register the most points by a player in NBA All-Star Game history with 52 points.
As to the All-Star Game itself, a new format will take effect in 2018 as two captains – the top vote-collector in fan balloting from both the East and Western conferences – will draft their respective teams’ starting fives and reserves without regard to which the conferences the players belong. The starting units eventually will be determined through a process where the fan vote is worth 50 percent, player vote worth 25 percent and media vote worth 25 percent.
Last season, Cleveland’s LeBron James topped the East fan balloting while Golden State’s Stephen Curry paced the West vote.
There will still be a dozen players selected for each conference and the old system where each conference’s head coach picks the seven reserves on his team has been retained.
The old All-Star Game format from last year that was scrapped also called for the starting fives of the two teams to be determined through the combined voting by the fans, players and media but with the traditional East All-Stars vs. West All-Stars framework intact.
Under the new system, the players from the same conference (or even club teammates) are now eligible to compete against each other and like before, the players also are still allowed to face their counterparts from the opposite conference.
The change was in part a joint effort by the NBA, led by Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan as the chair of the owners’ labor relations committee, and the players’ union headed by two-term president Chris Paul of the Houston Rockets.
Change also has come in the referees’ front. No, the NBA is not introducing a four-man officiating crew similar to what the NBA Development League – now to be called the NBA G League as part of a multi-year partnership with Gatorade – will be experimenting at the start of its 17th season next month (at least through November) with 26 teams (expanded to 27 in 2018-19) taking part in the NBA’s official minor-league basketball organization.
Instead, the NBA has named retired Air Force lieutenant general Michelle D. Johnson as NBA Senior Vice President and Head of Referee Operations effective October 16. Johnson, the first woman to lead the U.S. Air Force Academy, is heading the recruitment, training, development and evaluation of all referees and will be overseeing the NBA Replay Center, among other duties. She replaces 1972 Munich Olympian and former NBA player Michael Allen (Mike) Bantom, a 28-year NBA executive who is now a senior adviser for league operations after five years as executive vice president for referee operations.
Finally, there’s another change in the NBA horizon as the league has already agreed to reform the draft lottery system in time for the 2019 draft.
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