There may be some new rules for NBA fans to get familiar with when the new season starts in October. The league’s board of governors is expected to vote on three proposed changes when it meets September 20 and 21, with each new rule needing a two-thirds majority for approval.
The new regulations, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, involve resetting the shot clock to 14 seconds instead of 24 after offensive rebounds, redefining a clear-path foul and expanding what can trigger an instant replay to determine whether a “hostile act” has been committed.
Fans of the international game are likely familiar with the 14-second rule, which is designed to speed up play and create more opportunities for losing teams to rally late in a game. In addition to FIBA, the rule has also been used by the G League, the WNBA and the NBA in its summer league contests.
Wojnarowski states that the changes to the clear-path rule would apply to these conditions:
- “A personal foul is committed on any offensive player during his team’s transition scoring opportunity.”
- “When the foul occurs, the ball is ahead of the tip of the circle in the backcourt, no defensive player is ahead of the offensive player with the scoring opportunity and that offensive player is in control of the ball or a pass to him has been released.”
- “The defensive foul deprives the offensive team of a transition scoring opportunity.”
A clear-path violation would still result in two free throws plus another possession for the team with the ball.
The league wants to expand the “hostile act” rule beyond its current limitation of player vs. player. If approved, a hostile act could also involve threatening behavior by players toward referees, coaches or fans.
We want to get your opinion on these proposals. Should the board of directors approve all three of them, and will they help improve the NBA product? Please leave your responses in the space below.
No such thing as “instant replay” try cutting back instead of adding more. I do like the 14 second rule though that should make it more interesting at the end of close games.
They should be able to replay more things but they should use it less. It’s stupid when you see clear missed calls in games but the rules say refs can’t review those certain plays.
Why don’t we get better referees that don’t give the warriors the best 6th man in the world
Uh the warriors essentially don’t get foul calls. Look at the yearly stats. The league does everything it can to slow the warriors down, including insanely lopsided calls. Heck, go back and objectively watch the finals the Cavs won, it’s pretty obvious the refs manipulated the entire series.
More lessons in unintended consequences…
The 14 second rule may not extend games as intended, due to behind teams not fouling after giving up an offensive rebound, instead playing out the 14 secs.
But thats good IMO, endgames are long enough as it is. It’s bizarre that the league wants even more last-second fluff (and time to sell TV ads– wait I get it)!
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I have seen players pick up a technical AND a flagrant-1, giving them new life. If they had gotten 2 techs or 2 flagrant1s, they would have been expelled. But one of each, still kicking! (maybe literally!)
History: The NBA was not happy with how refs handled technicals, because they would refuse to call a second one and thus change the course of a game with a player missing (like Draymond in the ’16 finals).
But with two types of ejection counts, they essentially gave the refs 4 possible (old-style) technicals before ejection– the opposite effect intended by the league!
The “hostile” foul puts behavioral-type fouls into a THIRD ejection track, the six common foul count. (I think? No mention of a new track.)
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Disagree with expanding hostile foul to fans/refs/coaches anyway. It will just have the effect of penalizing players for simple things like a hard mean stare. (like Rodman used to get. Bogus)
People should be able to deal. If there’s an actual punch involved there are already standards.
It’s all in how the refs execute, not the smorgasboard of options.
Agree with the technicals, they should be techs regardless of the context. I don’t like that once players get their first technical they know that they probably won’t get a second unless they do something much worse.
Agree with Lord Banana, use it less but well, for the decisions that really matter, no good to say that certain plays cannot be replaid.