The NBA has instituted a rule change this season that will penalize teams whose bench players and coaches are crowding the sidelines and standing for long periods of time, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel (all Twitter links). Teams will initially be warned, then get a delay-of-game warning, then be assessed a technical foul.
Winderman clarifies that the rule won’t apply at the end of games, when everyone is often standing, and won’t affect head coaches as long as they’re not interfering with play. The goal is to reduce instances of players and coaches on the bench attempting to blatantly distract players on the court.
The new rule will likely become informally known as the Theo Pinson Rule — Pinson was viewed as the unofficial ring leader of the Mavericks’ bench mob that earned the team $175K in fines during the playoffs due to its “bench decorum” violations. However, Pinson is unfazed by the change, joking to reporters on Monday that he intends to “find a loophole,” as Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News writes.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- In a recent episode of The Hoop Collective podcast, Brian Windhorst of ESPN wondered if the surplus of competitive teams in 2022/23 might result in a few unexpected sellers at February’s trade deadline. “What I suspect will happen this year: there are too many good teams,” Windhorst said, per RealGM. “Too many teams are invested in winning. The lottery is very good. My suspicion is that some team, one to three teams, are going to get into January and realize, ‘It ain’t happening for us and we have to retrofit.'”
- A rule change in Liga ACB, Spain’s top basketball league, will allow veteran center Marc Gasol to suit up for Girona this season despite also owning the team, according to a Eurohoops report. Girona earned a promotion to the ACB after Gasol helped lead the club to a top-two finish in Liga LEB Oro, Spain’s second division, last season.
- In other international basketball news, veteran forward JaKarr Sampson has signed with China’s Liaoning Flying Leopards, per his agency Prostep Sports (Twitter link), while big man Kenneth Faried has joined Mexican club Soles de Mexicali, according to HoopsHype.
- The Athletic’s team of NBA writers pose the biggest question facing each NBA club entering training camp, while ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider-only link) provides an in-depth, team-by-team training camp guide.
I have a feeling that Dallas is going to underachieve this season and that will lead to some big changes.
Kenneth Faried not having a NBA job is mind boggling to me. The dude was solid and able to guard multiple positions. He was one of the better offensive rebounders and extremely athletic. I don’t see him getting another NBA job because a lot of it is NBA politics. I wish him well in life.
The issue with Faried is that he can’t score in any way other than the pick-and-roll. No post game, no handles, no jump shot, 65% FT shooter. He’s all athleticism and no skill. And he isn’t a good defender at all; opponents have consistently shot better than the league average from every distance with him as the closest defender for his entire career.
Spot on, nothing against the guy but the one positive he brings is athleticism and at nearly 33 that’s only going to fade.
Damn you just got down on Kenneth Faried but you are right so I’m not going to argue with you.
Who cares if he can’t score outside of the P&R. Nobody is saying that he should be a rotation player, but he definitely could be the 3rd or 4th big to play minutes when they’re injuries. Ed Davis has been in the league for many years and dude can only snatch a couple of rebounds. Faried not being in the NBA is deeper than just his play style.