At the annual Board of Governors meetings, the NBA decided to change some rules to hopefully speed up the already high tempo game. Adam Silver held a press conference in Las Vegas to discuss the changes and NBA.com released the rule changes
The rule modifications for timeouts are below:
- Each team will have seven timeouts per game, with no restrictions per half.
- All team timeouts will be 75 seconds. In the previous format, “full” timeouts were 90 seconds and “20-second” timeouts were 60 seconds. Both “full” and “20-second” timeouts have been replaced by team timeouts.
- All four periods will have two mandatory timeouts, which will take place after the first stoppage under the seven- and three-minute marks.
- The under-nine-minute mandatory timeouts in the second and fourth periods will be eliminated.
- Each team can enter the fourth period with up to four team timeouts.
- Each team will be limited to two team timeouts after the later of (i) the three-minute mark of the fourth period or (ii) the resumption of play after the second mandatory timeout of the fourth period.
- Each team will have two team timeouts per overtime period; previously teams had three.
The NBA also made the following changes regarding game flow:
Referees will assess a delay-of-game violation if a free throw shooter ventures beyond the three-point line between attempts.
Halftime will last 15 minutes for all games, beginning immediately upon expiration of the second period. A delay-of-game penalty will be issued if a team is not ready to start play at the expiration of the halftime clock.
There was nothing new on rule changes when it comes to resting players, like Adam Silver suggested, but these adjustments will be nice during the last portion of NBA games when things slow down heavily. The NBA continues to do a good job making the game a steadily adaptive professional sport.
