Taking a page from Major League Baseball and the National Football League, the NBA will implement coaching challenges in this year’s Summer League with the anticipation that they will be used in the 2019-2020 regular season according to a memo sent to all teams and acquired by ESPN.
Coaches will receive one challenge per game, whether it is right or wrong, and can only challenge called fouls, goaltending, basket interference and plays when the ball is knocked out of bounds according to the memo via ESPN. Interestingly enough, teams must have a timeout available when using the challenge, meaning a challenge cannot be used as a last-resort timeout.
The team must call a timeout immediately after the event it would like to challenge, and the coach must “twirl his/her index finger toward the referees” to signal for the challenge, the memo states via ESPN. If the challenge is successful, the team retains the timeout it used to stop play. If the challenge is unsuccessful, it loses that timeout similar to the NFL.
The NBA G League has actually been testing this type of coaching challenge system for the past two seasons. The important word in all of this is the anticipation that it will be implemented next NBA season. Two-thirds of the league’s teams must approve of the rule change at the July 9th Board of Governors meeting. For what it is worth, the memo also reportedly states, “Based on the feedback we have received, we expect it to be adopted.”
There have been a number of progressive ideas instilled in the G League over the past few years. Aside from new game rules like this coaches challenge, the G League is being set up more as a platform for young players to grow. The G League Elite camp has been altered to help young prospects. Former player Rod Strickland was tapped to lead the Professional Path program, which focuses on financial management and mental health to assure young athletes are ready to be pros. The G League salary was also raised last August. So the G League certainly has its uses as a “proving ground” for potential NBA ideas.
