NBA Announces Multiple Rule Changes Including Instant Replay Tweaks
Whether it's possibly retooling the draft lottery process or experimenting with 44-minute games, new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver isn't afraid to make the changes he sees fit to improve the league.
While the NBA's most recent moves don't match the scope of those first two issues, they will certainly have an impact on how each game unfolds.
On Thursday, the league announced various tweaks to the replay process, player substitutions and the shot clock, per Jody Genessy of the Deseret News:
The changes for the latter two topics are rather straightforward. Any sort of substitution restrictions during timeouts have been lifted, and the shot clock won't automatically reset to five seconds after the defense forces a held-ball situation with fewer than five seconds remaining on the shot clock.
In regard to the former issue, the NBA made six different expansions and/or modifications to the replay process. One modification in particular caught the attention of the Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson:
Referees were previously unable to determine whether a foul was flagrant unless a flagrant foul was called on the floor. The Charlotte Observer's Rick Bonnell immediately thought of one instance during which the new rule would have come in handy:
You can view the offending play below.
The other replay tweaks include an increased ability for officials to view clear-path-to-the-basket fouls, plays related to the ball going out of bounds and when off-the-ball fouls are committed in relation to an attempted shot.
In addition to expanding replay for counting the number of players on the court, the league also changed the rule so that the team in possession will be tacked with a technical foul and lose possession. Previously, the team retained possession despite the technical.
Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel thought that all the replay adjustments were oddly timed considering the league's push to speed up games:
However, most of the changes look sensible on paper and shouldn't slow games down that much more than they already had been before.
The change to flagrant fouls should also give both referees and players more clarification and expediency going forward, which is the best for both parties.
