Explaining the NBA Rule Changes for 2025-26 Season, Including NBA Cup Bracket Format
The 2025-26 NBA season is set to kick off on Tuesday with a fantastic doubleheader. The reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder will host the Houston Rockets at 7:30 p.m. ET before the Los Angeles Lakers host the Golden State Warriors at 10 p.m. ET.
Another 12 games are scheduled for Wednesday, and with that, the race for the Larry O'Brien Trophy will be underway.
While the upcoming season won't feature any truly major rule changes, things may look a bit different because of some recent tweaks.
The 'Heave Rule' May Lead to More Desperation Shots
Formally approved at the NBA's board of governors meeting in September, the new "Heave Rule" is designed to lead to more deep shot attempts in the final seconds.
Beginning this season, any shot taken from at least 36 feet out and attempted within the final three seconds of the first three quarters of a game will count as a team shot attempt instead of an individual one. In other words, players will be free to chuck it from across the court as time expires without fear of hurting their personal shooting percentages.
In theory, this should up the entertainment value, even if players who regularly attempted desperation heaves, like Stephen Curry, believe a rule change wasn't necessary.
The New 'High Five' Rule is Meant to Protect Shooters
While not everyone may be thrilled about the league trying to protect shooting percentages, some will be happy about the league trying to protect shooters. That's the intention, anyway, of the NBA's new "High-Five" rule.
In the past, when a defender hit the hand or arm of a shooter during his follow-through, it wasn't considered a foul if the contact occurred after the ball was released. Beginning this year, though, officials will look for "secondary contract" and award a foul if the post-release contact is deemed intentional.
According to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, this tweak will aid three-point shooters like Curry.
"They're not allowing as much contact," Kerr said, per Farbod Esnaashari of SI.com. "The shooter is now able to follow through. The reason for the high-five rule is, the guy's shooting, they literally would get high-fived and that's now going to be a foul."
Of course, the potential downside of the high-five rule is that it will regularly lead to judgment calls. That could lead to more frequent breaks in the action and even more flopping.
2025 NBA Cup Will Kick Off on Halloween
While the Emirates NBA Cup is not a brand-new addition to the NBA season, it may still feel a little unfamiliar to casual NBA fans. This will mark the third iteration of the league's in-season tournament, which is designed to add some excitement and intensity to early regular season play.
In-season tournaments might be new to the NBA, but they're quite common in professional soccer leagues.
As was the case last year, the NBA Cup will begin with group play. The league's 30 teams will be split into six five-team groups—three from each conference—who will compete for a chance to play in the knockout stage.
The winner of each group—plus the team with the best record among non-group-winners in each conference—will advance to the knockout round. The knockout round will begin on December 9, and the tournament's semifinal and final games will be played at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
As was the case in the first two tournaments, NBA Cup games will also count as regular season games. What's different this year is that most games will be played on Fridays, with the first being played on Halloween. That's quite a bit earlier than the 2024 in-season tournament, which began on November 12.
