Last year in Game 6 between the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, the Spurs had six guys on the court. It didn't wind up mattering because the ball was knocked out and Patty Mills subsequently missed a winner, so there was no harm, no foul. But the fact that the league couldn't correct it even after people noticed seemed problematic, given that the league has replay, but it's not allowed to be reviewed under the rules.
On Thursday the NBA announces a series of rule changes, with several related to instant replay, and among them was the ability to review how many players were on the court. From the NBA:
Expansion of Instant Replay Rules
Officials may utilize instant replay whenever they are not reasonably certain a team had an improper number of players on the court while the ball was in play.
Modification of Instant Replay Rules
Instant replay triggers that are currently in effect only during the last two minutes of regulation and the entire overtime period(s) instead shall be in effect only during the last two minutes of regulation and the last two minutes of overtime period(s).
Officials may now conduct an instant replay review whenever they are not reasonably certain as to which team should be awarded possession after a ball becomes out of bounds or whether an out of bounds in fact occurred during the last two minutes of regulation and the last two minutes of overtime period(s). Previously, officials could only use replay if they weren't reasonably certain as to which of two players on opposing teams caused the ball to become out of bounds.
Officials are now permitted to utilize instant replay whenever they are not reasonably certain whether a foul that was called meets the criteria of a flagrant foul. Previously, the foul had to be called a flagrant on the floor in order to utilize instant replay.
Officials are now permitted to utilize instant replay whenever they are not reasonably certain whether a foul that was called meets the criteria of a clear-path-to-the-basket foul. Previously, the foul had to be called a clear-path foul on the floor in order to utilize instant replay.
Officials may now utilize instant replay any time they are not certain when any player (offensive or defensive) without the ball was fouled relative to the timing of a successful shot. Prior to this change, officials could only review the timing when an offensive player without the ball was fouled.
Rules Changes
· If a team has too many players on the court while the ball is in play, (i) the offending team would both be assessed a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul and lose possession if it had possession at the time the violation was discovered, and (ii) the non-offending team would continue to have the option of either accepting or nullifying the game action that occurred during the violation. Previously, if the offending team had possession, it would keep possession of the ball despite the violation.
· Teams may freely substitute players whenever any timeout is called. Prior to this change, there were limited circumstances in which a team couldn't substitute for certain players at timeouts.
· The shot clock will no longer be reset to five seconds when a held ball is caused by the defense with fewer than five seconds remaining on the clock.
Each of these rules was recommended by the NBA's Competition Committee at its offseason meetings.
It's a good rule change, as are most of these. Much of this is just making the rules make sense. The downside is that the ability to review more broadly means that games could drag on even longer. Clear-path foul reviews are already interminable, and that's with it needing to be called first. But taking the review out of the first few minutes of overtime should help a little bit, overall.
Still, though, with any foul able to be reviewed for being a flagrant, with any clear path situation able to be reviewed, you're looking at a major increase in lag time, which is already driving fans crazy and worsening the arena experience. You wonder if that has anything to do with the 44 minute game they're testing this weekend. But evening the time of basketball to review ratio probably isn't great.
Either way, the league is always quick to adapt to rules which don't work the way they need to. The competition committee made some smart changes without going crazy. We'll see if any have unexpected results.
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