The NBA board of governors voted yesterday to approve rule changes to try to make the basketball games fluid and quicker, especially at the end of games. Commissioner Adam Silver discussed the changes that were made as well as the ones that were not voted on at a press conference that intrigued many.
NBA votes to make changes to timeouts
The NBA board of governors voted and approved making sweeping rule changes to how timeouts work during games, especially in the final two minutes. The number of timeouts per game will be decreased from 18 to 14, meaning that teams will only have seven timeouts at their disposal each half.
They also approved a new rule that would limit the number of timeouts a team can use in the final two minutes from three to two. This will also apply to overtime.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that these changes are aimed at increasing the “pace and flow of the game.” There will also be no more restrictions on timeouts. Previously, teams had 90-second "full timeouts" and 60-second "20-second timeouts." Now all timeouts will be 75 seconds long.
Earlier start to the season, a timed halftime, and a new trade deadline
It was also revealed by Adam Silver that the NBA season would be starting on October 17, which is eight days earlier than last year. Starting the season earlier is aimed at dealing with the player rest issue and eliminating the number of back-to-back games.
Halftime for all games will now last exactly 15 minutes, with a clock to time the event. If a team is not ready at that time, they will be issued a delay of game penalty.
The NBA board of governors also voted to move the trade deadline from the Thursday after the All-Star game to the Thursday ten day before the game. This move was done to give players more time to acclimate themselves to their new city and team in the event of a trade.
No conference rebalancing or realigned playoff seeds
Adam Silver did state at his press conference that the NBA is not considering rebalancing conferences or changing the playoff alignment. These concerns have been raised by some after about 20 years of dominance by the more talented Western Conference and with NBA stars Paul George and Jimmy Butler moving from the East to the West.
Silver did say that both issues have been discussed in the past, and he did admit that "many" were in favor of a 16-seed playoff when the topic was last discussed two years ago.
However, he stated that kinks would have to be worked out like if reseeding should happen after each round. Silver said the biggest issue in their calculations was all the increased travel this would cause for players and basically stated that the science of travel has not caught up enough to make this possible, especially for coastal teams.
