NBA Developmental League To Usher In Rules Experiment

The NBA’s Developmental League will begin experimenting with a coaches’ challenge for replays, as personal, shooting and offensive fouls can be challenged

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The NBA’s Developmental League will truly be developmental when its season begins on November 14, as coaches will be able to challenge personal, shooting and offensive fouls via replay.

Challenges will be one of several new rules changes the NBDL will tinker with. Coaches will be able to advance the ball and bring in substitutions without the use of a time out, while the number of fouls before shooting free throws will be increased from four to five. Each of the chances are being done with the focus of making the games more fast-paced.

“Certainly toward the end of the game you want to keep that fast-paced action going,” said NBDL vice president of basketball operations Chris Alpert.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the changes will be away from the ball fouls, aka the “Hack-a-Shaq” strategy for putting poor free throw shooters on the line. The rule will be limited to just the final two minutes to the entire game. A team whose player is intentionally fouled in that span will have the choice of choosing which player will shoot the ensuing free throws.

“We feel that implementing that for the entire game will reduce the number of times that it will happen over the course of the entire game,” Alpert said.

Should that rule come to the NBA, the likes of the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan and Robert Drummond of the Pistons will breathe a sigh of relief.

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