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It’s become hard to ignore the number of NBA players who seemingly refuse to attempt to make an unlikely shot with the clock winding down in a pretty shameless attempt to pad their stats, and that could potentially become a thing of the past thanks to a new experiment that will be conducted in the G League this season.
There aren’t many plays with the potential to get an NBA arena to explode quite like a player hitting a bucket from behind the half-court line to beat the buzzer at the end of a quarter, and when I was learning to play basketball growing up, every coach I had stressed the importance of trying to get a bucket off in those situations even if there was virtually no shot it would end up going in.
After all, you never know when those three points could end up being the difference in the game, but in recent years, more and more NBA players have started taking the coward’s way out by either waiting until the clock expires to throw up a pointless shot or simply holding onto the ball they could have easily heaved up in a blatant attempt to keep their shooting percentage as pristine as possible.
There’s one very notable exception to that rule in the form of Boston Celtics long-distance specialist Payton Pritchard, and while part of me understands why guys are hesitant to attempt low-percentage shots in a league where every single stat is taken into consideration when it comes to handing out contracts and awards, the basketball purist in me rejects the trend on sheer principle.
Now, the NBA has decided to address the issue with a new rule it will be testing out at the G League level this season, as it recently announced a new initiative that will credit “end-period heaves” as a team statistic that doesn’t count against an individual player’s stats if they miss.
The NBA G League continues to serve as the NBA’s research and development laboratory. For the 2024-25 season, experimental playing rules include the expansion of the Coach’s Challenge and recording certain End-of-Period “Heaves” as team missed field goal attempts.
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— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) October 21, 2024
According to the memo outlining the experiment, the rule applies to situations where the ball is inbounded in the backcourt with three seconds or less remaining on the clock during the first three quarters, and any shot released below the outer edge of the logo (around 36 feet from the basket) will be ruled as a team attempt.
If the basket is made, the player will be credited with a successful attempt, and a defender will also be credited with a block if they’re able to get their hands on the shot that will still fall under the team umbrella on the offensive side of the ball.
This seems like it has the potential to be a pretty adequate fix, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see if that ends up being the case.