Skip to content

NBA announces D-League rule changes: FIBA goaltending abandoned

Portland Press Herald / Getty

The NBA continues to leverage the D-League to experiment with tweaks to the rules of the game, the flow of play, and more.

One such experiment has been nixed for the coming season, as the D-League will no longer follow international rules for goaltending situations. The league will now return to using the NBA's rule, whereby there is an imaginary cylinder extending vertically from the rim, with players unable to touch a ball that's touching said cylinder. The FIBA rule called for a ball to be live once it hit the rim.

Last season, the D-League introduced a coach's challenge, gave officials headsets for improved communication, and changed some minutiae regarding fouling and advancing the ball, among some other tweaks. Those tweaks had varying degrees of success in improving the speed of games, particularly at the end, but they weren't all perfect in their first iteration.

The D-League announced their full list of rule changes for the coming year Friday, which includes the limiting of end-of-game coach's challenges, and further adjusting of formats for timeouts.

Here are some other important tweaks:

  • Coaches can still challenge personal foul calls or any play that triggers replay.
  • Coaches will now only be afforded one challenge in the fourth quarter and one in each overtime period, and the coach must call a legal timeout in order to make a challenge. The timeout is retained if the challenge is successful, otherwise they'll be charged for it.
  • Teams will be allowed four full timeouts and three 30-second timeouts during regulation play, with a maximum of two 30-second timeouts and an "advance," introduced last year, during the final two minutes of play.
  • Said "advance" rule, whereby teams can stop play without using a timeout in order to push the ball to the 28-foot marker once in the final two minutes of a game, will continue to be used.

Daily Newsletter

Get the latest trending sports news daily in your inbox