The NBA Rules Committee is considering awarding a second coaching challenge if the first is successful

The NBA is considering adjusting the coaches’ challenge system. Coaches are currently given one challenge to use during a game regardless of the outcome, but the league is considering adding a second challenge that would be used if the first is deemed successful. If a coach’s first challenge is unsuccessful, the second challenge will not be awarded. The potential change will be further investigated by the league’s competition committee in the coming weeks and ultimately subject to approval by the league’s board of directors.

“We’re definitely looking into it,” Byron Spruell, the NBA’s president of basketball operations, said during an appearance on ESPN’s “NBA Today” on Wednesday. “The race committee will review it over the summer. It’s still a process. We need to get it through a board vote over the summer, test it as well, but we feel like it’s an incremental move that we’d potentially like to see.”

The coaches’ challenge rule has been in effect for four seasons, and they’ve become an important part of the game, as they allow coaches to contest a call on the floor – something they could never do before. And to the obvious delight of more than half of the coaches who put forward challenges, Spruell said 53% of those appeals are overturned. Since coaches currently only have one challenge available to them, it’s common practice to wait until later in the game to use it. The addition of a second challenge could change the way we usually view challenges.

Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, for example, is in favor of the league adding a second challenge. ‘Yes. I think it would be good,’ said Spoelstra. “I don’t know about the unintended consequences, but I always feel like if I burn one, early in a game and you win it, it’s like, oh, gosh, I’d like another one.”

But doubling the potential number of challenges in each game can create more pauses in the action, which can make games take longer to complete.

As a way to counter that, in addition to maintaining a better overall product, the league is also exploring ways to further integrate technology into the refereeing process to ensure speed and accuracy, particularly in goaltending and out-of-bounds calls. in the match. last two minutes of play.

“We always want to get those calls right, and the timing and accuracy of those are important,” Spruell said. “Those are areas where they’re more objective and technology can look at that, and that would be assisted by the replay center. So an opportunity for technology to be looked at in the replay center, helped first and then be able to make those calls commit to the officials on the field.”