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“Heaves” rule change
For Thursday, Nov. 6
From Aschburner

The NBA might want to pre-emptively apologize now, while this season still is fresh, for any longer wait times at the restrooms during halftime or slower lines at concession stands.
The opportunity to get a head start to the concourse a few seconds before each half or quarter break might be significantly curtailed thanks to a 2025-26 rule change. The league has altered how it tracks and allocates those desperation shots in the dwindling seconds of each period, in hopes of getting more of them that matter.
A logical consequence is that fans will stay in their seats longer, right to the final horn or buzzer, lest they miss a memorable, miracle fling, a highlight of the night and potentially the turning point of the game.
“It’s about wanting to make every moment of the game competitive,” said James Jones, the league’s new executive vice president, head of basketball operations. Jones played 14 years in the NBA and most recently served as president of basketball operations and general manager of the Phoenix Suns.
Here is what’s new, besides Jones moving into the job previously held by former Detroit Pistons star Joe Dumars:
Any shots taken within the final three seconds of the first three quarters, launched from at least 36 feet away on plays that begin in the backcourt, will no longer count as missed field-goal attempts in the shooter’s stats line. It will be added to team statistics, make or miss, but will be a free shot for the players, only counting as 1-of-1 if successful.
The rule change was approved at the Board of Governors in September after being tested in the summer league games in Las Vegas, Utah and California.
The intent? Increase the number of legitimate attempts, thereby reducing the familiar charade in which a player will somehow manage to get his heave off a split-second after time has run out. Even when one of those tardy shots hit, it was anti-climactic rather than game-altering.
“I think everyone knew what they were doing and why they were doing it,” Jones said. “It was an unspoken understanding of ‘I know what you’re doing but I can’t blame you.’ Because of the implication.”
The results so far have been notable. More shots that beat the buzzer were taken in the first two weeks, per NBA.com stats, with more highlight buckets:

So there has been a 66.7% increase in attempted “prayer” shots (105-63), with three successful ones compared to one at a similar point last season.
In Denver’s second game this year,Jamal Murray took an inbounds pass against Phoenix with 2.8 seconds left in the first quarter. A newfound seriousness was evident as the Suns converged two defender on him, well behind the halfcourt line. Murray’s shot swished with the horn still blaring, the red light already on.
Granted, it might have seemed silly for athletes paid millions of dollars to sweat over an occasional failed attempt, literally a longshot, that would drag down his field-goal rate way to the right of the decimal point. But Jones noted that for players with a knack for taking and sometimes making them, the misses could add up.
The NBA and Basketball-Reference.com have tracked “backcourt shots” in the past, with NBA.com updating its stats glossary to meet the new definition (36 feet or more). Based on Basketball-Reference.com’s data for last season, Denver’s Nikola Jokić hoisted the most (22), making two of them. New York’s Mikal Bridges (0-for-12) and Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards (0-for-10) bravely ranked second and third in willingness to miss.
Do the math – eliminate the misses from their 3-point rates – and Jokic’s would bump up from 41.7% to 44.3%. Bridges would improve from 35.4% to 36.4%, and Edwards would have gone fromi 39.5% to an even 40.0%.
Among the concerns: At the negotiating table in the summer, a tough GM might point to the numbers without regard for those valiant but futile efforts. So everyone, fans and players alike, saw the winks and understood.
“I used to be the grumpy old guy sitting on the porch yelling at people who didn’t take that shot because they were afraid of what it does to their shooting percentage,” Golden State sharpshooter Steph Curry said this fall about the “heave” rule. “Now guys’ll be out there just throwing it up.”
Said Jones: “Let’s be real – this is a league where you’re paid for performance. So this could mean the difference between being in the Top 5 in 3-point percentage or being invited to the 3-Point Contest.
“If your best shooter is always the one … putting up two full-court shots, you can just imagine after 20 or 30 attempts, how a 0.5% chance of making it is killing his percentages.”
Coaches would like to think their players all would put the team before individual statistics, but they’re realists, too.
“This has been talked about for many years,” Indiana’s Rick Carlisle said during a break at the National Basketball Coaches Association’s preseason meetings in Chicago. “My hope is that it’s going to be a positive. I would expect a lot more long shots to be made. Big momentum plays.
“A lot of our guys shoot the ball no matter what, some more than others. But I don’t have stats on who’s done it, who doesn’t.”
Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault, Carlisle’s Finals counterpart, has seen and felt the impact of a well-aimed, extra-long fluke 3-pointer.
“There’s an element of good fortune and, if your team makes one, it can be deflating to them or it can be a momentum shift for you,” Daigneault said.
Historically, teams didn’t practice shots from midcourt or beyond. A coach sometimes might line up players to shoot them at the start of practice on a challenge that, if one of them hit, the workout would be over. Now it almost behooves a team to add such situations into their situational scrimmages.
An even better strategy? “We try to make sure we’re not the team getting the ball with less than five seconds left,” Daigneault said. “We like to manage the clock better than that. But we have competitors and if we are in that situation, our guys try to score.”
Without penalty now.

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