Erik Spoelstra embracing NBA’s timeout from timeouts
MIAMI — Goran Dragic had just trimmed what had been a 17-point Miami Heat deficit to two with 2:39 to play Wednesday night against the Orlando Magic.
The comeback was furious, but this also was when the typical NBA game would turn into a slog.
Only this time — and likely this season — that wasn’t the case. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra would call only two timeouts the rest of the way, Magic coach Frank Vogel just one.
Not necessarily because they didn’t want to huddle, but because they couldn’t.
As part of the NBA’s game-flow initiatives this season is the reduction in the number of overall timeouts, with a particular emphasis on the final two minutes. Where there previously could be a maximum of six total timeouts in that timeframe, there now is a limit of two per team.
Spoelstra said he appreciates the thought behind the change.
“I think it helps,” he said before Wednesday’s loss at the Amway Center. “All the studies are out there about attention spans for everybody. So now we’ll cater to this generation and study it as much as everybody else is.
“But I get it. In timeouts, that’s probably where I notice it the most, is when I’m watching a game on TV.”
And that’s the thing, most coaches, the very technicians of the elongated endings, are the ones who had been mostly spared from the seemingly ceaseless stoppages under the previous rules.
“That’s why most coaches struggle to watch a real, live game with all the stoppages,” he said. “We’re used to watching edited games without commercials: fast-forward, rewind and you can zip through action, get right to the meat of it. So it is tough watching a playoff game with a ton of timeouts at the end.”
The timeout change is among several modifications designed to help speed games, including new delay-of-game violations called when players stroll beyond the 3-point line between free throws, the overall reduction of timeouts from 18 to 14, timeouts running 75 seconds instead of the previous 90 seconds (20-second timeouts have been eliminated), and a hard and fast 15-minute limit for halftime even if a game is on national television, without the previous built-in delay for walk-off interviews.
“I love the fact that the league is always adapting, evolving,” Spoelstra said. “In terms of the timeouts, I’ve said that before, as a head coach you always want more timeouts. You want to have that flexibility at the end of the game to be able to help your team.
“But when I’m watching games, I want there to be less. I want to see less timeouts, where the games go a bit quicker at the end. You want to just see the action. So I get it. We’ll adapt. Whenever there’s rules changes, regardless, players or coaches, you eventually adapt, and we’ll do that, as well.”
Spoelstra said he would not mind taking it a step further, having the NBA adapt the development alleague experimental rule that allowed teams to advance the ball to midcourt late in games without being allowed to huddle and stop the flow.
“I actually was in favor of the advance and not a timeout,” he said. “I think that was really interesting, speed it up. I enjoyed it during summer league when I saw it. And I think you can catch teams a little bit off guard. We like to do that off the rebound. When they don’t know what’s coming and the defense isn’t totally set, I think the offense has an advantage.”
For now, the late-game approach remains a work in progress, with less flexibility for adjustments in the final two minutes.
“It probably will change the rotation maybe a little bit before that, where we were in such a routine of when to take guys out, put ’em back in and how long guys could go,” he said. “So we’ll probably have to work through that a little bit. As a staff, we’ve been talking about that.”
The result could be fewer offensive-defensive substitutions late in games, coaches having to decide which side of the ball to favor.
“Sometimes you would even make those decision without considering whether you’ll have a timeout or not,” Spoelstra said. “You’re doing whatever’s best for that moment right there. And if that means that it’ll continue with live action, so be it.”