NBA challenge rule gets mixed reviews
Coaches wary of impact on games
Erik Spoelstra has an idea of what to do with the challenge rule after the NBA finally crowns a champion, which could very well be the Miami Heat, in October.
“When the season is over, I’ll fight to remove it,” he said.
However, Spoelstra said his view on the issue is irrelevant, as the 22 coaches in this NBA restart can continue to challenge a referee’s call that could determine the outcome of games and possibly end a team’s title hopes.
“Anything and everything could have a factor in these games,” he said. “You’re talking about the best teams that are participating in this. So the margin of error is going to be smaller and the difference between teams is probably going to be very slim.”
Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers thought the rule could impact the postseason weeks before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver pressed pause on the season after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19.
“It’s going to matter,” said Rivers on Feb. 26. “Somewhere. One way or
another, it will.”
Months later, he’ll find out how much so as the restart begins July 30 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
“We’ll see,” Rivers added.
Situational and end-of-game play is big in any game, thus making the use of the challenge rule an even bigger decision during the eight regular-season “seedings” schedule and playoffs.
“You may use your challenge to try to overturn a play, but you only have one timeout left,” Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder said July 11 in a Zoom media call.
“You don’t get it right. You lose your timeout and there’s two seconds in the game and you can’t advance the ball. You don’t have a timeout and you’re taking the ball at the end line in the backcourt,” he said. “That’s a really tough situation to score from. If you advance it with two seconds, for NBA players, it’s not an eternity, but they can get a good shot and you feel responsible as a coach to try to get them a good shot.”
No fan influence
It also will be interesting to see how the rule functions without fans in attendance.
Often this season, a call was made and fans booed, which made the player react even more and, at times, influenced the coaches to challenge the call.
“Everybody is doing this,” Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone said last November, while spinning his finger in the air, a signal to challenge a call.
“It can create, honest to God, a little friction because the players think, ‘I didn’t step out of bounds, I didn’t foul him’ and they want you to challenge it, but you know that it’s probably better suited to hold onto that challenge for an end-of-the-game situation. That could be a pivotal play. That’s what the players got to understand.”
Some coaches have used challenges to show trust in players.
“There were situations they would say, ‘Hey, it went off so-and-so and not me,’ or ‘I didn’t touch him,’” Cleveland Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Then I’d use it as an opportunity. I’d say, ‘Listen, I’m going to trust you. If this doesn’t work out, I can’t trust you anymore and you can’t get anymore of these calls.’”
Players may have even more influence in the restart because fans won’t be there screaming ‘BAD CALL REF,” which often triggers the chain reaction to challenges – unless the NBA pumps in boos and jeers after whistles.
Still, the referee will have the final say. As the rule states, “there must be clear and conclusive visual evidence that the call was incorrect” to overturn it.
Who’s for, against the challenge rule?
The Arizona Republic asked all 30 NBA coaches about the rule, which is on a one-year trial run throughout this unprecedented season set to resume in two weeks.
Here’s a breakdown of their answers at the time they were polled:
Dislikes (11)
Steve Kerr (Golden State, Oct. 30), Brett Brown (Philadelphia, Nov. 4), Kenny Atkinson (Brooklyn, Nov. 10), Lloyd Pierce (Atlanta, Nov. 14), Alvin Gentry (New Orleans, Nov. 21), Monty Williams (Phoenix, Nov. 21), Gregg Popovich (San Antonio, Dec. 14), Mike Budenholzer (Milwaukee, Feb. 2), Nick Nurse (Toronto, Feb. 21), Doc Rivers (L.A. Clippers, Feb. 26), Erik Spoelstra (Miami, July 14).
“It seems like it’s a lot to ask,” Budenholzer said. “I’m not sure it’s been great for the flow of the games.”
Likes (9)
Frank Vogel (L.A. Lakers, Nov. 12), Rick Carlisle (Dallas, Nov. 29), Luke Walton (Sacramento, Dec. 30), Mike Miller (New York, Jan. 3), Brad Stevens (Boston, Jan. 16), Nate McMillan (Indiana, Jan. 22), Dwane Casey (Detroit, Feb. 5), Jim Boylen (Chicago, Feb. 22), Quin Snyder (Utah, July 11).
“I like the rule,” Casey said. “The league is being very, very progressive with the rule.”
Still determining (9)
Ryan Saunders (Minnesota, Nov. 23), Michael Malone (Denver, Nov. 24), Scott Brooks (Washington, Nov. 27), James Borrego (Charlotte, Dec. 2), Mike D’Antoni (Houston, Dec. 7), Taylor Jenkins (Memphis, Dec. 11), Terry Stotts (Portland, Dec. 16), Billy Donovan (Oklahoma City, Dec. 20), J.B. Bickerstaff (Cleveland, May 18).
“It’s definitely, I think, a tool we’re all kind of learning and see how it goes this first year,” Jenkins said.
That leaves one more coach: Steve
Clifford.
He wasn’t touching the rule with a 100-foot poll when asked about it in December.
“No comment,” Clifford said while shaking his shiny, sweaty head. “I’m not commenting on that.”
No worries, Coach, but his Orlando Magic are one of 22 teams in the restart.
Clifford will have to use a challenge at some point in a game that may determine whether it’s the end of their season or not.
Challenge rule growing on coaches?
The Coach’s Challenge allows a head coach one instant replay review per game. A coach can only challenge three types of a call made by a referee: A foul; an out-of-bounds violation; or a goaltending or basket interference violation.
Coaches lose a timeout if the challenge is unsuccessful, but they keep the timeout if it is.
The rule didn’t receive a warm welcome at first, with Rivers being one of the most vocal in his disapproval, but it tended to grow on some coaches as the season progressed.
“It’s something that I think a lot of us had questions about at the beginning of the season, but we are learning to try to take advantage of that, when to use it,” McMillan said back in late January.
In The Republic’s final 11 interviews with coaches from January to July, six were in favor of the rule. That trend may even lead to Rivers changing his mind about the rule.
“I don’t like it, but the whole thing is if more guys like it, then I’m fine with it,” he said. “Whatever helps the league, I’m all for it. We can always adjust.”
Then there’s Stevens.
After he totally dismissed the question from The Republic early in the season by talking about Phoenix center Aron Baynes, who played for him in Boston, he was asked again about the rule in January when the Suns visited TD Garden.
Stevens first met it with sarcasm. “Yeah, I mean, just love it.”
Obviously, you don’t. What do you love about it?
“I love it.”
Now smiling and less sarcastic, Stevens said it “adds another element to the game” – and a little bit more.
“Naw, it’s fine,” Stevens continued. “Obviously we’re all getting used to it still. It’s an imperfect science.”
Proximity matters or not?
Toronto’s Nurse still wasn’t down with the rule despite admitting it has been “useful” for the defending NBA champions in a number of situations this season.
“Common sense has to be at the top of the thing, right,” Nurse said Feb. 21. “If the ball goes out of bounds on somebody, but somebody got closed lined on the way to do it, and they’re not going to look at the close line, doesn’t make much sense to me. And if the referees who made the call can go over there because he’s the crew chief, and be the one who decides if the challenge is overturned or not. I’m not sure that’s the fairest idea I’ve ever heard of in my life.”
The coaches say the proximity part of the rule was discussed in the summer. Like Nurse, Williams found himself wondering why that was even part of the conversation.
“I wanted to challenge the foul to see if they saw the travel,” said Williams, after a loss to New Orleans. “They said you can’t pull a travel out of challenging for a foul. This is why I’m not a fan of this because this summer, they talked about proximity and this happened directly in the play.”
As for a referee reviewing a call he or she made, that part of the rule hits right at the heart of it.
“It’s very difficult for any human to say I made a mistake,” Casey said. “And that’s what you’re asking them, to go to the cameras and if there’s at least little bit of doubt, naw, I was right.”
What they’ve challenged the most and when?
Going into the restart, teams have data from games to make more educated challenges in the future.
Out of 558 challenges in games through March 9, a total of 245 were successful (44%), but a deeper dive into those numbers can at least show what’s mostly challenged and when those challenges are usually made.
Fouls was the most challenged call at 447 with 185 being overturned at 39%.
“It’s got to be something you clearly see,” Miller said.
The irony of fouls being the most challenged calls is coaches have used a challenge in hopes to stop a player from picking up his third foul in the first half, fourth in the third quarter or fifth or sixth in the fourth quarter.
Borrego challenged a foul on rookie P.J. Washington trying to stop Blake Griffin on the baseline with 7:56 left in the first quarter against Detroit.
The challenge was unsuccessful as Washington picked up his third foul.
“If it was his first foul, I probably wouldn’t have challenged it,” Borrego said. “I think the third foul that early, trying to keep him in the game, and he was playing well. Trying to get that one back. I thought it was worth that risk early.”
On the flipside, 75% of the 61 out-o-fbounds challenges were overturned (46).
As far as when to challenge, 50.5% (282) of the 558 challenges came in the fourth quarter with only 35% successful.
The numbers suggest saving the challenge for the fourth quarter, but the odds are against it being a successful one in the game’s final 12 minutes of regulation.
“I try to use mine more in the second half, if not in the fourth quarter,” Jenkins said. “Try to take points off the board if it’s a critical possession.”
Keep the challenge if successful
Looking at the numbers just for March, there were 38 challenges through March 9.
Twenty-one of them were unsuccessful with 20 coming on fouls. The other one was an out-of-bounds play.
Before Silver temporarily shut the season down, coaches were looking forward to seeing how the league would change or tweak the rule after the season.
“It gives you another thing to think about, another thing on your heart during the game, but everybody has got the same deal,” Boylen said. “We’ll see what they do with it.”
They agreed the gift should keep on giving, if successful.
“Obviously up to an extent, but if you get the challenge right, you should be able to keep your challenge,” Bickerstaff said.
Spoelstra mi even like that, but is that enough for him to keep the rule? Probably not.
Have opinion about current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin.