NBA toys with changing rules for buzzer-beater shots

If it drives you crazy that NBA players wait until after the halftime siren to fire their half-court shot, the league agrees. The Athletic's Mike Vorkunov reports on BlueSky that the NBA plans to experiment with a rule change for buzzer-beaters, starting with an experimental test in the G League.

The NBA is experimenting with the G League this season. Any end-of-quarter shot attempt from approximately 36 feet or further in the last 3 seconds of the first 3 quarters (and when play begins in the backcourt) will be counted as a team FG attempt and will not be credited to any player.

NBA players are increasingly avoiding long-distance shots at quarterly buzzers, which is widely considered to be at risk of artificially lowering a player's field goal and three-point percentage over the course of the season. While a single shot probably won't make a difference (with rare exceptions), over the course of a season it could result in 25 or more missed shots for the player receiving the inbound pass. This could make all the difference if a player has an incentive bonus. In 2018, Ryan Jones explained players' concerns in a nice article about former Trail Blazers guard Tim Frazier. While NBA players tend to avoid the topic, former Kings coach Luke Walton hinted at the impact it had on Kyle Kuzma.

After a commanding win in January against Sacramento, Lakers coach Luke Walton good-naturedly sold Kyle Kuzma, telling reporters that the promising rookie wanted it known that one of his turnovers in the game's meaningless final seconds was due to a shot-clock violation . When Walton told Kuzma he should have shot the ball, Kuzma admitted he didn't want to hurt his odds.

It's relatively clear that this rule change was created specifically for these scenarios. This does not apply to the end of the fourth quarter, where a shot is usually only taken if it is significant to the final result. It's unclear what happens if the shot is assigned to the team, but if it goes in, it's possible that the shot attempt then falls back to the player who took it. We will learn more once the rule is implemented.

If the rule change is successful, it could provide a few additional small moments of excitement before the fourth quarter of NBA games. The league can never have enough of that.