NBA will no longer count end-of-quarter heaves as a shot attempt by player, other league changes announced

It happens at least once in almost every NBA game. At the end of a quarter or the first half, a player will get the ball in the backcourt with a second or so on the clock, take a dribble, and hesitate just a little in getting off a half-court heave so that the ball is in his hands when the buzzer sounds and the shot doesn’t count, make or miss. The reason for this is that players know they are going to miss the shot, and they don’t want it to count against their shooting percentage.

Starting this season, they will not — heaves at the end of quarters will be counted as a team shot attempt but not count against the player’s shot total, a change the NBA owners approved on Wednesday, reports Shams Charania of ESPN. This was something some advanced NBA statistic sites, such as Cleaning the Glass, already did, now it will just be official with the league.

The hope is that this will lead to more players taking a legitimate shot attempt — albeit an unlikely make — at the end of quarters. The league would love to see more players like Boston’s Payton Pritchard become specialists in trying to make these shots.

In other action at the Board of Governors meeting:

• Starting this season, when there is a coach’s challenge of an out-of-bounds play, it will be the Replay Center official in Secaucus, not the on-court crew chief, who will determine whether a proximate foul should have been called. This is a change, previously the lead official of the game handled these reviews. However, the league wants to speed up the review process, so now the Replay Center will deal with these foul calls.

• Starting in the 2026-27 NBA season, only the championship game of the mid-season NBA Cup will be played at a neutral site (currently Las Vegas), with the semi-final games instead being hosted by the higher-seeded team in each conference in their home arena.

For this coming season the “old” format will remain in place, with the final four teams in the NBA Cup heading to Las Vegas for the semi-finals and championship game. This year, the semi-finals are scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 13 in Las Vegas, with the Finals on Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Last season, the semi-final games did not fill the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on a December Saturday, which raised concerns. There were some Hawks fans in the building for their game (a loss to the Bucks), but mainly because the Atlanta Falcons were in Vegas to take on the Raiders in an NFL showdown, so those fans were already in town. Having the semi-final games in home arenas will provide a better turnout and atmosphere.

That said, for players, the chance to get a few days in Las Vegas was a motivation to make the final four. Now they need to get to the championship game for that.