“Zero Tolerance”
In the preseason, the NBA changed the way its officials call the game. Players can no longer question a call with emotion, or else they’ll be given a technical foul. This rule is not new, but the fact that the refs are using a “zero tolerance” guideline is causing problems for players. In Detroit’s first game, Rasheed Wallace was ejected after garnering two technicals in 23 minutes (without scoring a single point). Thus far this season, there have been 0.0025 technicals per minute, which is about 83% ahead of last year’s rate. So almost twice as many technicals are being called as compared to last season.
I love this rule. Over the past several years, the NBA had become a gripe-fest. One player or another had something to say to the officials after just about every single call, and it bogged the game down. You’ll notice that there aren’t very many complaints from coaches; they are perfectly happy with the rule, because it forces players to get back on defense instead of complaining to the official. Players simply need to adjust to the rule. When a call goes against them, there’s no use in showing frustration towards the official. You can turn your back and bitch all you want, but if you show up the ref, you’re going to get a tech.
Certainly players should be able to speak with the officials, to question a call in an adult manner. Maybe they’ll learn something that way. But this should be done at a time out or during free throws so as to not interrupt the flow of the game.
Palming and Traveling
There are no stats I know of to substantiate this, but the league seems to be cracking down on palming (carrying) the ball and, to a lesser extent, traveling. The offensive player gains such an advantage when they are able to carry the ball from one side of their body to the other, so it’s simply not fair to let it slide. I doubt we’ll see a lot of these calls in the fourth quarters of close games, but the hope is that if they can clean it up for 40 minutes, the players won’t abuse the rule for the final eight.
The New Ball
The most publicized change this offseason was the use of a new ball. Shaquille O’Neal railed on the new ball in a press conference saying, “…to change it now, whoever that person is needs his college degree revoked. It’s a terrible decision.” He went on to say that he looks for “shooting percentages to be way down and turnovers way up.”
So after a week’s worth of games, what’s the effect? Well, field goal shooting is actually up a smidgeon, from 45.4% last season to 45.5% this season. Free throw accuracy is down from 74.5% to 73.2%, but both of these changes are well within the margin of error for such a small sample size from this season. Turnovers per minute are up 16% from 0.057 last season to 0.066 this season. But part of this increase can be attributed to the stronger emphasis on palming and traveling, so Shaq can’t blame it all on the new ball.
