The NBA is experimenting with a 44-minute game in order to shorten the length of games, and Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is open to the idea.
The NBA announced it will be experimenting with a 44-minute game this preseason, choosing the Oct. 19 matchup between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets as the test case.
While Erik Spoelstra may not be interested in participating in a shorter game, such as Lionel Hollins and Brad Stevens will, he does believe the league needs to figure out a way to lessen the impact of a regular season.
"Heat coach Erik Spoelstra wasn’t as big on the idea as much as he is in favor of cutting games and back-to-backs off the schedule entirely, but he is open to seeing what happens with the 44-minute experiment.“I don’t think it’s a matter of how long the game is,” Spoelstra said. “I think there’s too many games, to be frank. I think if there’s some way to find a way to cut out some of the back-to-backs so there aren’t 20-plus of them. I think that’s the bigger issue, not shaving off four minutes in a particular game. But I’m open to seeing what happens with that.”"
The NBA is doing the experiment to “examine the flow of a shorter game as compared to the standard 48-minute game.” This will involve shortening quarters from 12 to 11 minutes and cutting down the mandatory timeouts from three to two per quarter. You can read the full release here.
While the NBA would do well to cut down on games, as Spo suggests, I’m not sure it’s realistic. Especially considering the league just signed a new TV deal, and the networks expect a certain amount of inventory.
The league likely feels the season is too long as well, but business is business. To combat that, it seems they are open to the idea of shortening games.
Four fewer minutes a game, over 82 games, is 328 minutes. Or nearly seven-and-a-half games under the new minutes and 6.8 games under a 48-minute game. That’s like cutting the season from 82 to roughly 75 games.
It’s also a good idea for game flow. I know many people feel the game stops too much, and timeouts has a lot to do with that. Also rumored is the idea of reducing free throws to one attempt for two points, as opposed to two one-point attempts. With so many ideas being thrown around, I’m betting something changes. For the league to do a real-life experiment shows they are serious.