There have been a lot of rule changes in basketball this year at both the college and professional level. The NBA already discussed passing three different rule changes and resetting the shot clock to 14 seconds after an offensive rebound. Some people could say there are a lot of pros and cons to this rule change, but from where I see things, the pros outweigh the cons.
Think about it, the shot clock being brought down to 14 seconds after a rebound gives the offensive team less shot opportunities. It may seem weird to think about it as a good thing, but this way we see a more competitive and defensive game when the offensive team is given less time to make a decision. But, in all reality most NBA players don’t pull the ball back out when they get an offensive rebound. They instead go back up with it resulting in an easy lay up. So in most cases this new rule change won’t necessarily affect the game in a negative way. I honestly see the defense actually improving because of this. When a team gets a offensive rebound defenders tend to get lazy or tired. With this rule change the hopes of stopping a team from scoring is still alive.
Now, one area of the game where things might become a little tricky is during end game situations. Usually when it’s a close game and the team is trying to hold on to a late lead they will always try to pull the ball out and hold onto it until the 24 second shot clock shot starts to count down and maybe when it gets to about 10 seconds that’s when the final play is brought to action. With the rules being changed they really only have 14 seconds to make a decision. That could end up making a big difference in most games.
The amount of pressure that’s being put out there because of this new rule forces teams to make better decisions, causing them to have a higher chance of coming out on top. It will be interesting to see how the league and its players adjust to the new rule.
