No more player timeout in PBA

There’s an interesting new rule that the PBA will implement in the new season that opens Nov. 5. In a twist that puts the PBA closer to conforming with FIBA rules, players will no longer be allowed to call timeouts. It used to be that to beat the five-second inbound violation, a player could call an emergency timeout and save the possession. The bail-out has been an instinctive crutch so that when some PBA players see action in FIBA competitions, they signal a timeout under duress and referees ignore it. Jordan Clarkson was caught motioning a timeout when he couldn’t find a clear path to inbound during the recent FIBA World Cup.

TNT coach Jojo Lastimosa said taking out the player’s timeout rewards the defense but also reduces an offensive player’s ability to regroup when shackled. On the whole, it’s a welcome development. It won’t just speed up the game but it’ll force players to make quick decisions on the floor. That redounds to more thrilling moments.

The new rule wasn’t tested during the recent OnTour series but the PBA Technical Committee felt confident it was time to introduce the rule coming off the FIBA World Cup and Asian Games, both of which disallowed player timeouts. The other critical new rule involves the coaching challenge which was on experiment during OnTour. A tweak, however, has been made. In OnTour, a coach was given one challenge a game, period. But in the coming season, a coach will be given one more challenge if the first challenge is successful. The team will not be charged a timeout whether or not the challenge is successful.

The calls that are challengeable are: act of shooting or sideline throw-in, foul (common foul, charging or blocking), traveling, flopping, 8-second violation, backcourt violation, held ball, out-of-bounds or last touch and shot clock remaining. Another noteworthy new rule is the transition take foul which was on experiment during OnTour. This involves an intentional foul committed by a defensive player to deprive the offensive team of a fastbreak opportunity. It’s called either during a transition scoring opportunity or immediately after a change of possession and before the offensive team has the chance to advance. Penalty is one free throw plus ball possession.

There are 12 new rules ready to go but the others are not as impactful as the three mentioned here. All told, it should be a fire-breaking season with the new rules contributing to the excitement. Only two conferences will be played because of the shortened schedule due to the FIBA World Cup. The first conference will be the Commissioner’s Cup and the second, the Philippine Cup.