NBA’s ‘heave rule’ will allow deep end-of-quarter shots without hurting player shooting percentages

NEW YORK (AP) — NBA players can now fire up those end-of-quarter heaves from deep without their shooting percentages being adversely affected.

The league has approved a change in the way statistics on those shots are recorded, which could spur players to take more heaves from very, very deep with hopes of a miracle make. It was finalized at the league’s board of governors meeting on Wednesday.

The rule change was tried out at Summer League in Las Vegas back in July, as well as the smaller leagues that month in Utah and California.

For stat-keeping purposes, the NBA will tell teams that any shot taken within the final three seconds of the first three quarters and is launched from at least 36 feet away on any play that starts in the backcourt will count as a team shot attempt — but not an individual one.

Many players have avoided taking the miracle 50-footer or deeper shot at the end of quarters to protect their personal shooting percentages. The “heave rule,” the league hopes, will fix that.

According to SportRadar, players last season made about 4% of shots taken in the final three seconds of the first three quarters of a game with the 36-foot minimum distance. Based on its tracking data, Golden State’s Stephen Curry made four shots under those criteria last season and Denver’s Nikola Jokic made three.