The NBA has a pace-of-play problem

It is undeniable that, compared to other eras, modern NBA games are high-scoring affairs. With the explosion of three-point shooting across the league, it’s rare for teams to remain under the 100 point threshold during a game.

Despite basketball’s pace becoming faster with each passing year, games are noticeably slowed more and drag on longer than they used to. How can that be?

The most commonly thrown out answer is free throws. Teams and players are clearly abusing the shot — just look at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. For every foul that’s called, teams take what feels like an eternity to get to their spots, warm up their motion and then shoot a free throw. 

This problem is exacerbated when multiple free throws are awarded to a player, or when a team substitutes players in the break between multiple free throws. One thing is for certain even if we disregard the issues that many fans have with free throws: Every second spent taking a free throw is a second that could be spent watching exhilarating offensive possessions.

One solution that could be used to speed up the pace of free throws could be a timer similar to the pitch clock in Major League Baseball. If a player takes too long to warm up and subsequently shoot a free throw, the player forfeits the privilege to shoot that free throw and possession is returned to the other team.

Another aspect of free throws that sullies the viewing experience of fans is the additional time loss that can come from them. Teams can elect to take a timeout between free throws, meaning more time will be spent waiting for the actual game to resume. Then, to make matters worse, ads will probably be run while the timeout occurs — once again adding to fan annoyance.

The icing on the cake comes when replay review is used to assess a foul that is clear as day for being the correct call or not, bleeding precious minutes away from fans. Similar to free throw timeouts, there is a high likelihood networks will cut away to a lengthy commercial break. Because the longer the refs spin their tires on an obvious call, the more money the league rakes in.

A majority of these grievances can be solved by running fewer advertisements. Many fans wouldn’t mind announcers reading off some of the league’s sponsors during timeouts before resuming coverage of the game. What largely frustrates fans is being pulled away from the game altogether. The NBA can also work to pick up the pace of replay reviews to ensure less drawn out deliberation by referees. 

At a time when the league already has many issues, ranging from viewership to grievances over atrocious options to stream games, it needs to take time to put out small fires such as the pace-of-play issue. Basketball features higher scoring than ever before, which should mean a faster-paced product. As games keep stretching longer for all the wrong reasons, fans will continue to turn away in droves until the NBA’s viewership bottoms out.