NBA’s new long-range heave rule might bring more excitement for fans

Like it or not, the NBA is officially pivoting to new rules regarding quarter-ending shot attempts from afar.

During this week’s NBA Board of Governors meeting, commissioner Adam Silver announced the league has approved a new rule allowing more liberal heave attempts as quarters end. This change was made official on Wednesday. Before it reached the NBA ranks, the adjustment was experimented with during summer league in Las Vegas and G League games in Utah and California in July.

The big-picture reason for such a change? To incentivize players to attempt more buzzer-beating heaves within a game’s first three quarters, disregarding the risk of their shooting percentages decreasing. Any attempts of at least 36 feet in those periods’ final three seconds and any play starting from the backcourt will count as a team attempt, not an individual attempt.

Since the announcement, reactions to the new rule have been relatively adverse from traditional basketball fans. Still, it should essentially amount to a non-event, as there could be a spike in an iteration of one of the game’s most exciting plays. Fans love the deep 3-pointers, and this rule change — even if it lets a portion of players off the hook for minding their stats — effectively solves an issue that, in the grand scheme, wasn’t truly an issue when compared to other recent tweaks by the league.

If you said the All-Star Game’s format has become unnecessarily convoluted, I’d agree with you.

Can the replay system/rulings be arbitrary? We share those sentiments.

Do you wish the league would lift its 20-year ban on hand-checking? Likewise!

However, the NBA providing room for players to attempt long-range shots without statistical punishment isn’t a big deal, given what can happen in the other 47-plus minutes of a game. According to Basketball Reference, under the league’s qualifications for a heave, there have been 91 players to make such a shot since the 2020-21 season, including the playoffs.

Moreover, the tweak isn’t a mandate for players to attempt quarter-ending heaves; it just grants flexibility for teams to be more creative with such tries. The players who typically don’t attempt notably deep, buzzer-beating attempts — stars like Jalen Brunson (seven), Kawhi Leonard (four) and Kevin Durant (two), for example, have been notoriously conservative with NBA-qualified heaves in the prior five seasons — still reserve the right to defer to teammates or dribble out the clock, even if it continues annoying those who dislike such cautious stat-minding.

Besides, that trio is among a relatively small demographic of high-profile players who are reluctant to heave one for the fan’s entertainment (or to narrow a matchup’s scoring margin in an effort to, ya know, win the game).

In the five seasons mentioned above, three-time MVP Nikola Jokić has been the league’s most enthusiastic in attempting the shots, having tried 57 3-point heaves since his first season. Other players on that list — Stephen Curry, Tyrese Haliburton, Anthony Edwards and Luka Dončić — are already among the league’s most entertaining, audacious shot creators, meaning the league’s adjustment on heaves can grow an already commonplace trend, especially in late-game situations.

Since the 2020-21 season, there have been five buzzer-beating heaves to seal a game, with four of them coming in the last two seasons. Even for those who don’t like this change, it’s hard to argue the excitement it could provide once NBA basketball is back in full swing.

Let’s relive those five long-range game winners and see what the NBA is hoping to normalize further:

Jan. 7, 2025: Trae Young vs. Jazz (49 feet)

Just after the Atlanta Hawks yielded a game-tying bucket to Collin Sexton of the Utah Jazz, Trae Young scrambled to near midcourt in under three seconds without a timeout and splashed the longest made attempt of his career to give his squad the win.

Young, who finished fourth in last season’s NBA Clutch Player of the Year voting, trailed only Brunson (157) and Anthony Edwards (156) for the most clutch-time points among all players, registering 152 such points in a game’s final five minutes with the score within five points.

Young’s 3-pointer was among 17 triples Young nailed with the game on the line, which is third behind only Edwards (21) and a familiar long-range specialist by the name of Curry (19).

March 27, 2025: Josh Giddey vs. Lakers (47 feet)

This shot by Giddey was arguably the most impressive of the 2024-25 season, considering the way he confidently walked it down as it arced into the hoop. This could also be a worthy example of what teams want to avoid with the league’s new rule on qualified quarter-ending heaves.

Notice how, after Austin Reaves’ layup gave the Lakers a one-point lead with 3.3 seconds left, neither he nor Gabe Vincent picked up Giddey, who inbounded the ball to Patrick Williams before Los Angeles’ collective lapse provided the Bulls’ new $100 million player with a clear runway to win the game.

Last season, Giddey often struggled with clutch-time shots (36 percent overall shooting), but five of his nine such baskets were 3s. On the other hand, he was usually on the other side of Chicago’s late-game luck, leading the team with 19 assists in the clutch, more than double second-place Coby White (nine), according to NBA.com.

Feb. 27, 2024: Max Strus vs. Mavericks (59 feet)

In a game that included 12 ties and 25 lead changes, it’s only right that Max Strus saved the best for last.

Similar to Giddey’s game winner, Strus needs only one dribble to size up a climactic bucket for home fans to enjoy.

His 15 points in this game’s fourth quarter capped the third-highest scoring final frame of his six-year career. Strus’ five triples were one shy of the most by any Cavaliers player in the fourth quarter/overtime in the last 25 seasons.

His game-ending heave also left All-Star teammate Donovan Mitchell quite impressed.

“Man, just to see it go through, especially what he did for us in the fourth, it had to be him, too,” Mitchell said. “You dream of a shot like that. So for him to get that after what he did for us, the whole fourth quarter, man.”

Jan. 4, 2024: Nikola Jokić vs. Warriors (39 feet)

As mentioned, the Joker is inarguably the league’s most liberal ambassador of buzzer-beating heaves. In this matchup, he crafted one of his many all-around masterpieces, registering 34 points on 13-of-16 shooting, 10 assists, two steals and falling one rebound shy of a triple-double.

The Nuggets trailed the Warriors for more than half the game but found a way to keep close enough for Jokić’s near-half-court heave to put them on top. To Aaron Gordon’s credit, though, his 15 fourth-quarter points played a key role in Denver staying alive.

However, once Jokić was ready for the game to end, he utilized his uncanny combination of dribbling, size, coordination and touch to shock Warriors fans.

Since the 2020-21 season, only Curry (six) and Jordan Poole (five) have made more NBA-qualified heaves than the Joker (four in that time).

Dec. 15, 2021: Devonte’ Graham vs. Thunder (61 feet)

To finish this Thunder-Pelicans contest, Graham channeled his inner Jerry West by tossing up a bucket from over 60 feet, marking the longest game winner in league history. Like Giddey and Strus, Graham needed only one dribble for his heave, which came after then-teammate Garrett Temple was trying to foul Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander before the latter tied the game on a 30-foot prayer.

Graham’s bucket was attempted with roughly half a second left on the game clock, providing another sound example of what could happen with the NBA’s rule on quarter-ending heaves. Even if there is a sizable crowd who feels players protecting their shooting percentages is cowardly — that feels a bit strong for a rare occurrence — it’s hard to deny the exciting potential for encouraging an already exciting play.

Those fans, like NBA defenses on end-of-quarter inbounds plays, will have to adjust.

(Photo of Max Strus: David Richard / Imagn Images )