The NBA is considering giving head coaches a second challenge starting in the 2023-24 season. Currently, each coach can ask for an instant replay review of an official’s decision one time during the game.
The news was confirmed by NBA president of basketball operations Byron Spruell, who told ESPN that the final decision will be made at an NBA competition committee’s upcoming meeting.
“We’re absolutely looking at it,” Spruell said. “The competition committee over the summer will review it. It’s still a process. We have to get it through a board [of governors] vote over the summer, test it as well, but we feel like it’s an incremental movement that we would potentially like to see.”
The league introduced a coaches’ challenge during the 2019-20 season. The current rule allows coaches to challenge a number of plays, including personal fouls and the ball going out of bounds. If the challenge is successful, the call is changed. If not, the challenging team loses a timeout.
The new rule would allow the coaches to have a second challenge, but only in the case that their first challenge was a success.
Up to this point, the NBA head coaches avoided using the challenges early on, saving them for late-game situations. Having a second challenge is expected to bring a different approach.
Back in 2022, Sports Illustrated published a report that showed 74.7% of out-of-bounds play coaches’ challenges were successful. The success rate for goaltending was 74.7%, while the challenges on personal fouls were successful 43.9% of the time.
