The NBA summer leagues give teams a chance to evaluate their young talent. It also serves as the league's continued grounds for research and development as an extension for all the experimenting that takes places in the NBA Development League earlier in the year.
Last week, it was reported that referees in the NBA summer leagues are wearing headsets and will be able to replay reviews quicker during games. Well, Joe Boriga (pictured right below), the NBA senior VP of replay and referee operations, told NBA.com that the league has a replay center built in the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, which is home to one of their summer leagues.
Early on, the testing period of refs wearing headsets continues to be a work in progress, with officials still trying to get a feel for the technology, sometimes battling interference.
"A lot of times, because they are voice activated, you're picking up the [in-arena] announcer and all of a sudden everybody's mic opens up," Boriga said, as reported by ESPN.com. "Or you're a ref and you make the call, you start going to the [scorer's] table and one of your partners starts talking. All of a sudden it's, 'Oh, is he talking to me?'"
Ideally, the headsets will allow for easier communications between the three officials, possibly even eliminating the time to huddle to discuss calls. If the refs get the hang of the technology this summer, the hope is for them to avoid delays of crowding around a monitor at the scorer's table for a replay. The NBA will continue testing out the headsets in its Orlando, Utah and Las Vegas summer leagues.
Another thing that the NBA is experimenting with during its summer leagues is the inclusion of advance timeouts. Having already been used in the NBA Development League last season, advance timeouts can only be used in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter.
What will happen is a team—regardless if they have any full or 20-second timeouts left—will call advance timeout. They'll then be able to quickly make substitutes without huddling and will get the ball at the front court, thus the "advance." If the testing with advance timeouts go well, they may eventually replace 20-second timeouts, Boriga says.
All for technology being used to improve the game. Whether it will make it to the actual NBA, though, remains to be seen.
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