Shams: Half-Court Heaves at the End of Quarters Will No Longer Count Against a Player's Shooting Percentage

[mtcan]

They should make end of quarter half court heaves worth 5 points, while we are at it.

[basketballRob]

I've been advocating for this for a long time. Now, we'll get more spectacular end of the quarter shots.

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[basketballRob]

It makes the games more exciting. We'll get highlight shots every day

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[HiRez]

Jokic's 3P% is about to go through the roof.

Assuming the 22 heaves last season is correct, and assuming he missed all of them, it would raise his 3P% by about 3%, from 41.7% to 44.6%. So I don't know about through the roof (it was already high last year) but pretty impressive.

But if the rule had been in place for Steph Curry's prime years, his % would be nuts as well since he took A LOT of those (and made a few).

[threethehardway]

The worst shot is no shot at all...

There were 522 full court shots taken in the 2024-2025 NBA season and only 12 makes.

There's no point in taking heaves unless it's for a game tying or gaming winning shot.

Fans that complain about players not taking heaves are just looking for stuff to complain about.

Hardly anybody makes them, even the players that take them.

In fact, defenses are incentivized not to strongly contest heaves because even trying hard to defend a heave and ending up fouling is the dumbest thing you can do.

So fans complained about a shot in any given year has less than 15 makes. A shot that defenses are statistically inclined to not strongly contest because it's so rarely made. A shot that the best shooters who actively take them rarely make...because fans that don't understand math don't understand it's a shot almost nobody makes and you guys think players are purposely avoiding to pad stats.

I mean, you guys already go through the trouble to make players like Jokic and Curry look better on 3pt percentage by taking out the heaves because even you guys know it's a pointless shot

Lol, so now the NBA is going to fudge the numbers so we can have zero stakes heave highlights.

Defenders are still not going to defend the shot. Players are still going to dribble the ball out or throw up a late heave unless it's a game winning situation.

These are grown men at the end of day. They aren't running full speed to chuck a ball down the court.

But let's make NBA regular season basketball even more meaningless by literally not having stats count against a player's shot attempts so he can throw a ball down the court go entertain fake fans of professional basketball.

[Nate505]

The worst era of basketball deserves the dumbest rules.

Yeah, I get it, this is to incentivize weenie players who wouldn't take that last shot. You know another incentivizing force? Shame, and in this case it would have been an appropriate one.

[knicksfan974]

Good for the league. Fans want to see these attempted so now you will certainly get them.

Next can we ban intentional fouling off the ball, aka hack-a-strategy? No fan wants to see the game intentionally slowed down with a million free throws in non-shooting situations.

[Jamaaliver]

With heaves no longer counting against him, Trae Young about to drop his first 50/40/90 season on the league...

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

[Cavsfansince84]

I see nothing wrong with it. We now live in a time where 3pt% and efficiency are valued more than ever in terms of contracts guys get. So it makes perfect sense for a guy who isn't on a max to want to protect their %'s if it means even a million $ they stand to gain/lose in their next contract by not taking them.

[Ice Trae]

Good change but lmao at the players smh

[Bergmaniac]

I see nothing wrong with it. We now live in a time where 3pt% and efficiency are valued more than ever in terms of contracts guys get. So it makes perfect sense for a guy who isn't on a max to want to protect their %'s if it means even a million $ they stand to gain/lose in their next contract by not taking them.

Nobody is making less or more money because of the number of heaves he took, front offices are not dumb and have access to the exact data on how many heaves every player in the league has taken and how this has affected their shooting percentage.

[mkot]

I just can't believe this is the thing they are focusing on.

So because the players care so much individual FG% so let's don't count them to make the game more "fun"

Unnecessary to say the least

[threethehardway]

The worst era of basketball deserves the dumbest rules.

Yeah, I get it, this is to incentivize weenie players who wouldn't take that last shot. You know another incentivizing force? Shame, and in this case it would have been an appropriate one.

No. It's not to incentivize anything. It's to appease stupid fans that truly think the average professional basketball player, coach and GM give a damn about heaves

Players took 522 heaves last year and didn't even make 20. 522 heaves / 1,230 games = 0.42 heaves per game.

And think about how uncontested heaves are. It's a free shot that professional basketball players can't even make on a consistent basis.

This rule is stupid and against the spirit of competition.

A player being credited with a the dumbest shot that is basically uncontested but it won't count against his stats is like making 60+ field goal attempts not count against a kicker so kickers attempt more field goal attempts before the half.

It's incentivizing suboptimal play and eliminating game context and situations for pure entertainment value and spectacle.

[ITYSL]

New stat called StatWhore

Heaves in 2025-26 / Heaves in 2024-25

[SkyHook]

I love Zach Lowe. No quarter for cowards.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DOeP-J9kkSb/

[turnaroundJ]

pussification haha. they should've just sent a memo to the league and emphasize to the players that hey we can actually track your non-heave FG % already. i'm sure teams already do this. really lame.

but yes, even if only 5 or whatever number of heaves are made a year, it's still worth it for the league and the brand.

[-Luke-]

The worst era of basketball deserves the dumbest rules.

Yeah, I get it, this is to incentivize weenie players who wouldn't take that last shot. You know another incentivizing force? Shame, and in this case it would have been an appropriate one.

No. It's not to incentivize anything. It's to appease stupid fans that truly think the average professional basketball player, coach and GM give a damn about heaves

Players took 522 plus heaves last year and didn't even make 20. That's over 6 heaves a game.

And think about how uncontested heaves are. It's a free shot that professional basketball players can't even make on a consistent basis.

This rule is stupid and against the spirit of competition.

A player being credited with a the dumbest shot that is basically uncontested but it won't count against his stats is like making 60+ field goal attempts not count against a kicker so kickers attempt more field goal attempts before the half.

It's incentivizing suboptimal play and eliminating game context and situations for pure entertainment value and spectacle.

It's way less than 6 per game, unless the 522 number is the average number of heaves per team. There are more than 2000 games in an NBA season.

[dhsilv2]

The worst shot is no shot at all...

There were 522 full court shots taken in the 2024-2025 NBA season and only 12 makes.

There's no point in taking heaves unless it's for a game tying or gaming winning shot.

Fans that complain about players not taking heaves are just looking for stuff to complain about.

Hardly anybody makes them, even the players that take them.

In fact, defenses are incentivized not to strongly contest heaves because even trying hard to defend a heave and ending up fouling is the dumbest thing you can do.

So fans complained about a shot in any given year has less than 15 makes. A shot that defenses are statistically inclined to not strongly contest because it's so rarely made. A shot that the best shooters who actively take them rarely make...because fans that don't understand math don't understand it's a shot almost nobody makes and you guys think players are purposely avoiding to pad stats.

I mean, you guys already go through the trouble to make players like Jokic and Curry look better on 3pt percentage by taking out the heaves because even you guys know it's a pointless shot

Lol, so now the NBA is going to fudge the numbers so we can have zero stakes heave highlights.

Defenders are still not going to defend the shot. Players are still going to dribble the ball out or throw up a late heave unless it's a game winning situation.

These are grown men at the end of day. They aren't running full speed to chuck a ball down the court.

But let's make NBA regular season basketball even more meaningless by literally not having stats count against a player's shot attempts so he can throw a ball down the court go entertain fake fans of professional basketball.

12 makes...I stand CORRECT. Not taking it is worse than taking it.

I think it's highly likely we'll see that number meaningfully go up and what is more fun than seeing the RARE things happen? I love when those go in. It's exciting.

[threethehardway]

The worst era of basketball deserves the dumbest rules.

Yeah, I get it, this is to incentivize weenie players who wouldn't take that last shot. You know another incentivizing force? Shame, and in this case it would have been an appropriate one.

No. It's not to incentivize anything. It's to appease stupid fans that truly think the average professional basketball player, coach and GM give a damn about heaves

Players took 522 plus heaves last year and didn't even make 20. That's over 6 heaves a game.

And think about how uncontested heaves are. It's a free shot that professional basketball players can't even make on a consistent basis.

This rule is stupid and against the spirit of competition.

A player being credited with a the dumbest shot that is basically uncontested but it won't count against his stats is like making 60+ field goal attempts not count against a kicker so kickers attempt more field goal attempts before the half.

It's incentivizing suboptimal play and eliminating game context and situations for pure entertainment value and spectacle.

It's way less than 6 per game, unless the 522 number is the average number of heaves per team. There are more than 2000 games in an NBA season.

Math was not mathing.

(30 teams x 82 games) / 2 = 1,230 total games


522 heaves / 1,230 games \(\approx \) = 0.42 heaves per game

[-Luke-]

No. It's not to incentivize anything. It's to appease stupid fans that truly think the average professional basketball player, coach and GM give a damn about heaves

Players took 522 plus heaves last year and didn't even make 20. That's over 6 heaves a game.

And think about how uncontested heaves are. It's a free shot that professional basketball players can't even make on a consistent basis.

This rule is stupid and against the spirit of competition.

A player being credited with a the dumbest shot that is basically uncontested but it won't count against his stats is like making 60+ field goal attempts not count against a kicker so kickers attempt more field goal attempts before the half.

It's incentivizing suboptimal play and eliminating game context and situations for pure entertainment value and spectacle.

It's way less than 6 per game, unless the 522 number is the average number of heaves per team. There are more than 2000 games in an NBA season.

Math was not mathing.

(30 teams x 82 games) / 2 = 1,230 total games


522 heaves / 1,230 games \(\approx \) 0.42 heaves per game

Yeah, my math was way off as well (more than 2000). But it was early in the morning and I didn't have my first coffee.