Impactful NBA rule changes Spurs fans should know about this season

We're just over a month away from the start of the 2025-26 NBA season, and in an ever-evolving game, the league has instituted a few changes San Antonio Spurs fans should be aware of. There have been tweaks to the Emirates NBA Cup, coaching challenges, and a controversial update to how statistics are counted for heave attempts at the end of quarters, and I'm going to tell you about all of it.

Emirates NBA Cup change

In the past, the semi-finals were played at a neutral location, but that will no longer be the case. The higher-seeded team will have the benefit of home-court advantage going forward. The only game played at a neutral site will be the final game of the tournament.

I think this is a solid change as it adds more importance to the games earlier in the season. That's a stated goal of this update, and I think it will be an effective one. The NBA has been on a mission to find ways to increase the urgency of the games played at the beginning of the year. With such a long campaign, it's easy for guys to approach those games with a lackadaisical mindset. This should help fix that.

As far as how the tournament works, I'll remind you. All 30 teams are broken up into six, five-team groups. Each team will play each team in their group once, and the best teams move on to the knockout round, where single-elimination rules take effect until we reach a champion. This year's NBA Cup will begin on October 31, and San Antonio's first tourney game will be on November 7 against Houston.

Coaching challenge change

According to data gathered in February, NBA games were longer last season than they have been in any year since 2020. We've gone from two hours and 12 minutes to about two hours and 15 minutes. I know, it's not a huge difference, but every second matters when you're fighting for the attention of viewers.

Having games drag isn't a good thing for any sport, especially when there isn't any action taking place because of added reviews. To help curb that, out-of-bounds calls will now be reviewed by a replay center official to determine whether a foul should be assessed. On-court referees held that responsibility last season, but now, they'll rely on a third party to speed things along.

Heave efficiency change

We've all seen players fake like they're trying to get a full-court shot off at the end of a quarter, but shoot the ball late to avoid a missed field goal being added to their stats. It's pretty weak, if you ask me, as you're leaving potential points on the board because you're worried about a stat sheet instead of doing everything you can to help your squad win the game.

The NBA is aware of it, too, so they're implementing a rule change where a missed shot under those circumstances will no longer be counted against a single player but added to the team's field goal stats instead. The announcement has been met with conflicting feelings because it's, obviously, a good thing to have players trying their hardest the entire time, but it's also a bailout that shouldn't be necessary.

You're now going to reward a player if he makes it, but let him off the hook if he misses it. And even if the rule stated that he doesn't get the reward, you're still bailing them out by taking away the impact on the stat sheet. Players who aren't selfless enough to take that shot without having their hand held by the league just shouldn't benefit. Coaches should demand their players launch those balls.

But at the end of the day, competitive basketball is what we all really want, so it's not something to get up in arms about. Based on that, I think the league went 3/3 on these changes. They're beneficial to the game, and hopefully, they have the intended impact.