The first good decision the NBL has made in years, funny how BA are not involved.

Funnily enough though Melbourne Boy, when BA took over the NBL for the 2010 season they instructed the refs to call it tightly and scoring was at about the same rate.

More controversy, but the refereeing is no more inconsistent than it has been over the past few seasons.

Good to see evidence of the rule interpretation changes having a positive effect (assuming that one buys into the concept that scoring is correlated with entertainment).

^ except according to other stats on OzHoops, the pace of the game hasn't changed at all.

The speed of the game has definitely increased over last season.

The speed up and down the court has increased with less teams running 'slow down traps' because of the new rules and players fresher due to less wrestling, and the speed of movement in the halfcourt has also gone up because of less bumping/grabbing of cutters and trapping of the ball-screen.

Whether it's that much quicker than the seasons before last I have my doubts, the NBL has for the most part been a very quick league.

The statistical measurement of pace isnt a great one, it cant measure so many of the movements that make up the game.

Paul, i guess even when BA makes a good decision it doesn't work!

Actually guys, Nathan is correct - at this stage pace hasn't really increased at all between seasons, in fact it's veeery slightly decreased.

It worked for 2010, not that many really noticed because it wasnt talked about much, but it just slipped back to pre-BA ways as time went on after that and then to even more physical levels last year.

"Many thought the increase in points would come at the cost of the game-flow, with lots of fouls being called and therefore the extra points all being found at the free throw line (aka, the boring way)."

The graph doesn't disprove that the points are coming the boring way.
It would have been interesting to break that points/possession line down proportionally into free throws and field goals to see where the points are coming from.

Just because it has sped the game up and achieved the NBL's objective of more points, doesnt mean the officiating hasnt been godawful in every game ive seen this season...

I agree with Mick, the majority of games I have watched this season have had some terrible calls .
There has been some great Basketball in between all of those horrible calls but I put that more down to talented players than any refereeing influence.

If one wanted to see how the games are "flowing" compared to previous, in addition to checking average possessions, points per possession, fouls and free throw attempts, why not also look at game duration? Presumably with better flow the games will end sooner.

^For somebody more interested than myself to investigate.

I don't know why everyone is expecting better officiating this season from the word go. You are taking a group of people who have called the game progressively more physical each year for the last 10 years and then tell them okay let's call it like this from NOW!!!! It will take the group time to adjust to what is now expected of them and to get out of old habits and they don't get the luxury of training with their "team" every day of the week. In fact some will only have a game every 3 rounds, so how do you get the flow of how they want it officiated with no continuity?
It's just not going to happen, people are always complaining that the officiating is inconsistent across the league and this year will be no different. I don't believe the panel has the depth of officials to get it right, and I hope that with the Melbourne mafia back in charge that it doesn't go the way of seasons past where the Vic guys get all the opportunity at the expense of development across the league. All 4 Victorian referees had 3 games each on the first roster and travelled for games, while others only had one or not even a single game.

I always thought of 'game pace' as the culmination of several factors, like:

Transition = quick ball movement from back court to front court

Intensity = level of movement in the players to keep up pressure and make defenders work hard on and off the ball

I am thinking that if the officiating helps the PG and his team mates get that transition game going and coaches are increasing the intensity, it adds up to more scoring opportunities.

Add to this the improvements we have seen in some of the imports, the style of play and the game overall is looking a bit better, IMHO only of course...