Zach Lowe at ESPN reports that the NBA will add a coaching challenge to summer league and “anticipates” extending that rule to the regular season via a pilot program.

Lowe says a memo was sent to teams Friday morning and obtained by ESPN:

Coaches will get one challenge per game, and they will lose it even if the challenge is successful, according to the memo. They can use it to challenge only called fouls; goaltending; basket interference; and plays when the ball is knocked out of bounds, the memo says. The league has tested this version of the challenge system in the G League over the last two seasons.

Coaches must have a timeout remaining to use a challenge. The team must call a timeout immediately after the event they would like to challenge, and the coach must “twirl his/her index finger toward the referees” to signal for the challenge, the memo states. If the challenge is successful, the team retains the timeout it used to stop play. If the challenge is unsuccessful, they lose that timeout.

The crew chief among the referees will determine the outcome of challenges involving called fouls. The NBA’s Replay Center will decide all other challenges. Any technical flagrant fouls that occur during or “immediately after” the call being challenged will stand regardless of the outcome of the challenge, the memo says.

This first started in the D-League in 2014, a nascent version of the coach’s challenge which then evolved over the years.

I’m okay with anything that helps us get calls right while not dragging out the game unnecessarily. I can live with 1-2 more late game stoppages, but anything more takes us into 2012 Big East tournament territory. Also, the only other concern I think is that foul calls are so arbitrary to begin with, that we could be on a slippery slope with reviewing those, similar to what the NFL’s new pass interference reviews may look like.

Your thoughts?

I think the twirling of the index finger is pretty funny, too. We will likely have players motioning to the bench for their coaches to challenge, same way football players ask for the challenge flag and soccer players make the VAR motion with both hands.