The NBA’s ‘Heaves’ Rule: Game-Changer or Just Another Myth?

Every week this NBA season, I’m digging under the hood of the hottest league chatter, trying to sift out what’s solid fact from total baloney. The game’s always evolving, but some trends? They stick — or explode into something new. Last week, we took a hard look at the Luka Dončić trade vibes after that shocking Nico Harrison firing. Today? We’re zeroing in on a quirky, yet fascinating shift: the NBA’s fresh ‘heaves’ rule.

You know those desperation shots from half-court or beyond that used to tank your shooting percentage? The league just flipped the script. Now, attempts from 36-plus feet in the dying seconds of the first three quarters don’t ding your stats unless they actually go in. It’s wild. This tweak frees players to chuck those wild shots without sweating the numbers, leading to a near doubling in attempts already this season. Guys like Nikola Jokić and Stephen Curry, known for their deep bombs, are having an absolute field day. It’s not just fluff — this rule’s changing the way players think about risk and reward on those buzzer-beaters. And trust me, the NBA’s landscape could look very different as these heaves find the net more often. Ready to get the full scoop on how this new rule is shaking things up?

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Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the league’s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week: We can still be mad about the Luka Dončić trade after the Nico Harrison firing

Fact or Fiction: The NBA’s new ‘heaves’ rule is working

“Heaves” sounds bad, like something from college that was decidedly uncool.

Heaves, in the NBA, are defined as any field-goal attempt from 36 or more feet in the final three seconds of any of the first three quarters, so long as the play began in the backcourt. These, friends, are heaves …

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(Nikola Jokić’s three successful heaves last season, including two from 60-plus feet, tied for the league lead with who else but Stephen Curry, who makes heaves look like jumpers. You’ll want to see them, too.)

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There was a time we thought a player might not attempt a heave, for fear of its impact on his shooting percentage — and, therefore, his statistical case when next it comes time to negotiate a contract. After all, these are low-percentage shots. (Players were just 1-for-116 or 0.8% on them at this point last year.)

Boston Celtics point guard Payton Pritchard might call someone who doesn’t believe in a heave a coward. And he is an expert on the subject. He made one of the league’s great heaves — a halftime buzzer-beater that maybe literally drove a nail into the coffin of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals.

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“Soft mentally,” Pritchard once said of such heave non-believers. “Worrying about a shooting percentage. It’s very weak. You care about your individual shooting percentage more than winning. That’s so soft.”

Nobody could be so soft, right, Payton?

Well, the early returns from the NBA on a new rule aimed at heaves reveal a different story.

The league in September instituted a new rule that removed heaves from consideration for a player’s shooting percentage, though they remain as team field-goal attempts. Unless, of course, he makes it. Then it counts on his statistical résumé. It sits there on his stat shelf, then, like a participation trophy.

In other words, every player is free now to heave away, knowing that every attempt from 36-plus feet in the final three seconds of the first, second or third quarter will only count for him as a make and not against him as a miss. They no longer have to be yellow bellies who fear fractions of a percentage point.

(Stefan Milic/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

There were players before who either would take a heave or would not take a heave, and everyone knew which version he was when he put his head down at night. Players entering the NBA this season live in a world where they never had to worry about whether they were a heaving coward or not. They can just let it fly.

And let it fly they have. Through the season’s first 222 games, players have attempted 212 heaves, an increase of 83% from last year’s total of 116 at the same point, according to data obtained from the NBA.

That’s right: The number of heaves has almost doubled in this carefree era. Whereas last season you had a 50/50 chance of seeing a heave if you attended a game, now you are almost guaranteed to see at least one heave per night. And wouldn’t you rather live in a world where you get to see a heave every night?

Of course, we only get to see a successful heave 2.8% of the time, as players have made six of those 212 attempts. You want to see those six makes, don’t you? Come on. You can admit it. You wanna see them …

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You could watch heaves all day, couldn’t you?

Most of those six heaves occurred in blowout contests, but one — Quentin Grimes’ 38-footer at the end of a third quarter last week, when his shot trimmed a 76ers deficit against the Celtics to 77-71 in a game they eventually won, 102-100 — made the difference in an outing. The rule came back to bite Pritchard.

Not that he would want it any other way.

Still, the Celtics (8-7) might have been 9-6 and tied for a guaranteed playoff seed if Grimes had not attempted that heave. Likewise, the Sixers (9-6) could be 8-7 and in Boston’s place if he had missed it.

A heave can change a game, and it is ridiculous to think that anyone ever considered not taking one. Only Grimes knows if he would have taken that shot if his shooting percentages — and their impact on his next deal, which he will negotiate from $8.7 million in unrestricted free agency in July — were on the line.

Grimes attempted a single heave last season, an airball from 40 feet.

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The increase in attempts has led to a severalfold increase in makes, as players have made six times as many heaves this season (6) as they did at this point last season (1). The evidence is clear, and who is to say the league will not improve its accuracy to 4% or 5% as players get more accustomed to taking them?

(While we’re at it: We need a heaves category on NBA.com. Get on it, Adam Silver.)

It may not sound like much, but about four times every season your favorite team should make a heave, and who knows, you could find yourself at the one game when it made a difference in a one-possession outing. Because, if one heave can change a game, and one win can change a record, and one playoff seed can open a championship window, a heave can change the history of the NBA. Get those heaves up, guys.

So, yeah, heaves, in the NBA sense, are cool.

Determination: Fact. The NBA’s new “heaves” rule is working.