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Originally Posted by Jimgolf
Someone has to be watching the inbounder and the defender guarding the pass. With 3 officials, there is no reason for the administering official not to be watching this. How can he see if the inbounder has stepped over the line if he's not watching the inbounder, among other things? Especially when the count is nearing 5, he should anticipate the time out and look for it, as it is a common play - 1-2-3-4-timeout.
He's got to trust his partners. The two non-administering officials ought to be able to handle all the other action. After all, for most of the NBA's history, there were only two officials.
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I haven't heard Dick Bavetta say that he screwed up yet. He may have said something to the inbounder like, "if you requested one, I'm sorry because I didn't hear or see a request."
When there were only two officials in the NBA, it was probably even more important for the administering official to not just focus on the inbound matchup. If he did, that would have left 8 players for his partner to watch!
When I say that the administering official "looks through" the inbounding matchup, I mean that they don't JUST focus on those two players. That would be a waste. They get wide enough to see their primary in addition to the inbounding action. You can't focus SOLELY on the inbounder, even if the count gets to 3 or 4 or you might miss something critical in your primary that your partners aren't going to get.
Z