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As officials, we are responsible for recognizing and awarding legitimate time out requests. The official scorer keeps up with the "how many" and, by rule, advises an official when a team has used its last timeout so that the official, by rule, can advise the head coach that the team has no timeouts remaining.
It's the same way with fouls. We call them, the scorer records them and keeps the count. When a participant uses up all they've got, the scorer tells us and then we tell the head coach and the disqualified participant.
Now, we should always be able to answer a coach's "do I have any timeouts left?" with either "yes" or "no." But the "how many are left" question is not one we need to be answering. Teams have stats people, assistant coaches, etc. who can record/check/recheck/verify these issues with the table.
And what I've noticed is that officials who give attention to keeping up with timeouts often offer the information to coaches without ever being asked!
The big problem happens when we as officials assume responsibility for an area of the game that is really someone else's responsibility. And here is where the water hits the wheel: What if you give the coach incorrect information?
It's neither rude nor unprofessional to respond to the "how many timeouts do I have left?" question with, "Coach, I'm not sure about that. You'll have to check with the scorer's table for that information."
Just my 2 cents.
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