Quote:
Originally Posted by CMHCoachNRef
This is a HTBT type of situation. If the ball had bounded far away from the court, the official can and should stop the clock. Once he does that, he is obligated to allow the substitution. If the ball has not bounded away by a good distance, the official should start the count when the inbounder gets to the ball. If the inbounder is taking a drunken-sailor path to the ball, I will likely stop the clock in this situation since I cannot reasonably start a count since the ball is not at his disposal (let's say the ball is 10 feet from him and he takes a 30 foot path to the ball).
I will allow the offense some leeway here in getting to the ball. On the other hand, taking an extra five to seven seconds to get to the ball is not something that is fair to the opponent or to the game.
Of course, this is yet one more reason why it is sooooooo important to keep your time outs near the end of the game. If team B has a time out left, they will undoubtedly use it here leaving themselves with a full eight seconds to make something good happen.
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This really comes down to what your definition of "at disposal" means doesn't it? "At disposal" is defined as being "available after a goal". If a ball is ten feet from a player and I judge it is reasonable that it should take 3 seconds for him to cover 10 feet and he is taking 7 seconds, can't I judge that even though he doesn't have the ball,it is still available to him after 3 seconds? I'm thinking that rather than stopping the clock (unless it bounced far away - another judgement), I would give a reasonable time to get to the ball and then start the count....I actually love the idea of stopping the clock b/c you are punishing a team that is not playing within the spirit of the rules, but by the letter of the rule I feel more comfortable just starting my count....