This is for you Billy!

[Danvrapp]

Hmmm...if the ball is dropped from too high of a height, I'd worry about the speed being too fast and crunching some fingers.

Drop it from too low of a height and I would think players wouldn't have enough time to react to the ball and reaching it at the pinnacle of their jump...of course maybe that's an advantage to the 'quicker' jumper.

Do you still keep the 3rd official at/in/on/near the center circle?

Interesting thought experiment, though...

[ilyazhito]

The question is who the drone-controller would be? The shot-clock operator? That might make sense, because the shot clock does not start until the jump ball is controlled, so he might have time to do the drop and move the drone away from the center circle. The visiting scorer (or assistant scorer, at levels that use 2 scorers) could also fly the drone, because he might not have many other duties. At levels with no alternating possession arrow (NBA and Euroleague), the assistant scorer would be perfect to do this, because he does not have to track possession.

UPDATE: Perhaps this would give the alternate official something useful to do, other than overseeing the work of the table and helping correct correctable errors. With no alternate official present, what other ideas do you have?