With Fiba rules a few years back when the “play phase” was a rule, the ball was either:
1) dead
2) in play or
3) alive
Now the play phase is gone and so is the ball in play rule. The ball is now either dead or alive. When a player is having free shots, as soon as he/she is handed the ball, it becomes a ball alive situation, BUT there is no team control yet of either team until a rebound is secured by either team or the free throw is successful and the ball is then to be inbounded.

Nick, I completely agree - I was just disagreeing with your comment that the ball was dead. I initially thought the same, until I checked the rulebook.