Sub after made basket late in game

[jdw3018]

Originally Posted by CMHCoachNRef

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).

This is an incorrect way to view 'at the player's disposal.' The team gets a reasonable amount of time to get to the ball.

In your scenario, if the ball is 10 feet away, the player gets "10 feet" of time to get to the ball. If he takes a 30 foot path, the 5-second count begins after he's gone 10 feet, even though he's not at the ball.

Just because a player hasn't grabbed the ball doesn't mean it's not at his disposal.