Beginning with the 2025-26 season, unsuccessful desperation shots launched at the end of quarters will no longer count against a player’s field-goal percentage. Instead, those attempts will be logged as team misses, league sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on September 10, 2025.
The tweak was tested during the NBA Summer League in July and received backing from the league’s Competition Committee, clearing the way for full adoption when regular-season play tips off this fall.
League officials hope the adjustment will encourage players to take more last-second heaves without worrying about how a miss might affect personal statistics—an issue some players cited when opting to hold the ball as the horn sounded.
The change is the latest rules experiment overseen by Commissioner Adam Silver, whose tenure has already produced the Play-In Tournament, the in-season NBA Cup and next year’s USA-versus-World All-Star format scheduled for the 2026 showcase at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome.
In a separate scheduling note, the Los Angeles Lakers are slated to travel 45,507 miles and cross 47 time zones during the upcoming campaign, underscoring the travel demands teams routinely face over the six-month season.
Source: Lakers Nation
