The National Basketball League today announced that their Commission has approved a series of changes to the Rules and Regulations, effective for the 2011/12 NBL season.
Importantly, teams will no longer be required to have an Under-24 year-old local player on their contracted squad of 10 to 12 players each season. This allows teams greater flexibility to put together the best team possible, based on their merits, rather than catering to a quota system.
With the combination of the NBL’s salary cap and points cap already in place, teams have enough balls to juggle in terms of putting together a roster. Add to that the existing talent drain to Europe and the NCAA and it is apparent that the NBL has realised that they need to provide more flexibility, rather than less, to give local talent a fair chance to succeed.
Similarly, the league has relaxed rules on “Nominated Replacement Players” that move in and out of the active roster. Previously a rostered player replaced by these players was required to sit out a minimum of two games before returning to the lineup. Now, there is no restriction. The number of replacement players required has however been increased from two to three, with those players being required to be development players (under 24).
Other rule changes announced were:
- The wording around the rules for the NBL Tribunal, which previously banned any comment whatsoever around cases before the Tribunal, has been adjusted to allow comment but not criticism;
- Rules around the release of NBL contracted players to participate in off-season domestic competitions have been relaxed so that athletes won’t require a formal clearance to play with a SEABL, ABA or State League team.
