NEW YORK – The NBA announced today that it will expand use of the Replay Center beginning with the 2016-17 regular season.

This season, active referees in the NBA Replay Center will be responsible for determining the outcome of all replay situations except for player altercations and flagrant fouls, which will continue to be decided by on-court referees.  Examples of replays that will now be determined by the NBA Replay Center are foul calls coinciding with shot-clock violations as well as clear-path and end-of-quarter fouls.

Last season, the second year for the state-of-the-art NBA Replay Center in Secaucus, N.J., current referees were added to the Replay Center for all games to make decisions on certain replay situations and facilitate the on-court review of others.  The Replay Center ruled on 72 percent of all replays and the average review time for all replays was 31.9 seconds, a reduction of nearly 25 percent from the 2014-15 season (42.0 seconds).

For the 2016-17 season, on-court referees will continue to trigger all replay reviews.  Replays determined by referees in the Replay Center will continue to be communicated to an on-court referee for administration of the call.  The current standard for overturning a call made on the floor (“clear and convincing evidence”) will remain for all replay reviews.

The expanded use of the NBA Replay Center was unanimously approved by the Board of Governors.  Measures to extend both the coaching box and the players’ substitution box were also approved.

In July, the Board of Governors approved rules changes for the 2016-17 season pertaining to deliberate away-from-the-play fouls.