The NBA Is Testing a One-Shot Free Throw at Summer League

The NBA will try out a time-saving twist on the free throw at this summer's Summer League: a single shot worth the full value of the trip to the line — one, two or three points — instead of a string of one-pointers. It is an experiment, not a rule change, and the old rules stay in place at crunch time.

Tyler Grant July 2, 2026 at 7:38 PM

The NBA is using its offseason showcase to tinker with one of basketball's oldest routines: the free throw.

One shot, full value

At this year's Summer League, a foul that would normally send a player to the line for one, two or three shots will instead bring a single free throw — but that one attempt will be worth the full total, ESPN reported. A two-shot foul becomes one shot worth two points; a three-shot foul, one shot worth three. Make it, and you get all the points; miss, and you get none.

The idea is to trim the dead time that piles up when players line up for repeated free throws, keeping the game moving. It is not new to pro basketball's ecosystem: the NBA's G League developmental circuit has used a version of the one-shot free throw since the 2019-20 season.

With a crunch-time exception

Importantly, the experiment does not run wire to wire. Standard free-throw rules return for the final two minutes of the fourth quarter and all of overtime, according to ESPN — preserving the familiar late-game rhythm, where deliberate fouling and one-at-a-time free throws are part of the strategy.

A smarter ball, too

Alongside the free-throw test, the league plans to try a basketball fitted with embedded sensors that can detect contact with the ball. The NBA says the technology is aimed at future officiating uses — for example, sorting out who last touched a ball before it went out of bounds. The sensors, the league says, do not change the ball's weight or feel.

An experiment, not a decree

None of this is coming to the regular season yet. Summer League — played across sites including Las Vegas — has long served as the NBA's laboratory, a low-stakes setting to test ideas on real players before deciding whether they are worth taking further. The one-shot free throw and the sensor ball are exactly that: data-gathering exercises, with any move toward the full NBA game still well down the road. For now, fans watching the summer games will get a glimpse of what a slightly faster, slightly more wired version of basketball might look like.