Meet the Guy Who’s Quietly Changing the NBA
If you’re a basketball fan, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the effects of Evan Wasch’s work — even if you’ve never heard his name. Wasch is the NBA’s Executive Vice President of Basketball Strategy & Analytics, and he’s been behind many of the league’s biggest changes over the past few years.
The Man Behind the Game’s Evolution
Wasch leads a team of about 30 people, ranging from ex-players and refs to engineers and business minds. Their job? Make basketball better — for fans, players, and the league. This includes everything from how the game is played to how the schedule is built.
If you’ve watched the Play-In Tournament, the NBA Cup, or seen a coach use a challenge, that’s his team’s work. They even helped design the NBA’s COVID “bubble” in 2020 to save the season. Wasch says everything they do comes back to four goals: keep the stars on the floor, make games matter, make them fun to watch, and keep them moving.
The NBA Covid Bubble: How Ideas Become Reality
Every day during the season, Wasch’s team gets detailed reports on things like game flow, refereeing, and play trends. Most ideas they brainstorm don’t make it past the drawing board — he says 90% of them get tossed. But the ones that do stick go through a long approval process involving data, surveys, and feedback from fans, teams, and league officials.
If it’s a rule change, it has to go through the league’s competition committee. Bigger ideas may need a vote from the owners or even the players union.
Some changes are planned out over years. Others, like the bubble and play-in format during COVID, had to be put together fast. That emergency solution in 2020 actually helped open minds to more permanent changes — like the now-regular play-in tournament and the NBA Cup.
What’s Next?
Even after something rolls out, Wasch’s team watches it closely. They check ratings, conduct fan surveys, and look at game-by-game data to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. That’s how they spotted issues with the All-Star Game format, which flopped this year. Wasch admits it missed the mark but says feedback on the game part — not the entertainment distractions — was actually pretty good. With NBC coming in next year as a broadcast partner, he says they’ll keep working on it.
Future Changes You Might See
Wasch’s crew is testing even more tweaks now, including:
• One free throw per foul trip (worth two or three points depending on the foul)
• Target score in overtime to keep games from dragging on
• Not penalizing players’ shooting stats for full-court heaves at the end of quarters
They’re also working on automated officiating using cameras and sensors to speed up out-of-bounds, goaltending, and clock decisions — so refs can focus on the tougher stuff and make games move faster.
As the NBA Playoffs begin, keep an eye out. A lot of what you’re watching — and what you don’t even realize has changed — started with Evan Wasch’s team. And they’re already working on the next big thing.
