When can a team take a timeout or make a substitution?

Which basketball this page governs

The primary scope is five-on-five basketball governed by the FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2024, version 1.0a, and the matching Official Interpretations 2024, version 1.0a. Both took effect on 1 October 2024; FIBA still lists them as its current rules material as checked on 26 August 2026. FIBA’s formal term is time-out; the closed form timeout is used here when discussing basketball generally or the NBA.

This is the international baseline, not a universal rule for every basketball game. A later section compares the NBA’s live official rulebook as checked on the same date. WNBA, NCAA, NFHS, youth and local competitions can use different timeout counts, request rights and substitution windows, so their appointed rules must be checked separately.

Timeout allowance at a glance

• One minute: the length of a regular FIBA timeout.
• Two: each team’s allowance during the first half.
• Three: each team’s allowance during the second half, but no more than two may be used with 2:00 or less in the fourth quarter.
• One: each team’s allowance in each overtime.
• No carryover: unused timeouts do not move into the next half or an overtime.

If a team has not been granted a second-half timeout before the clock reaches 2:00 in the fourth quarter, one of its three second-half slots becomes unavailable. It can use only two from that point, even if the scoreboard had shown all three unused.

A dead ball is necessary, but not always sufficient

FIBA Articles 18.2.3 and 19.2.2 define the ordinary opportunity in three parts: the ball is dead, the game clock is stopped, and the referee has ended any communication with the scorer’s table. The separate post-free-throw opportunity begins when the ball becomes dead after a successful last free throw.

The window ends when the ball is at the disposal of a player for a throw-in or for the first free throw. A late signal from the table does not reopen it. Official Interpretation 18/19-8 says that when a substitute reports after the opportunity has ended, an erroneous horn and whistle do not make the substitution legal; play resumes without admitting the substitute.

In FIBA, the coach asks the table

Only the head coach or first assistant coach may request a FIBA timeout. The requester must establish visual contact with the scorer’s table or go to it, ask clearly and make the conventional timeout sign. A player on the court has no independent right to request one.

The coach may lodge the request while play continues, but the request does not itself stop the game. The timer signals only when a legal timeout opportunity begins, and the timeout formally starts when the referee whistles and signals it. The request may be cancelled until the timer’s signal sounds.

The non-scoring team has the first right

A made field goal creates a FIBA timeout opportunity for the team that conceded the basket. If that team has requested one, the timer stops the game and signals. The scoring team cannot use its own made basket to obtain a timeout unless a referee has independently interrupted the game.

FIBA Official Interpretation 18/19-4 adds an important consequence: once the non-scoring team is granted its timeout, the opponent may also be granted a requested timeout, and both teams may make requested substitutions. The first legal stoppage opens the wider window; the scoring team cannot create that stoppage by itself.

The substitute—not the coach—reports

Under FIBA Article 19.3, only the substitute has the right to request a substitution. The substitute must report to the scorer’s table or sit in the substitution chair, be ready to play, and remain outside the boundary until the referee whistles, signals and beckons the player onto the court. The outgoing player may go directly to the bench.

During a timeout or an interval other than half-time, the substitute must still report to the timer before entering. FIBA Article 4.2.3 treats the change as complete when the referee beckons the substitute, or during a timeout when the substitute reports the substitution to the timer.

A quick change cannot normally be undone

A newly admitted player cannot leave again, and the player who left cannot re-enter, until the ball next becomes dead after a period in which the game clock ran. A foul before the clock restarts therefore does not normally let the coach reverse the change.

FIBA Article 19.2.4 gives narrow exceptions when a team would otherwise have fewer than five players or when a legally substituted player must return to attempt free throws as part of correcting an error. A fifth foul also forces a player out even if the clock has not run since that player entered.

Substitution rights change at 2:00

After a made field goal, a substitution opportunity arises for the non-scoring team only when the game clock shows 2:00 or less in the fourth quarter or an overtime. If that team is granted a substitution, Official Interpretation 18/19-4 permits the scoring team to substitute too. Outside that late-game window, an ordinary made basket does not by itself create a substitution opportunity.

The scoring team still cannot generate the opportunity by requesting a change after scoring. It joins only if the non-scoring team’s substitution is granted or if a referee has interrupted the game for another valid reason.

The first free throw closes the ordinary window

If a timeout or substitution is requested before the ball is at the shooter’s disposal for the first free throw, it is granted before the sequence begins. Once the ball is at the shooter’s disposal, the table normally must wait until the whole set ends. There is no routine change between the first and second attempts of the same two-shot penalty.

A request made during the sequence can be granted after the last attempt if it is successful, if the last attempt is followed by a throw-in, or if another valid event keeps the ball dead. If the last attempt misses legally and the rebound remains live, play continues and the request waits for the next opportunity. These distinctions come from Articles 18.3.6 and 19.3.9 and Interpretations 18/19-5 to 18/19-7.

A substitution does not select a better shooter

For free throws resulting from a personal, unsportsmanlike or disqualifying contact foul, FIBA Article 43.2.1 requires the fouled player to shoot. If that player is merely scheduled to be substituted, the free throws come first.

If the shooter must leave because of injury, a fifth foul or disqualification, the substitute attempts the free throws and then cannot leave until after playing in the next game-clock-running period. If no substitute is available, the head coach designates a team-mate. Technical and non-contact disqualifying foul penalties have their own shooter-selection rule.

Safety can force a replacement

FIBA Article 5 permits an immediate stoppage when needed to protect an injured player. Otherwise, with a live ball, referees generally wait until the team in control shoots, loses control, withholds the ball from play or the ball becomes dead, unless neither team is disadvantaged.

An injured player who cannot continue within approximately 15 seconds, or who receives treatment or assistance from team personnel, must be substituted unless the team would have fewer than five players. A bleeding player or one with an open wound must leave until the bleeding has stopped and the area is securely covered. However, if the player recovers during a timeout taken by either team before the timer signals the substitution, the player may remain.

The replacement has a 30-second limit

A player with five fouls, or a disqualified player, must be replaced immediately and the FIBA procedure allows no more than 30 seconds. If the team delays, a timeout may be charged. If it has no timeout remaining, the head coach may be charged with a bench technical foul for delaying the game.

This is a forced administrative replacement, not a tactical chance to ignore the reporting procedure. Communication with the table and the required replacement are completed before a requested timeout formally begins.

A FIBA timeout can advance a backcourt throw-in

With 2:00 or less in the fourth quarter or an overtime, if the team entitled to possession in its backcourt takes a timeout, FIBA Article 17.2.4 lets its head coach choose a throw-in from the frontcourt throw-in line or the original backcourt location. The timeout does not automatically advance the ball; the coach chooses.

Under the 2024 wording, an original endline throw-in after a made goal or last free throw lets the coach select the table-side or opposite-side frontcourt throw-in line. For an original sideline or endline throw-in after a foul or violation, the advanced throw-in stays on the same side as the original. Article 29.2.5 controls the corresponding shot-clock treatment.

Media timeouts are not automatic FIBA timeouts

FIBA Appendix E allows an organising body to decide whether to use media timeouts and whether their duration is 60, 75, 90 or 100 seconds. That appendix supplies a procedure, but a competition must adopt it. A broadcast stoppage should not be assumed merely from the international baseline.

Competition regulations may also control bench administration and operational timing. When an event handbook supplements the FIBA rules, use the event’s published version for that game.

Who can stop live play is different

The NBA’s live official rulebook, checked 26 August 2026, does not label its web text by season. Rule 5, Sections VI–VII says a player in the game or the head coach may request a timeout, and it is granted when the ball is dead or controlled by a player on that team. That allows a team with live-ball player control to obtain a timeout—unlike FIBA’s table-request system.

An NBA request while the ball is loose or controlled by the opponent is ignored. Rule 5 also denies a player’s request when both feet are airborne and the player has broken the vertical plane of a boundary line, with the rule’s stated late-game midcourt exception.

Seven regulation timeouts, with late limits

NBA Rule 5 gives each team seven charged timeouts in regulation, no more than four in the fourth period, and no more than two after the later of the 3:00 mark or the conclusion of the second mandatory timeout in the fourth. Each overtime brings two team timeouts. The NBA also schedules two mandatory timeouts in each period under its rulebook procedure.

Unlike FIBA, an NBA request beyond the available allowance is granted and followed by a technical foul; the opponent then receives the ball for a throw-in nearest the interruption. This is a real rules-family difference, not a general basketball principle.

The table procedure has different windows

NBA Rule 3, Section V requires a substitute to report to the scorer, identify the player being replaced, wait near the substitution box and remain there until beckoned. All substitutions are legal for both teams during a timeout. After a made field goal, however, substitutes may not enter merely because the basket was scored; another event such as a timeout, foul, violation or infection-control stoppage must make the ball dead.

For free throws, NBA substitutes generally enter before the final attempt if a miss will remain live, or after the final attempt when the ball will not remain live. Disqualification, injury, ejection and other atypical situations can require a different procedure. Apply NBA Rule 3 rather than importing FIBA’s Article 19 sequence.

The late-game frontcourt option has its own test

NBA Rule 5, Section VI provides a frontcourt option during the last two minutes of the fourth period or overtime when the offensive team takes a timeout with the ball out in its backcourt, or immediately after securing a rebound or change of possession there before advancing the ball. The team may use the frontcourt 28-foot hash mark or the designated backcourt spot.

If the team has already thrown the ball in, or dribbled or passed after the rebound or change of possession, that timeout is still granted but play resumes from the sideline nearest the interruption. Under the NBA rule, obtaining the frontcourt option after those actions requires a second offensive-team timeout. The NBA wording and location are not interchangeable with FIBA Article 17.

Resolve a FIBA request in six steps

1. Confirm that the game uses FIBA 2024 rather than NBA, NCAA, NFHS or another code.
2. Identify the request: coach or first assistant for a timeout; the substitute personally for a substitution.
3. Ask whether a legal opportunity has begun: ordinary dead ball with clock stopped and table communication complete, a dead ball after the last free throw, or the relevant post-goal window.
4. Check whether the ball is already at a thrower-in’s or first free-throw shooter’s disposal. If so, the ordinary window has closed.
5. Apply any special condition: late made basket, free-throw sequence, injury, blood, fifth foul, disqualification or correctable error.
6. Complete the table signal, referee beckon and any late-game restart choice before making the ball live.

A trapped ball-handler asks for timeout

Situation: A1 still controls a live ball while trapped near the sideline and signals timeout to a referee. No coach has a request pending at the table.

Ruling: play continues. Under FIBA Articles 18.1 and 18.3.1, a player cannot request the team timeout, and live player control is not itself a FIBA timeout opportunity. This would need separate analysis under the NBA rule, where a player in the game may request during team control.

The request arrives between two free throws

Situation: A1 is awarded two free throws. After the first attempt, B’s coach requests a timeout and A6 reports as a substitute. The second attempt misses legally and is rebounded.

Ruling: neither request is granted between attempts, and the miss keeps the ball live. Both requests wait for the next opportunity. The decisive fact is that the first free throw had already begun the set and the last attempt did not produce a dead ball, matching FIBA Interpretations 18/19-5 to 18/19-7.

The conceding team substitutes after a late basket

Situation: with 1:18 left in the fourth quarter, A scores. B6 had properly requested a substitution; A6 is also waiting at the table.

Ruling: B6 may enter because the made goal creates a late-game substitution opportunity for the non-scoring team. Once B’s substitution is granted, A6 may also enter under Official Interpretation 18/19-4. Without B’s granted substitution or another referee interruption, A could not create the window after its own score.

A new substitute is fouled before the clock runs

Situation: A6 enters during a dead ball. On the ensuing throw-in, before anyone legally touches the ball on court and before the game clock starts, B1 commits a personal foul. A wants A6 removed.

Ruling: A6 normally must remain. Article 19.2.4 requires a game-clock-running period followed by another dead ball before a newly admitted player may leave. The new foul creates a dead ball, but it does not supply the missing running-clock period; only a stated exception could change the result.

Five shortcuts that give the wrong ruling

• “Any dead ball allows a substitution”: not until the clock is stopped, table communication is complete and the request was timely.
• “A FIBA player can save possession by calling timeout”: only the head coach or first assistant requests through the table, and the grant waits for an opportunity.
• “Both teams can always substitute after a basket”: the FIBA post-goal substitution window begins with the non-scoring team and only in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.
• “A timeout is available between free throws”: not routinely after the first attempt in one set; the table generally waits until the set ends.
• “NBA procedure is the universal rule”: its live-control timeout, allowance, substitution windows and restart locations are competition-specific.

Controlling rule material

• FIBA Official Basketball Rules 2024, version 1.0a — effective 1 October 2024; Articles 4.2.3, 5, 17.2.4, 18, 19, 29.2.5 and 43.2.1, plus Appendix E.
• FIBA Official Basketball Rules Interpretations 2024, version 1.0a — effective 1 October 2024; Article 18/19 interpretations, especially 18/19-1 to 18/19-8 and 18/19-14 to 18/19-23.
• FIBA Refereeing: Official Basketball Rules — current rules index used to confirm the controlling FIBA edition as checked 26 August 2026.
• FIBA: Official Basketball Rules 2024 come into force on October 1 — implementation notice and summary of the 2024 late-game throw-in change.
• NBA live Rule 3: Players, Substitutes and Coaches — Section V substitution procedure, checked 26 August 2026; the live page does not state a season edition.
• NBA live Rule 5: Scoring and Timing — Sections VI–VII timeout allowances, requests and late-game advancement, checked 26 August 2026; the live page does not state a season edition.

Source note: the FIBA rulebook and matching interpretations control the main explanation. FIBA competition regulations may add adopted media-timeout and event procedures. The NBA material is a separately labelled comparison; WNBA, NCAA, NFHS, youth and local rules are outside this page’s verified scope.