The 2017-2018 NBA preseason kicked off on Saturday. After a crazy summer filled with shocking trades and sky-high contracts, the new season is encountering huge changes in five areas, Tencent Sports reported.

The four-year long "tanking" (losing games on purpose in order to gain a better pick for the draft next year) of the Philadelphia 76ers has made the NBA realize that such behavior must be stopped as it has hurt the interests of the league.

Starting from 2019, under the new rules adopted on September 28, the chances for the worst team to have the No.1 pick will be 14 percent, significantly lower than the previous 25 percent. In the past, the worst team could at least acquire a pick from No.1 to No.4, now that range is extended to No.5.

Even the eighth-worst team in 2019 will have a six percent, 19 percent and 26 percent chance to pick up the No. 1 pick, a top-three pick or a top-five pick, respectively. The new rule will make any team considering imitating the 76ers think twice. 

According to the new rules, resting healthy players during nationally-televised games could warrant a fine of up to 100,000 US dollars. Teams will also be encouraged to rest players at home instead of on the road, and rested players must appear on the bench.

Surprisingly, Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs, a man well-known for his crazy DNP (did not play) excuses jumped out first to show support for the new rules. Hopefully, no team will DNP their starting five players with no proper explanation like the Spurs did in the past.

Aside from addressing tanking and stricter DNP rules, the NBA has also been trying to make the new season easier for players to protect their health.

First, the regular season for 2017-2018 will start one week earlier than before, prolonging the whole season. Second, the league will drop all stretches of "four games in five days" and "18 games in 30 days" and reduce the times of "five games in seven days" to 40 (from 90 in 2017). Third, the back-to-back games for every team will decrease from 16.3 to 14.9.

Furthermore, the deal market will close one week earlier in the new season, right before the All-Star Weekend, making sure that every player can avoid stressing over their contract and throw themselves fully into the All-Star games.

The NBA used to allow at most 18 timeouts in one game and three timeouts for each team in the last two minutes in one game. These rules have made a theoretically 48-minute game longer than three hours.

New changes have been adopted over timeouts in the new season. First, a compulsory timeout will be called after the fifth and ninth minute in every quarter of a game. The compulsory timeout after the third minute in the second and fourth quarter will be removed. Second, the 15-minute half-time break will start counting right after the end of the second quarter. Third, all 90-second and 20-second timeouts will be replaced with 75-second timeouts. Both teams have seven of these timeouts with no restrictions per half. Fourth, one team can have at most four timeouts in the fourth quarter and no more than two timeouts in the last three minutes of the game. Fifth, one team can have at most two timeouts in extra time.

The NBA presented the new timeout rules to ensure that audiences can enjoy a more fluent game, which leads to the next change:

The NBA has decided to crack down on attempts to delay the game in the new season.

New rules stipulate that any player who is about to shoot free throws cannot walk outside of the three-point line or they will be seen as committing a violation. Moreover, when the second half of the game starts, any team that is not ready will also be seen as committing a violation.

The penalty for such a violation will be a verbal warning for the first time and a technical foul for the second time.