The NBA's Board of Governors meets annually during the offseason to address changes to rules and other aspects of the league as a group.

The Board of Governors is responsible for changing things, like they did with the new "hack-a-Shaq" rules changes last summer. The meeting has been adjourned, and once again the group has unanimously agreed on some major rules changes to the NBA. 

The biggest focus of their meeting this year was improving the flow of the in-game experience. The group took aim at adjusting how timeouts function fundamentally for teams and made some sweeping changes that are effective immediately. 

One of the biggest changes was dropping the total timeout count in a game from 18 to 14 (7 per team), cutting out a huge chunk of downtime spent on the sidelines. They've also adjusted late-game disruptions, limiting teams to taking two in the final two minutes of a game as opposed to three.

There's also now only one standardized time length to timeouts, dropping the "full" and "20 second" timeouts in favor of what's now considered "team" timeouts. They will last 75 seconds, and are now the standard and only timeout across the board. 

The Board of Governors agreed changes on things aside from timeouts, too. Halftimes are now regulated to being 15 minutes, with a delay of game violation issued if a team takes longer than the allotted time. There will also be a delay of game violation for free-throw shooters that walk beyond the three-point line between attempts.

The biggest non-timeout change, though, was shifting the NBA trade deadline to 10 days before the All-Star game. Typically the madness of the trade deadline would add to the buzz surrounding All-Star weekend, but the NBA is moving it up now.

This is a move to help both teams and players logistically. Having the trade deadline in place before the All-Star weekend festivities get underway allows for the smoke to settle when games aren't being played. The old trade deadline would leak into the regular season starting up.

This allows teams a week to prepare for any roster changes, and players a chance to get settled in to their new teams. 

The changes to timeouts could have a large impact on the game, especially when considering how much "rest" time is being diminished with less timeouts and tighter halftime expectations. What kind of effect this has on players, if any, will be one of the key things to watch going forward.