Paging for an Elam Ending prognosis Sea Bears to tap Dr. Elam for Target Score Time strategizing By: Joshua Frey-Sam Posted: 2:26 PM CDT Monday, May. 5, 2025

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2025 (397 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

No one knows the Elam Ending better than Dr. Nick Elam.

He is the innovator behind the popular end-of-game format used in basketball leagues across North America, after all.

So it’s easy to understand why the Winnipeg Sea Bears have tapped the brilliant basketball mind to help them prepare for the most important minutes of games, known as Target Score Time, in the Canadian Elite Basketball League.

Elam will work — primarily from his home in Indianapolis — as the club’s Target Score Time strategist, analyzing trends and using his expertise to inform head coach Mike Taylor how to game-plan in crunch time this summer.

“What I can bring to the Sea Bears is that, even though there’s not a single strategy that can 100 per cent guarantee a win, what I can do is share with them the things that have been most effective, what are most likely to put them in a position to succeed,” Elam said Monday.

The customized format cuts the traditional ending of a game — often monotonous and filled with fouls and constant stoppages — by forcing teams to play to a specific score instead of a timed ending.

The clock is turned off following the first play stoppage in the final four minutes, and the game ends when either team reaches the target score — equal to the leading team’s point total plus nine.

Elam, who created the rule in 2007, has had his brain picked many times by coaches in passing but has never been hired by a team. Taylor tried hiring him last season, but that never materialized.

When the offer was presented earlier this spring, he eagerly accepted.

“I’m a little surprised that hasn’t happened more, and I’m surprised that, here we are in 2025, it’s the first time that a team (has) officially and formally wanted me to be part of their team, but I knew that that was going to happen eventually, at some point. I’m excited that the Sea Bears are the first team to look for my insight,” Elam said.

The Elam Ending was implemented in the CEBL in 2020 and has delivered some thrilling finishes to contests over the years. It’s a welcome routine by many fans, but a more polarizing topic among players and coaches.

Taylor, whose first run with the format came in 2018 at The Basketball Tournament (TBT), is in favour of the late-game strategizing it demands.

“It was my first experience with the Elam Ending and I loved it,” said Taylor. “I was intrigued by the strategy, and over the past few years in the CEBL, we’ve stayed in touch. Nick would always make time to answer my questions and talk about target score time. We’re really happy to have him officially join us.”

Changes to the support staff can go under the radar, but this could be a championship-calibre move by Taylor, whose squad might have a distinct advantage at the end of contests while hosting the CEBL’s Championship Weekend in August.

The Sea Bears were 6-4 last summer in games decided by five points or less, including their first-round playoff loss, which was decided by two points.

Elam, who has watched and analyzed nearly every game that has involved the Elam Ending since it was first implemented in 2017, said he sees exactly where many teams go wrong, and it drives him crazy.

“I think it’s because none of these teams has watched as many of these games as I have,” said Elam, who will implement an untapped element of his research with the Sea Bears.

“From my standpoint, I don’t think it’s hard to strategize for, because I’ve studied it more than anyone else. No one else in the world has watched and analyzed as many games (as) I have. So I think that that’s possibly one reason why there are still a lot of teams that navigate the end of games in a misguided way.”

The Elam Ending continues to find traction in some of the best leagues. Along with the CEBL, it’s been used in the NBA G League, the NBA all-star game, NBA Summer League, the Unrivaled three-on-three women’s league and the NCAA women’s all-star game.

Elam’s goal remains to one day see it used in the NBA.

“I think there’s been tremendous progress. Most notably, the NBA G League just wrapped up their third straight year of using a version of the Elam, and the NBA has used the G League as a testing ground for playing rules for many years now. So, for them to stick with it for three years means that there are elements of it that they like a lot, that they’re still considering it very seriously,” he said.

“I think that there’s still a lot of momentum for the idea.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca