INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue believes the NBA's off-season rule change -- allowing for fewer timeouts during the course of games -- is having a negative impact on his team.

Veteran Dwyane Wade brought this problem up to Lue recently, mentioning players staying on the court for longer stretches.

"I didn't really notice that, but the players are complaining about it," Lue said Tuesday afternoon. "You have to play more minutes in a row now because of the timeout situation."

In early July, the league's Board of Governors unanimously approved recommendations by the NBA competition committee in an attempt to speed up the game. Along with standardizing the length of halftime intermission and cutting back on players wandering away from the free-throw line in between shots, the league dropped the number of timeouts from 18 to 14, eliminating a pair from each coach.

All timeouts are now 75 seconds in length, rather than "full" timeouts that lasted 100 seconds and those "20-second" timeouts that really ran much longer. In another tiny change, each quarter has two mandatory timeouts, as the old rule mandated a third timeout in the second and fourth quarters.

"Timeouts are different because you have to save timeouts now with them taking away two and it's different," Lue said.

In the past, Lue would use timeouts as strategic mini-breaks, allowing him to steal rest for his key players without having to yank them out of games. If LeBron James got tired, he signaled to Lue and the coach called for a stoppage. This led to James sometimes playing the entire second half or being able to stay effective despite a high-minute load. Other times, Kyrie Irving would be able to stay in for the entire first quarter before resting to start the second.

It's much more difficult now, something that became obvious during Sunday's loss against the New York Knicks.

In the fourth quarter, with the Cavs trailing by 17 points, Lue started with Kevin Love, Kyle Korver, Jae Crowder, James and Wade, one final push before raising the proverbial white flag.

The group got off to a 13-4 run in the first five minutes before 35-year-old Wade got gassed. He had just played 10 straight minutes of game time and needed a breather.

Shortly after Derrick Rose replaced Wade, who was playing well with six points and five assists, the Knicks went on a 7-0 spurt to push the lead back to double digits.

On Saturday, the first game of a back-to-back in New Orleans, Korver was surprisingly asked to play around nine straight minutes and his defense suffered as a result.

"The timeout situation is kind of tricky, but we can get used to that," Lue said. "If we're in better shape, we'll be able to play through that."

Perhaps that will help. The conditioning topic has been a point of frustration recently. James' conditioning took a hit after missing most of training camp and the preseason with a sprained left ankle. Rose, who pushed hard this summer, putting in numerous two-a-day workouts, was worried his time sidelined would hurt him as well. Now Iman Shumpert is out for about another week with a left knee injury.

Love said Tuesday getting in better shape would help correct a handful of the early-season issues. Once the team gets where it needs to be, suddenly pushing the pace will be easier and moving away from the ball will be more purposeful. Both should help the offense rise back to its usual level. The same goes for defense.

"I'm not saying that guys are taking plays off, but just (not) going super hard," Love said. "We have the luxury of being able to put guys in different spots and a really deep roster where we don't have to necessarily log 30-plus minutes, even the starters. So just go hard, if you're tired, ask for a sub."

That's a small adjustment Lue needs to make in order to counter the timeout changes. But it shouldn't be an issue.

Depth was supposed to be one of the Cavs' primary assets this season, having 12 or 13 guys capable of playing on any given night. That should help prevent Lue from rotations that feature extended minutes in a row -- even if he stays with a comfortable, tight 10-man rotation.

Every team plays under the same rules. But Cleveland has the league's oldest roster, which seems to be leading to more challenges, especially when it comes to monitoring playing time and fatigue.