NBA's New Basketball in Foul Trouble?

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NBA switched from the traditional leather basketball to one made of microfiber composite. Since then players have been complaining that it bounces more erratically and takes more effort to get the same distance. So physicists at the University of Texas-Arlington have done some preliminary testing and have found differences between the two types of basketball. But these tests are preliminary. The methodology of the tests and the samples are questionable at the moment. So probably more testing will be done. Of course, I would think that the NBA didn't change balls without doing substantial testing beforehand. So what has changed between the prototype balls and the ones in current use?