Replacement official Ben Taylor, right, works it all out with Detroit Pistons coach John Kuester, centre, and Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles during a pre-season game last week. (Duane Burleson/Associated Press)

The NBA preseason is well underway, but unionized referees are still nowhere in sight.

And that has a number of players and coaches worried about what the game will look like if replacement refs are still on the floor when the regular season begins Oct. 27.

"You hope [the replacements] don't have an impact," New Orleans coach Byron Scott said this weekend. "You hope they're just heard but not really seen."

Denver forward Kenyon Martin was equally concerned.

"I'm going to have 15 technicals in the first month just for the simple fact that [replacement refs] don't know how I run my mouth," Martin told the Washington Post. "The game is going to be terrible with those replacements."

Compared with the first 21 preseason games of last year, personal fouls have increased by 15.5 per cent under the replacement referees.

Lamell McMorris, the union's lead negotiator, had recommended members accept the league's latest offer at a vote on Sept. 25. They didn't, leading him to step down and leave further talks to the union's executive board.

The rejected proposal reportedly included a number of compromises on the NBA's behalf, such as decreasing the use of NBA Development League officials from 75 to 50 games this year and the retention of the league's severance package for two more years.

With files from The Associated Press