Why is this a problem? By fouling a player in the middle of a fastbreak, the play is grinded to a halt because after a personal foul the play is resumed by taking the ball out on the side. It is the foul in which a player intentionally fouls an opposing player in the middle of the fastbreak, usually when they are at a numbers disadvantage, in order to stop the play. The latest iteration of unfun foul exploitation is the take foul. They were not fun to watch and they did not feel like basketball. Nobody wants to see Michael Jordan get clotheslined by Bill Laimbeer or watch Shaq brick his free throws.Įach of those fouls were exploits, little loopholes that players used to game the game to their advantage. The Zaza Pachulia à la Bruce Bowen crowding the jump shooter’s landing space? Shamed into disgrace.Įach of these rule changes has made basketball more fun to watch. Kevin Durant’s rip through foul exploitation? Gone. They’ve gotten rid of the hack-a-Shaq nonsense that’s stalled games to silly free-throw competition. They’ve taken away the head-hunting fouls that defined teams like Isaiah Thomas’ Detroit Pistons. That would fall into the new category.For the most part, the NBA has worked to make basketball purely about basketball. If an offensive player is coming around a screen and stops, and a trailing defender runs into their side, that’s still a defensive foul, unless the offensive player abruptly launches back into them. That could be a no-call or an offensive foul, depending on the play. What officials don’t want is an offensive player taking a quick lateral step in front of a defender and then stopping. If an offensive player is tailgated by a defender and they’re on their way to the basket, and they stop to shoot, that could be a defensive foul. That would be a no-call or an offensive foul if the offensive player were to jump backward. If the defender runs into the offensive player, it’s a defensive foul.īut, what officials will try to get better at, per McCutchen, is the “snake-around,” where in the open court or around a screen an offensive player who has an angle to the basket chooses to jump in front of a defender quickly and then stop. One such example: if a defender is tailgating directly behind an offensive player, the offensive player can stop at any time he wants, anywhere on the court, to take a shot. There will obviously still be plenty of instances where defenders legitimately foul offensive players. The offensive player can still drift forward a bit, but can’t launch. Some X’s and O’s on the new interpretation of the rules: pump-faking is still a part of the game, and it’s still a defensive foul if the defender bites and compromises his legal position, but it has gotten to where a defensive player can’t close out on an offensive player, McCutchen said, because the offensive player is lurching forward several feet. Another is an offensive player veering off his path (sideways or backward) into a defender, or hooking a defender while attempting a shot in a non-basketball manner. That may mean kicking out sideways or forward, or lurching forward. Some of the “non-basketball moves” officials will be looking for include pump-faking and jumping into a defender to draw contact and shooters using overt, abrupt, or abnormal launch angles. Summer League is mostly officiated by G League referees. Officials, who have had classroom sessions on the topic, will implement this new strategy in Summer League, which began Sunday. “Some of our best basketball is defensive basketball, and we don’t want to take that away from our players and our teams.” “Anything that fits those abrupt, or abnormal non-basketball moves by offensive players, we’re going to work on getting more defensive balance and offensive balance, so that competition, which is what the NBA is so great at selling, can be more (equal),” said Monty McCutchen, senior vice president and head of referee development and training.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |