The NBA has decided to re-evaluate how it handles two particular fouling situations, Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press writes, and two players will see their names live on in notoriety as a result.
In what can colloquially be referred to as the Zaza Pachulia rule, officials will be granted authority to look at replays and make a judgment call as to whether or not a defender recklessly positioned his foot in an unnatural way after defending a shot. If necessary, the official can assign a flagrant or technical foul accordingly.
Pachulia’s name is the first to come to mind considering the impact that one particular moment this past spring had on the Western Conference semifinal. That series saw Kawhi Leonard fall to a sprained ankle after landing on a conspicuously positioned Pachulia foot after a closeout.
The second fouling situation that will be viewed differently in 2017/18 pertains to continuation. Officials, Mahoney writes, will now ensure that shooters are in their upward shooting motion when determining if a foul out on the perimeter is worthy of free throws.
Cited in the report as a common perpetrator of milking continuation calls is Rockets guard James Harden. By limiting the number of perimeter foul calls that lead to free throws, the league will disincentivize players from forcing unnatural shots after absorbing content.
I love that they will try to put an end to this stuff.
I can’t stand what Harden and Kobe started …with first wrapping their arms into the defender’s arms when they have the ball on offense. The defender is just standing there. I hate that call.
The other one is when the defender is in the air after getting pump faked, and will clearly bypass the offensive player, but the guy with the ball jumps sideways into the defender, and throws up a crazy shot. That’s an offense of foul, I don’t care what anybody says and I hate that they give the call to the offensive player.
Good luck fixing it though. Going to be pretty tough.
Yeah a vertical jump shot should be the only case where that contact is called, but the pump fake should be meant to bypass a defender not to draw contact especially after the dribble has been terminated.
I think these are some good rule changes…I’m hoping more judgment will be used, especially when awarding a shooter 3 free-throws. The judgment should be based off of intent in the flow of the game.
I can’t stand a player getting fouled at or near half-court, and all of a sudden he sees the foul coming and throws up a shot..It’s clever, but just a cheap trick is all…The foul should be called, and no free throws should be awarded, unless the team committing the foul is in the penalty…
Officials have done a little better job of making non-calls for offensive players forcing contact, after drawing defenders to leave the ground from a pump fake. However, there still needs to be a stronger stance taken against awarding players 3 shots, when they really had no intention of even shooting…
Get this mess out of the game, it is not any better than flopping..So, this needs to go, and hopefully it will slowly disappear, just like they have done with flopping!!….Well, for the most part..lol
If the NBA was more timely on the sticking-a-foot-out “re-evaluation”, it could have been called the Bruce Bowen rule (Spurs 2001-2009). Ironic that S.A. is playing the victim role with this trick.
There is no reason to even allow boxing out on 3pt shots. It looks ridiculous, players getting shoved into the seats because… they might get a rebound? Ha. 3pt shooters would run back on defense if they tried anything.
I keep saying GSW is a physical group but teams keep responding to the GSW dynasty by phasing out their center, leaving then on average less physical.
I agree. Thought Cleveland should have gone stronger in the Finals instead of trying to match speed. The Bad Boys Pistons would be a really fun fantasy matchup against these Warriors. There are a lot of similarities plus they could defend.
Imagine the Draymon Green Dennis Rodman match up. I would pay to see that.
Bad Boy Pistons have no one to guard Klay Thompson. He’s pretty strong won’t back down and he 6 7. Isaiah Thomas 6-1 Joe Dumars 6-3 Vinnie Johnson 6 – 2 if I remember correctly? You got to put the worm on Durant but then it doesn’t look good after that.
Dumars could TOTALLY guard Thompson. Rodman at that point in his career could have gotten under Durant’s skin and the Detroit bigs could have kept up with the GS bigs easily. Rodman and Green match up well, but you are right. They would not have guarded each other in this series. You would have had Laimbeer on Green instead, which could potentially been more fun!
Good post, acurate takes.
Green has that 3-point shot now and lambieer hung around the basket for rebounding. I can’t see John Salley or James Edwards stepping out to guard Green either.
Yes the other bigs cancel each other out but Detroit had more big guys, and the Warriors have more 6-7 versatile guys. Who is 6-7 on that Pistons team?
You had Adrian Dantley at 6-5 and Mark Aguirre at 6-6 and neither could guard anybody.
I think it would be a bad matchup for the Pistons and I’m not just saying that cuz I’m a Warriors fan.
Dantley and Aguirre couldn’t guard too well, that’s true. Rodman was so quick and agile back then, so he could have done it, but he would have been the only one. Detroit’s main defensive scheme was to rough them up on the perimeter, filter them inside, and then let the big guys rough them up again. Obviously that wouldn’t fly in today’s league, so it would be interesting to see how Chuck Daly would have adjusted things. But either way, I think they could have hung with them in a 7 game series. I would love to see Iguodala’s stupid foul/flop reactions after getting leveled by Rick Mahorn!
Yup, lol !!
Can hardly get more finesse vs physical! That’s why I was so frustrated that the Cavs got outphysicalled by GSW.