How to fix fouls in the NBA
by Chris 11 comments Leave a comment April 25th, 2008
Let me set the scene. It’s the first round of the NBA Playoffs. Phoenix vs. San Antonio. Game 2, late 3rd quarter. The Spurs are up by a handful of points and they start fouling Shaq away from the ball.
The infamous Hack-a-Shaq returns.
The Spurs fouled Shaq with the intention of putting him on the line because he’s a notoriously bad free throw shooter. This, in effect, breaks up the momentum of the game, cools off the Suns shooters and gets the Spurs the ball back with, they hope, Shaq missing one or both free throws.
This strategy can be employed at any time except when with 2 minutes to go in 4th quarter. At that point, if you foul Shaq when he doesn’t have the ball, he gets to shoot free throws and the Suns keep the ball. Yay ofr NBA rules.
(To be clear, I think this is a pretty lame strategy, especially when it’s the 3rd quarter and you’re winning. If I were a Spurs player, I’d be ashamed to even be a part of that strategy. Street cred reset to ZER0.)
TrueHoop’s Henry Abbot has a great idea for how to fix the NBA rules to solve the problem of the Hack-a-Shaq and the endless tedium that comes with the constant fouling during the last few minutes of a game. Bask in the beauty and simplicity of his solution:
The current rules are such that if the referee determines that a player has been intentionally fouled for possession, away from the ball, in the final two minutes of a game, the fouled team can have a free throw and the ball back. That rule could be extended all game long.
Another idea that has been discussed would be, in those cases, away from the ball, the fouled team could pick any free throw shooter it wanted. Not a bad idea.
But here’s my crazy, from outer-space, rule, that would change all of basketball: how about if any time any player in the NBA is entitled to free throws, the fouled team can elect to take it out of bounds instead.
It’s too crazy to even really think about. And I have tried it out on some people on the phone, and nobody wants to give up giving a team that is trailing a way back into a close game.
They say it’s the only way a team can come back if they’re down four etc.
But I’m saying, we don’t know that! At the moment, if a team is down four, and they start fouling, they end up winning, what (I’d actually love to see this research) 10% of the time?
And 100% of the time it’s pretty terrible to watch a lot of what should be the most important and fun part of the game.
However, if the team was basically playing their asses off going for the steal, the block, the miss, the offensive foul, etc. what percentage of the time would they win? If teams went to some trouble to acquire and develop players who could succeed in that setting, and coaches put their thinking caps on to maximize their chances, would a team really be way less likely to win?
I don’t know. Maybe.
But the game would sure be fast-paced, intense, and fun to watch.
And Hack-a-Shaq would be gone for good.
Genius.
Update: Ted and Ian have been talking about this improbable Duke comeback vs. Maryland in 2001…
Uh… genius? I don’t think so. The team that’s ahead could just hold the ball for the duration of the shot clock. I don’t care how insane or intense of a defense you play, if the fouling technique helps teams win 10% of the time, then this new rule would decrease that chance to about 1% (duke vs maryland being the only example I can think of where the defense was crazy enough… but even so duke still sent maryland to the line in that 10 point comeback)
You want the game to be more exciting at the end rather than sit through 2 minutes of clock extended to 15 minutes of real time… how about reducing the shot clock to 10 seconds for the final 2 or 3 minutes?
The best way to get rid of Hack-a-Shaq? GET BETTER AT FREE THROWS. I know Shaq works really hard at them… maybe it’s physically impossible for him to ever be good. But keep trying until something works. You start hitting 75%, all of a sudden the problem just disappears.
That would still be more exciting than what we have to endure now. The shot clock isn’t that long and they could adopt something similar to the 5 second rule in college with 2 minutes to go.
That’s barely enough time to get it past half court
The worst part about that game 2 was them fouling Shaq OFF THE BALL and him getting free throws. The easiest way to fix this? If its an off the ball foul and the team is in the bonus, the fouled team should get to pick the shooter. Its crap that they can just run up and hit Shaq and completely ruin any flow of the game. So cheap. Either that or make a foul off the ball flagrant.
Fouling at the end of the game is just part of basketball. It usually doesn’t work, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. Its not like the alternative of letting the clock run out makes any sense for the losing team. Also, it isn’t like you could maintain a strategy where you foul constantly for the whole game. You would run out of players. When the strategy does work, it makes for some of the best theater in sports. Look at this year’s NCAA championship. That was an awesome ending in regulation. That Duke/Maryland game like 7 years back was one of the greatest comebacks ever and not just because I am a Duke fan. Its part of the game.
What really needs to be fixed in the NBA is the biased referees. I can’t fathom why a star should get more calls than a scrub.
Chris, maybe if they reduced the shot clock, then inbounding would be done from half court? I don’t know.
Ian, I agree that was one of the greatest comebacks ever… just want to clarify that while they needed to foul Maryland for it to happen, I believe it was actually only 1 foul (2 shots missed) and the comeback was actually driven by like 3 steals off of Maryland’s inbounding.
As far as stars getting more calls than a scrub, it’s all about the business aspect, and what fans want to see. It’s like going to the latest Christian Bale movie and all of a sudden all the attention is on some no-name actor. More time and energy, hair/makeup, camera time, etc is devoted to the star succeeding and being awesome because that’s what people are paying for.
… it might have been 2 fouls, 4 shots missed. still unbelievable.
Yeah Ted, I know why they do it. Its still crap. I don’t agree with the sentiment that a guy has a couple good seasons and he all of the sudden is allowed to travel. This isn’t some kind of video game crap where you unlock cheats or something. I just don’t feel like fair calls would ruin the entertainment value of the NBA. Good players would still be good if they had a few more fouls on them. Kobe and LeBron would still be able to crack 30 points if they were allowed to be called for traveling. Look at Shaq. Its hard to understand just how dominant Shaq really was in his prime when you look at his numbers. You watched him and it was almost unfair how dominant he was. He was killing the competition and so the NBA started calling the game differently for Shaq. People were allowed to foul the crap out of him at times with no call.
You know… it happens in college too, if you’re lucky. Just look at Hanstravel, who never gets called for walking (he also gets the crap beat of of him)… and on the complete oppsite end of the spectrum you’ve got Zoubek, who does travel alot but I think gets called for it a little too much… like the refs are actually looking for it to happen.
Yeah I know. Like how Battier ALWAYS got the charge call and never the block. I mean yeah, he’s good at taking charges, but come on. I always felt like that was a little much even if the calls were helping the team I liked.
Man that Duke/Maryland game is so freakin sweet.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3416579
Looks like they won’t be changing the fouls in the NBA. They will be instituting fines for flopping, which I like since that will make Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, and Anderson Varejao play ball for real. They are also going to be adding more replay usage.
OK so when/how will this be implemented in college?
I think a vague flop should be a no-call. Most of the time I think a 100% clear fake-ass flop should be a no-call as well, as it’s only hurting the defending player that’s on the ground, but there are times when I think it should be a technical… i.e VIRGINIA TECH’S DERON WASHINGTON, who infuriated me to no end.