last night, he said he questions two rules. The first is if there is a steal/breakaway, you can simply grab the guy and it is a common foul and the team likely inbounds the ball. I agree with van gundy, this seems like a small penalty for robbing the offense of a fast break opportunity (high chance of two points). I think they should change this, but I don't think it is a big deal.

The one I care a lot about is, why if you get a defender to jump, you can jump into them to get a foul? Last night, Love jumped in front of Clay Thompson (he passed in front of him). Thompson dove forward into him and got 3 free throws. smart play, but that rule sux. Clay initiated the contact! If he hadn't, Love wouldn't have touched him. It wasn't a normal shooting motion, not even close. IMHO, that is an offensive foul.

Do others agree that it makes no sense that once a defender leaves his feet, if a shooter is within jumping radius of hitting the defender, it is currently a foul?

I'm not sure jumping into the defender is currently the rule. I think they just missed the call

The second one isn't supposed to be a foul, in fact i think in some cases it's supposed to be an offensive foul (the leg kick is for sure), but they always give it to the offensive player anyway.

NBA rules are generally good, it's the way they call charge/blocks, screen contact, contact on jump shots, and travels (all in favor of the offense) that is terrible.

On a fast break, several times I've seen the ball handler dish the ball off to teammate and plow through the defender who positioned to take a charge with no call being made ("Passer got rid of the ball before the charge" would be a typical thing being said).

This makes no sense when combined with the call of a defender stepping in front of a player (usually big man) who is running down the court and gets called for plowing over the defender.

I'm fine with neither being a foul, or both being a foul, but I'm not fine with the first situation being a no call, and the 2nd one being a foul.


Also, I agree with Van Gundy: Offensive players should not be able to just jump into a defender's space or the space a defender is going to occupy and get the call. The "draw a foul" culture makes for long ass games of free throw shooting.

Moving screens. Argh

I agree the first scenario should be called charge/block. I may not be understanding what you're describing in the second scenario, but if you're talking about a defender taking a charge from a big man at half-court that doesn't have the ball and didn't just immediately dish it off while making a play, then that should be a no-call, in my opinion.

What I was describing is "Golden State misses a shot and Harden gets the rebound at the free throw line. Everyone starts running back to the other end of the court, including the dribbling Harden, who suddenly veers slightly and stops for no other reason than to hope the player behind him (who clearly isn't trying to do anything other than get back on defense) accidentally runs into him from behind.

lespaul said:

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I see guys jumping into the defender all the time. They call it 100% of the time defensive foul.

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If the defender jumps into the natural shooting area , then its going to be a foul on the defender. If the shooter jumps sideways, or does what Thompson did and stepped forward then shot, it would be an offensive foul

Seven Costanza said:

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One minor thing that I'd like to see fixed: You will often see a guy like Harden bringing the ball up the court and a defender is just trying to get back on defense, then Harden will cut him off and suddenly stop so the guy will run into him. This should not be a foul. The defender wasn't trying to guard you and his presence wasn't impeding you in any way. It's just a BS way to try to draw a meaningless foul.

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No player is ever aimlessly jogging back. The times I've seen this, the player was harassing the inbound and guarding the ball down the court. The offensive player pulls in front of that to get them to back off or commit a foul.

And if they do aimlessly wander and happen to get cut off. I don't mind. Pay better attention. It's really simple to not be in that situation.

PatAg said:

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lespaul said:

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I see guys jumping into the defender all the time. They call it 100% of the time defensive foul.

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If the defender jumps into the natural shooting area , then its going to be a foul on the defender. If the shooter jumps sideways, or does what Thompson did and stepped forward then shot, it would be an offensive foul

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It would be a judgment call (which the NBA needs less of with these poor officials), but they shouldn't call a defensive foul on a jump shot if the offensive player jump FORWARD into the defender. Jump shooters without trying to get fouled either go straight up or fade backwards.

Van Gundy is right. The NBA needs to be more free flowing. Reduce offensive players throwing themselves into defenders will lead to fewer FTs (game stoppage) and harshly penalize fouls on breakaways.

I've literally seen this exact scenario a thousand times (shooter jumping into airborn defender, thus initiating contact) and it has been called a defensive foul 100.0% of the time. If it is a judgement call, no one told the refs.

Interesting concept to possibly eliminate intentional fouls at the end of a game.

That is an interesting idea. I don't think the league will ever radically change the game like that, though. I'd be happy with just reducing timeouts/commercials at the end of the game, which is also something that won't happen.