Minnesota Sports Forum

Howard Beck?Verified account @HowardBeck 15h15 hours ago

NBA refs cracking down on two areas this year: 1. "Reckless" closeouts (see Zaza); 2. Shooters creating contact to draw FTs (see Harden)

Yep it's good to see. So....what will be the next thing players do to make best use of the rules to their advantage?

Unfortunately, these new rules never seem to be enforced on the players that required them. Remember the flopping rule. I have still never witnessed it being assessed against a star player.

sjm34 wrote:Unfortunately, these new rules never seem to be enforced on the players that required them. Remember the flopping rule. I have still never witnessed it being assessed against a star player.

What happens is that the officials call it tight to start with and then players learn pretty quickly they won't be rewarded for it and just stop doing it. While flopping still occurs, it's not nearly the issue it once was. The infamous "rip through" move is no longer used as much because it's only a common foul versus an automatic trip to the free throw line.

I will be interested to see what happens the first time Harden or Louis Williams takes a high ball screen, then suddenly stops in order to draw contact with the trailing defender trying to fight over the screen. It's usually at that point they then throw up a wild shot attempt and get rewarded with three free throws. Let's hope officials find this to be an unnatural act and don't blow the whistle.

One thing I noticed in the playoffs is that Harden got away with waaaay fewer of his shenanigans than normal. I think the officials were already starting to adjust a bit. More please!

Q12543 wrote:

sjm34 wrote:Unfortunately, these new rules never seem to be enforced on the players that required them. Remember the flopping rule. I have still never witnessed it being assessed against a star player.

What happens is that the officials call it tight to start with and then players learn pretty quickly they won't be rewarded for it and just stop doing it. While flopping still occurs, it's not nearly the issue it once was. The infamous "rip through" move is no longer used as much because it's only a common foul versus an automatic trip to the free throw line.

I will be interested to see what happens the first time Harden or Louis Williams takes a high ball screen, then suddenly stops in order to draw contact with the trailing defender trying to fight over the screen. It's usually at that point they then throw up a wild shot attempt and get rewarded with three free throws. Let's hope officials find this to be an unnatural act and don't blow the whistle.

One thing I noticed in the playoffs is that Harden got away with waaaay fewer of his shenanigans than normal. I think the officials were already starting to adjust a bit. More please!

Yeah, I thought they reigned that stuff in fairly well last year. I didn't see nearly as much of jump shooters jumping sideways to draw contact and although I still saw guys flailing a leg out to draw contact, I saw less of it and I swear I saw a couple of those leg-flailing shooters get called themselves.

Crafty guys will always find ways to draw fouls, but hopefully an emphasis on these rule changes will reward aggressiveness more than phoniness.