The NBA will implement new rules focusing on limiting the ways offensive players use non-basketball moves to draw fouls.
Offensive players around the league have become notorious for how they move their bodies in order to draw contact from a defender.
Defenders are usually punished for contesting a shot even if they do not initiate any contact. Offensive players will lean their bodies into the defender and attempt a bad shot, which typically granted them fouls, even if the defender played good defense.
Now, the NBA is preparing to instate rules for players and referees to abide by so those types of fouls won’t punish defenders for doing their job, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic:
“Based on the Competition Committee’s guidance and subject to discussions with the Board of Governors, the league will train officials to identify and properly adjudicate the following overt actions to initiate contact with defenders:
- When a shooter launches or leans into a defender at an abnormal angle.
- When a shooter kicks his leg (up or to the side) at an abnormal angle.
- When an offensive player abruptly veers off his path (sideways or backward) into a defender.”
Players will have the summer to train for these new changes, and referees will be taught how to identify and accurately call these fouls.
With the new rules, players will be called for an offensive foul if they violate one of those rules, depending on how marginal the contact is. If there’s solid contact from the offensive player, it will be a foul. If there’s little contact, it will be a no-call and the game will resume.
A defender can still be called for a foul if the offensive player doesn’t violate any of the above changes. As long as the offensive player shoots how they normally do, a defender can be called for a foul if they initiate the contact themselves. A no-call will be called if a defender doesn’t initiate much contact.
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