The NBA shared with teams one of league’s focuses in competition committee meeting had been on offensive players hunting for fouls and veering off paths into defenders – and how those recent points of officiating emphasis have impacted a decrease in league scoring, according to…
Game Balance: The NBA is targeting on offensive players hunting for fouls
NBASaturday, 16 March 2024 at 03:51
In one of the most controversial subjects discussed throughout this entire NBA season due to the offensive explosion, the league has been taking notes and making changes in the way games are being officiated.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, last Tuesday, in a meeting of the competition comitee of the NBA, the league has described in detail how officiating should now focus on offensive players hunting for fouls. This means that there's going to be special attention on those players who, instead of following their pathway to the basket, are more interested to get a foul call and go to bump the defenders.
This is similar to the case for the 'James Harden' rule, focused on a play that Harden used to do when he was with the Houston Rockets. While slightly different, Harden new that if the defender reached out and attempt to steal the ball, he immediatly began rising to shoot, despite that not being his first intention. He knew that the referees would grant him a foul anyway. After lots of criticism, the league made some adjustments and that play stopped being called a foul.
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This explaines why we're experiencing a slight decrease in scored points since the All-Star break. The referees have changed their officiating a little bit, letting the players play, calling less fouls per game.
The league is continually evaluating the game dynamics and how it evolves in the course of the regular season, and in this case, the focus in on legal guarding position and level of contact on pathway plays to the basket.
The scoring has decreased in 4 points, and 1.9 decrease in fouls per team called. As reported previously, the referees told that there was no straight directive from the league office to reduce scoring.
This reductions could be explained by slower pace, fierce competition, play style and of course, officials shifting focus on foul hunters.
The NBA has expressed the teams that "future evaluation at future committee meetings will determine whether rule and/or interpretation changes should be considered next season."
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