How to combat Hack-a-Shaq

[ss1986v2]

The point of the OP is that while teams would hack a Shaq anyway. This will get them to the penalty sooner. Then a player who forces them to foul by driving to the hole (ala Wade) will result in free throws for that player because the other team is over the limit. i.e. you get free throws whether the foul was a shooting foul or not.

but doesnt this imply pulling shaq off the court? heres the scenario:

team x begins fouling shaq with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. they are quickly in the penalty. team shaq has possession and slasher #1 has the ball. he begins to make his move, and team x immediately fouls shaq, taking the ball out of slasher #1s hands, and putting shaq at the line again.

now maybe i missed it, but if you are pulling shaq once you gets into the penalty, then ok. thats one of the better ways to combat it (aside from shaq making his free throws). but isnt that playing into the hack-a-shaq a bit? if i can get shaq off the court even for a couple minutes at the end of the first 3 quarters, get some good offensive sets in with him out, and not have to worry about him getting easy buckets down low or causing my own players to pick up silly fouls trying to stop him, id take my chances with a player like maggette trying to get to the line for 2-3 minutes.

especially on a team like the suns. any offensive sets that get the ball out of nash and amares hands is always welcome.

[LA Warrior]

i think they should change it to if u foul the same player 5+ times in 1 quarter it becomes 1 and the ball. this probably would back fire. The best answer to me is make your free throws shaq!!

[Mr. Sun]

How about this rule: for non-shooting fouls, team can disignate anyone on the floor to shoot the free throw. This is allowed for technicals.

[TASTIC]

^That's a good rule. My dad doesn't watch a lot of bball, and as a casual fan he said it is the WORST part of watching it, when essentially another player just stops the game and fouls another player and they're barely penalised, so from a spectators point of view they really need to sort it

And then for every Suns' fan's sanity they need to sort it too

[Heat3]

-= original quote snipped =-


but doesnt this imply pulling shaq off the court? heres the scenario:

team x begins fouling shaq with 4 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. they are quickly in the penalty. team shaq has possession and slasher #1 has the ball. he begins to make his move, and team x immediately fouls shaq, taking the ball out of slasher #1s hands, and putting shaq at the line again.

now maybe i missed it, but if you are pulling shaq once you gets into the penalty, then ok. thats one of the better ways to combat it (aside from shaq making his free throws). but isnt that playing into the hack-a-shaq a bit? if i can get shaq off the court even for a couple minutes at the end of the first 3 quarters, get some good offensive sets in with him out, and not have to worry about him getting easy buckets down low or causing my own players to pick up silly fouls trying to stop him, id take my chances with a player like maggette trying to get to the line for 2-3 minutes.

especially on a team like the suns. any offensive sets that get the ball out of nash and amares hands is always welcome.

You gonna have to give Shaq the ball much earlier. He puts others in foul trouble starting in the 1st quarter. You don't wait until the other team decides to start hacking at the end of the game. It's very basic basketball. Put Shaq in the post and give him the ball. He gets doubled and is either fouled or passes out to an open shooter. Repeat several times until the other team is over the limit with 6 mins left in the 1st qtr. Now give ball to someone who will drive to the basket. He either scores or gets fouled resulting in free throws.

By the time you get to the 4th and they start their crap hack a Shaq everyone is in foul trouble

[ss1986v2]

Repeat several times until the other team is over the limit with 6 mins left in the 1st qtr. Now give ball to someone who will drive to the basket. He either scores or gets fouled resulting in free throws.

but are you pulling shaq in those last 6 minutes or not in this scenario? thats what i wanted to know. because if hes still on the floor, it doesnt really matter, no? the other team can simply continue to send him to the line.

as for the slasher option with shaq off the court (or more importantly in the last two minutes of the game), i think its a good idea, but it seems to be taken as a given by some here. so the options are either get fouled or make a lay-up? what about the other team simply playing sound defense, denying penetration, or contesting the shot without fouling? because there are only a handful of players in the entire league that get the auto-foul treatment (kobe, lebron, wade, ect...) and those player arent available.

from an outsiders point of view, i would love for the suns to go to this kind of strategy, because it takes the ball out of the hands of nash and amare, who are the players i really fear. have a maggette-type gets his, great, as long as amare and nash arent in the flow of the offense.

as for a rule change, i have no problem adding something to stop the hack-a-shaq. but i dont like the idea of making it a 1 plus possession call. i prefer something like this: "if a player is fouled off the ball while in the penalty, the team has the right to either take the free throws, or inbound the ball with a new shot clock." that effectively ends the hack-a-shaq, but without penalizing a team that commits an off-ball foul unintentionally more than they otherwise should.

[Heat3]

No you don't pull Shaq out with 6 minutes to go. You pull him out maybe with 3-4 and put him back in after 2.

If they want to foul him everytime with 6 minutes to go then fine. Their players will foul out sooner.

[Flash4thewin]

The rules wont change, so that wont happen. Man can you imagine if Joe Johnson was on this team. He would get to the line with ease and double as pg while basically free to attack with teams trying to stop nash/amare. With the current roster + Joe Johnson you guys would have beaten the spurs and had a great chance at wining a ring. Best bet would be to draft the best athletic slasher left on the draft and pray he can make teams pay for hacking shaq.

[joe.linnen]

............ somebody in the general forum just made an excellent point. Aside from depending on Shaq to focus on being a better free throw shooter - the key to making teams pay is having somebody else who can make them pay by getting us to the line. Shaq had two guys, Kobe and Wade, who could make teams pay for wasting fouls.....effectively putting them in the penalty quicker. We on the otherhand simply kept up with our jump shooting routine.

Suddenly a guy like Maggette seems a bit more attractive to me.

Silly Suns fan the only way to beat the HACK-A-SHAQ is to not in have him on the floor, let alone on your team. It helps in a way because the other front line gets weaker as the games goes on and if you have players Like Kobe, Wade, or James then you can get to the rim with no problem. Players like Maggette would not help the problem he is nowhere near Kobe, James, Or Wade's stature, nowhere.


I like Strawberry Cheesecake

[dantian]

the best way to fight hack-a-shaq is to play solid defense on our own part. shaq's 50% FT is always better than 40% of opponents' shooting if you can limit them to that.

[Tailbone]

Shaq gets paid 20 big per year, he should learn to shoot free-throws.

If I were paying someone 20 million, I'd expect 1000 fts/day in the off season.

[joe.linnen]

Shaq gets paid 20 big per year, he should learn to shoot free-throws.

If I were paying someone 20 million, I'd expect 1000 fts/day in the off season.

I'm incline to agree he better get his ass in there and shoot until his damn arms fall off. Hell ain't nobody got time to be waisting no damn money I don't care how rich you are.