Best news ever

[Han Solo]

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/240678/NBA-Finally-Ready-To-Make-Rule-Change-On-Hack-A-Player

[DetroitPistons]

Terrible. The rules should not be changed. Drummond will still not be able to play down the stretch because every time he sets a pick or posts up he will get fouled anyways. Also, this could be a deterrent to Drummond practicing his FT's.

[detroitKG]

^LOL

Like I said in the Gen Board thread about this make it illegal in the first 8-10 mins of each quarter and then legal down the stretch in quarters..cleans up the action, yet still makes it a viable comeback method. It's all about the product on the court and it's presentation...not about rewarding teams and players..hell look at the MLB and the DH damn near same type of change.

[MotownMadness]

Good, it's a terrible loophole and image for a professional sport to punish teams for being intentionally fouled. You want to foul him do it during a actual play where we can at least have a chance to even set up on offense. Right now your just telling teams it's ok to not play defense,

[Shady_]

good news

the hack a whoever is bad for the sport and it's ugly basketball.

[Spider156]

Drummond might dominate the NBA even more next season. Could he go for MVP? We'll see

[Blkbrd671]

Guys getting pissed about the rule change, come on main!

If dre not in the play, foul'ing him makes 0 basketball sense and the only reason it does is because the current rules allow it. If they are fouling him while he's in the play, i have no problem with that strategy. It shows more about how afraid they are off our team and its up to dre to make em.

[SAKURABA216]

Terrible. The rules should not be changed. Drummond will still not be able to play down the stretch because every time he sets a pick or posts up he will get fouled anyways. Also, this could be a deterrent to Drummond practicing his FT's.

Let's operate under the assumption that he will never get better at shooting free throws lol. He is so bad at it that I think there's a better chance of him becoming a more reliable 3 point shooter than a free throw shooter ala Andre Iguadala.

I think its a great idea and about time the league made a change. It's such a cheap way to play and makes the game unwatchable. Who wants to watch a game where one team doesn't get to play any offense because when its their ball their entire team just stands around while their player who is the worst at shooting FTs has to shoot like 20 of them in a row? It just makes for an ugly product. I mean you have the best basketball players in the world playing in a game that's reduced to watching a guy that stinks at shooting free throws shoot them over and over again.

[Brapman]

Outlawing non-basketball plays is exactly what should happen.

Probably, there'll be minor tweaks, not a complete rewrite.

[Finn McCool]

What's next... lowering the basket so J.J. Barea can dunk?

Pistons fans weren't crying about the rules when Shaq was getting hacked.

Loved what Chris Webber had to say during the Knicks game.

[Kilo]

League changed defensive rules to help Jordan for crying out loud, and changed them further to the point you have the Golden State Warrior basketball even possible - but everybody cries about teams exploiting a loophole that makes games brutal to watch.

[Finn McCool]

League changed defensive rules to help Jordan for crying out loud, and changed them further to the point you have the Golden State Warrior basketball even possible - but everybody cries about teams exploiting a loophole that makes games brutal to watch.

As you may have noticed, I tend to agree with you on a lot of topics. I am extremely adamant that this rule not change. Drummond needs to learn to hit FTs like every other player who ever donned an NBA jersey.

I'm getting old... and the memory is shoddy... what rule was that the NBA changed to benefit Jordan?

[Snakebites]

I find it fascinating that so many people are against this change.

Jalen Rose was particularly asinine in his assessment, saying we can't "let 3 or 4 guys who can't hit their free throws change our game."

The reality? They ARE changing the game the way things currently are, because teams are realizing that there's situations where they effectively don't have to play defense if they don't want to. This rule would PREVENT the bad free throw shooters from causing what's frankly a very unpleasant change to the way the game was played.

I've hated the tactic since long before we had a player it could be used on. It makes for a demonstrably inferior product on the floor and its about damn time a commissioner take a definitive position to that effect.

And its not as though these guys don't try really hard to get better and free throws. Its not a question of effort or willingness to change.

[BadMofoPimp]

They are changing the Rules of the Game because FANS will get bored and won't pay to watch a player shoot 40 FT's a game.

[Kilo]

League changed defensive rules to help Jordan for crying out loud, and changed them further to the point you have the Golden State Warrior basketball even possible - but everybody cries about teams exploiting a loophole that makes games brutal to watch.

As you may have noticed, I tend to agree with you on a lot of topics. I am extremely adamant that this rule not change. Drummond needs to learn to hit FTs like every other player who ever donned an NBA jersey.

I'm getting old... and the memory is shoddy... what rule was that the NBA changed to benefit Jordan?

Well it was more to benefit offense - but Jordan was the obvious main beneficiary at the time, but the NBA instituted a series of rule changes right around 1990 to take away physicality on defense out of the game - the Bad Boys calling card and backbone of their back2back championships and ability to shutdown Jordan. Flagrant fouls, hand checking, forearm checking etc.

There was another set of official and unofficial rule changes in early 2000's as well which pretty much directly lead to the small ball stuff we see now. Simmons wrote about it a few years ago here - http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060517 - that really lays it out.

So the league changes rules to make the game more flowing and have more scoring and excitement because afterall it's in the entertainment business first and far-most, but hack-a-player strategy which takes all flow out of the game, stops the clock, drags out games, forces a bad shooter to take ugly shots - changing rules to stop that is a bridge too far? Just another step to get the true center out of the league it seems - better for clear path to the basket and more dunks and offense I guess.

Nobody is saying that Dre shouldn't improve, but he shouldn't be able to be targeted and exploited when he doesn't have the ball. If he has the ball and is in the process of attempting a shot than it's fair game to foul him and make him shoot - that way you can still strategically take him out of offensive sets an essentially play 5-on-4 when on defense against the Pistons with Dre on the court in close games. Every other foul situation should be a "team foul" where anybody on the court can shoot the shots.

[bballnmike]

My issue, and I think this is what they will address, is the fouling on NON basketball plays. Jumping on a guy's back during a free throw before the ball hits the rim, fouling someone before the ball is even inbounded, etc. Zero time runs off the clock and it's absolutely not the intent of the rules, not to mention someone could get hurt (which is kinda what calling fouls was originally supposed to prevent, you know?)

I don't think we'll see hack-a-whoever completely go away, but there's certain times when it's bad for the players, the fans, and the game as a whole.

[rmfc]

How is intentionally fouling a player a good thing for the sport?

Adam Silver has done an awesome job so far as a commissioner. This is another step in the right direction.

[thesack12]

What's next... lowering the basket so J.J. Barea can dunk?

Pistons fans weren't crying about the rules when Shaq was getting hacked.

Loved what Chris Webber had to say during the Knicks game.

Underlined part x 1000.

The vast majority of people who have a problem with it are the ones who's team has one of the guys who aren't remotely competent from the free throw line. Really, its a strategy that doesn't really happen all that often in the grand scheme of things. Its just a particularly touchy issue for Piston fans because they employ am epicly terrible free throw shooter, probably the worst of all time.

I don't hear people yelling that MLB should no longer allow intentional walks, People don't clamor for the NFL to ban onside kicks. I don't hear people saying NHL should outlaw being able to pull the goalie.

Its just a game strategy, not some kind of issue that is going to dissolve the NBA.

[Kilo]

What's next... lowering the basket so J.J. Barea can dunk?

Pistons fans weren't crying about the rules when Shaq was getting hacked.

Loved what Chris Webber had to say during the Knicks game.

Underlined part x 1000.

The vast majority of people who have a problem with it are the ones who's team has one of the guys who aren't remotely competent from the free throw line. Really, its a strategy that doesn't really happen all that often in the grand scheme of things. Its just a particularly touchy issue for Piston fans because they employ am epicly terrible free throw shooter, probably the worst of all time.

I don't hear people yelling that MLB should no longer allow intentional walks, People don't clamor for the NFL to ban onside kicks. I don't hear people saying NHL should outlaw being able to pull the goalie.

Its just a game strategy, not some kind of issue that is going to dissolve the NBA.

Ben would also get "hacked".

Rules are changed all the time. A foul shot is supposed to punish the defensive team - not be used to their strategic benefit.

In MLB there is seemingly constant discussion on the strategy of the defensive shift where you stack one side of the infield for notorious pull hitters. NFL tweaks and changes rules all the time - most glaringly recently was moving back the extra point attempt distance to make it a meaningful play rather than a sure thing waste of time - it was done to add excitement to it. NHL changed the rules to penalize neutral zone interference because it was slowing down the flow and making games very low scoring and wholly unwatchabe.

[thesack12]

What's next... lowering the basket so J.J. Barea can dunk?

Pistons fans weren't crying about the rules when Shaq was getting hacked.

Loved what Chris Webber had to say during the Knicks game.

Underlined part x 1000.

The vast majority of people who have a problem with it are the ones who's team has one of the guys who aren't remotely competent from the free throw line. Really, its a strategy that doesn't really happen all that often in the grand scheme of things. Its just a particularly touchy issue for Piston fans because they employ am epicly terrible free throw shooter, probably the worst of all time.

I don't hear people yelling that MLB should no longer allow intentional walks, People don't clamor for the NFL to ban onside kicks. I don't hear people saying NHL should outlaw being able to pull the goalie.

Its just a game strategy, not some kind of issue that is going to dissolve the NBA.

Ben would also get "hacked".

Rules are changed all the time. A foul shot is supposed to punish the defensive team - not be used to their strategic benefit.

In MLB there is seemingly constant discussion on the strategy of the defensive shift where you stack one side of the infield for notorious pull hitters. NFL tweaks and changes rules all the time - most glaringly recently was moving back the extra point attempt distance to make it a meaningful play rather than a sure thing waste of time - it was done to add excitement to it. NHL changed the rules to penalize neutral zone interference because it was slowing down the flow and making games very low scoring and wholly unwatchabe.

Right, and you know what all those other things have in common? They affect the vast majority of ALL games in those sports leagues.

This hack-a-whomever thing really only effects games with the Pistons, Clippers participating on a semi-regular basis, and it really doesn't happen all that often. This is not a league problem, like flopping was. Its a very select few teams problem.