The article at the bottom of this post is by Dennis Hans - a coach who, among other things, helped Shaq improve his free throw shooting during one of the best periods of his miserable career. I posted an excerpt from the article, and a link to the source. It talks about one of the two aspects of NBA officiating that are constantly under my skin - the moving pick. The other one is the increasing amount (and type) of contact off the ball, in and near the paint. First two disclaimers: I am a huge fan of Tim Duncan and I am convinced that he is the best PF to ever take the floor. And I understand that he is aging, and that he had a particularly bad game last night.
On one memorable play last night, Tim was in the paint and Tony tossed a pass a little high and outside. The pass sailed straight out the end of the court, without being touched. Tim wanted to reach for it, but he couldn't - Samuel Dalembert had his arm pinned to his side. Tim literally couldn't bring his arm up to try and catch the ball.
And it wasn't the only time something like that happened. On a couple of occasions, Tim had his back to the basket, and the defender was behind him. (Between Tim and the basket.) The Spur player with the ball wanted to throw a pass to Tim, but the defender had BOTH arms around Tim - his hands next to Tim's, ready to knock the ball away if the pass was thrown. I'm pretty sure it's easier to deny your man the ball, when you can essentially bear hug him from behind. Tim has been dealing with that, and worse, for years. Back in the 03-04 season, the other teams finally understood that the only way to stop Tim was to prevent him from getting the ball. I commented about it back then, as several announcers praised it as brilliant strategy. And it would have been, if it was done remotely within the rules.
So why didn't it get called back then? Why didn't it get called last night? That's one of the reasons I posted the link to the other article. Read it, and pay attention to Hans' description of how refs can be "conditioned". In short, if you do something often enough the refs just get reluctant to call non-stop fouls. The one thing I would add to what Hans said, is that it is particularly effective when playing at home, because most refs are intimidated by the crowd.
Hans talks about Howard learning to set moving picks from Pat Riley. The same things he says about Riley can be directly applied to McHale. I'm confident in saying that a lot of the "new" defensive tactics being used by the Rockets are courtesy of Kevin McHale. He certainly got by with more than his share on the court, and I think he also understands that referees can be conditioned to a "new norm". In years past, Tim was able to overcome more. In fact, I think he handled it so well that the refs didn't feel compelled to step in, because Timmy always got his numbers anyway. For years, we watched him do the impossible. At his current age, and with the bad knees, he just can't do it anymore.
I'm not suggesting that Tim is the only player to have to deal with it. It is a growing problem all around the league - just like the moving picks. But I do believe that Tim had to cope with more of it than any other player I have watched - including Shaq. (I firmly believe that the time he spent dragging bodies around the paint took a big toll in his knees.) McHale was never embarassed about pushing things to the extreme, and forcing the ref to make calls. And he knows that they will pass on calls off the ball more often than not.
If you have the game recorded, watch what the Rockets did to Tim off the ball. Watch how often he was denied the ball, or forced to take it in very bad position. More importantly, watch HOW the Rockets accomplished those things. Some of Tim's problems were his own making. But it would have taken a younger Tim Duncan (or a few whistles) to look good against what they threw at him. Not many other players could have done it.
The league has got to crack down on the moving picks. And they have to stop allowing such a big distinction between the contact that takes place off the ball and what happens after after a player takes the pass. Nobody believes that basketball is a non-contact sport - especially in the NBA. But there has to be some limit, and some consistency.
http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/han...-moving-picks/
Although Ewing was a moving picker prior to Pat Riley becoming his coach in New York, one thing he learned from Riley is that NBA refs can be trained, just like prize poodles, to behave in a certain fashion. Riley wanted his Knicks to play defense more aggressively than the rules allowed, so he had his players do just that on a consistent basis, confident that most refs would soon adapt to and accept this “new normal” rather than blow the whistle every five seconds or call three fouls at the same time and award the fouled team six free throws. Riley, the Van Gundys (both of whom coached under Riley), Doc Rivers (who played for Riley) and perhaps other coaches have applied the same logic to setting un-set moving picks. They think that, on balance, the benefits of getting away with 15 effective moving picks far outweigh the costs of the occasional call.
I like the part on Riley's Knicks playing agressive D so much to the point where the refs would tolerate it.
In fact, yesterday on NBA TV they showed a Pistons game from the 80's I think, and the analys (former coach, dont remember who exactly) made the same comment about the Piston's D
Boston does the same thing, both on moving picks and on D.
..helped Shaq improve his free throw shooting...
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