NBA commissioner Adam Silver reiterated his evolving view that the NBA’s intentional foul rules need to be changed, but admitted that there is “no clear consensus” on an alternative rule at this time.
Adam Silver says there’s ‘no clear consensus’ on an alternative to the intentional foul rule
The NBA commissioner reiterated that he wanted to change the league’s intentional foul rule, but said he still has yet to “formulate” an alternative regulation. That is the next step.
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“We’re just beginning to formulate what an alternative would look like,” Silver said during his annual press conference at the All-Star Game. “Until there’s a clear alternative that emerges, it’s easy to say ‘I hate the strategy,’ but it’s a much more difficult strategy to decide just what the new rule should be.”
Last summer, the league’s competition committee elected not to change the rules despite a rise in deliberate intentional fouls of poor free-throw shooters during the 2015 playoffs. The logic at the time was that they needed more data before proposing a significant change.
But as Silver noted, teams have already committed 5.5 times as many intentional fouls as last season through the All-Star Break. The tipping point came when the Rockets inserted little-used K.J. McDaniels into the second half starting lineup to put themselves in the penalty so they could put Detroit’s Andre Drummond, a 35-percent free-throw shooter, on the line. Houston then fouled Drummond on 12 straight possessions and got back into the game, though the Pistons eventually regained control and won.
In an interview with USA Today in early February, Silver said he’s “increasingly of the view” that the rule indeed does need to be changed. He reiterated that stance in Toronto, but said “there doesn’t appear to be any clear consensus on what the new rule should be.”
One alternative suggested by our Tom Ziller is to simply give teams the option to shoot free throws or take the ball out of bounds on non-shooting fouls in the bonus. Detroit would take the ball out on the side in the example above.
Silver did say that the league will start cracking down on teams that jump on a bad free-throw shooter’s back at the end of games to force them to shoot free throws. Several teams have used this strategy, most notably the Clippers against the Pistons. Referees will increasingly call those as flagrant fouls, Silver said.
“We’re very concerned from a safety issue,” Silver said. “It is a dangerous issue.”
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