2 things I just wanted to get off my chest.
First, why in the world do we allow secondary defenders to take charges? What is the point of just stepping in front of a guy as he is going for a layup or dunk? Or for that matter, if he is dribbling up court and a defender just steps in front of him, all for the sole point of taking a charge?
Think about it. Is throwing your body in front of another player you are not guarding solely for the purpose of seeing if he will run you over a basketball play? I don’t think so.
The mavs have several guys who are good at it: nash, najera among others. They see a guy coming down the lane, they will subject themselves and the other player to getting creamed in an attempt to get the charge. On some levels that’s admirable. Give up your body for the team. Get the turnover and the ball back even if you are going to be in pain the next day. Go team!
In reality however, it’s HORRIBLE for the NBA. Not only do you put both players involved at risk for injury, but it takes away some of the most exciting and watchable plays in basketball. Rather than going at the rim looking to make a spectacular, athletic play, guys are looking at the floor to see if someone is going to be there to undercut them. Rather than a tomahawk jam that gets the crowd in a frenzy, we get 2 guys laying on the floor taking an inventory of bodyparts to make sure they are ok, or we get a guy going to the rim trying to stop or avoid a guy who just stepped in the lane, resulting in an ugly shot or pass. How in the world does that help the NBA or make the game better for fans? It doesn’t.
Off the ball defender charges should be eliminated. It should ALWAYS be a block. It would mean we could get rid of the half circle under the basket since that only applies to off the ball,2ndary defenders, and we would speed up the game and add highlight plays to every game and reduce the number of injuries suffered by our best players every year.
One thing to clarify on for those who aren’t familiar with NBA rules. This would in no way apply to charges taken when you are actively guarding your man. So if Nash is guarding Marbury, and Marbury lowers a shoulder and knocks over Nash, or vice versa, it would still be a charge. If Bradley is being guarded by Shaq and lowers his shoulder and Shaq lands on his butt (it could happen :), or if Shaq turned and ran over his defender, it would still be a charge. The same point would apply away from the ball. So if Nash were guarding Reggie Miller, and Reggie pushed him away to make space, that would still be a foul on Reggie.
Two more benefits, first it would reduce ,not eliminate, but reduce considerably the amount of flopping that goes on. Guys today just try to get near an offensive player, and show what kind of acting skills they have by falling on their butts. You could try it if you are guarding someone, but no more just jumping in front of someone and falling down. 2nd, we would see the return of the blocked shot. Teams would have to play someone who is willing to contest those drives to the basket and not only would we see highflyers going in for a dunk, but we would get to see Yao,Shaq, KG and the other bigs coming across the paint to stop them. Which woud you rather see, a shotblocker rejecting a shot or getting dunked on, or a guys falling on their butts under the basket. Its a no brainer to me
It’s easy to change, it would make the game move better, add highlights, and make the game easier for officials to call. So why haven’t I proposed it to the league? I have. We made the proposal to the competition committee, and they wouldn’t even discuss it. They dismissed it outright and would not even bring it to a vote.
That’s the way the NBA works….