Corey Kluber will start for Indians against Yankees tonight
April 10, 2013NBA News: Dion Waiters listed as probable for Wednesday night
April 10, 2013During the NCAA championship game, an idea came to me and it took over my thoughts about basketball over the ensuing couple of days. With all the talk of zone defense in the college game, I was left thinking about just how silly it is to reward defensive players for “taking” charges.
I know it’s sometimes hard to remove yourself from the reality of the world where taking charges created half of Shane Battier’s career.1 Just for a second try to step outside yourself and everything you’ve come to know about the game and consider this. The game of basketball found a way to reward any player for impeding the progress of what could be an athletic move toward the hoop. The game has decided to reward that player whether they’re athletic or not. The game rewards that player not for making a superior play to steal the ball or block a shot, but merely by anticipating a move and becoming a non-moving impediment.
“Roads. Roads. Ro-Ads.” Just like when someone says a single word too many times and all of a sudden that word seems incredibly stupid to you? That’s where I got myself when thinking about rewarding defenses for “taking” charges.
Now, I’m not saying that charges should never be called. If a defensive player is playing defense and has position and an offensive player clears him out or lowers his shoulder, that’s still an offensive foul. I’m just saying that it should occur in the act of playing defense. This means trying to block the shot or steal the ball.
In all reality I know this will never change. I’ll get over it and we’ll all root for Anderson Varejao to anticipate a locomotive drive to the hoop just so he can get his giant mop in front of it in time to flail backwards with any kind of contact. We’ll cheer as the change of possession will benefit the Cavaliers, presumably.
Deep down though, I’ll be thinking, that even though these are the rules, it could be different. It might be more fair and equitable if it was different. I’ll be thinking that we are rewarding a non-athletic play at the expense of a potentially athletic one.
I’m well aware that this all might just be me. I’m O.K. with that too. I don’t mind being a man on an island.
- You do realize that Battier’s foundation is called “Take Charge” right? This is ludicrous. [↩]
22 Comments
I like this idea, but I can’t think about a way that it works fairly. If we do away with charges (with the exception of shouldering into a player or what have you), you would still be left with situations where the offensive player gets an unfair advantage by going up and over/through a defensive player in legal guarding position, but that wouldn’t be a charge in our new way of thinking. I don’t like that… I think it might actually encourage offensive players to make dangerous plays where they go up and over defenders in order to get closer to the hoop for their shot.
The implementation would be difficult, but I think I’d take that dangerous play over the lurpy dude pretending he’s an athlete by planting his feet in front of a dude who can ball. 🙂
I think that is exactly why I dislike the rule change… I’m a nonathletic guy who loves to play basketball, and this rule change would result in me getting knocked to the floor and dunked on repeatedly by former college players in my rec league. It would be a massive blow to my ego, Craig.
Don’t get it. I know my man only dares to shoot a right-handed 10-footer from a certain spot. I position myself just in front of that spot and raise my arms straight up. He sees me blocking his spot, doesn’t lower his shoulder or elbow me, simply dribbles at top speed to his spot right through me, sending me to the floor in a heap. His spot now clear, but off-balance due to the collision, he misses his 8 footer.
In this new world, foul on me? No call? When if ever can a defender establish his right to a spot? If I have defensive rebounding position may he knock me off it in honest pursuit of the flight of the ball, not lowering a shoulder but just leaning to get it?
No, no, no, no and no.
Rules are already shifted to the offensive player. And, the defender is reactionary by nature.
Now, you want to reward the terrible offensive player that just puts his head down and charges into the lane without regard for anyone that might be there (as the help defender now only can go for a block or steal)? You think AAU ball has made b-ball worse now, then implement this rule and see how bad it can get.
“The game has decided to reward that player whether they’re athletic or not.”
anticipation and basketball knowledge of people’s tendencies or reading the play have always been an incredibly important part of all sports.
I specifically said that charges would still be called if an offensive player barrelled through the defense, didn’t I?
My point is that jumping to a spot and stopping your feet is an unnatural move that we’ve rewarded. Go to your spot. Play defense. Move your feet with the player. If he barrels you over then it’s still an offensive foul.
Going to spot and stopping your feet is a defensive foul. To get a charge you must own the position before the offensive player leaves his feet picks up his dribble or barrels through. I can see you not liking it if you dont understand but they call it pretty fairly and consistently if you watch closely. Sure there is human error but thats true of any call in any sport
i didn’t think so. or i misinterpreted this passage:
“If a defensive player is playing defense and has position and an
offensive player clears him out or lowers his shoulder, that’s still an
offensive foul. I’m just saying that it should occur in the act of
playing defense. This means trying to block the shot or steal the ball.”
this means the ‘Jason Kidd’ play of helping defense and having the player barrelling through the lane knocking you over would not be called a foul because you are not going for a block nor a steal. in fact, if you go for a block or steal from such a position, then you would almost certainly be called for a blocking foul (that is why they teach you to dribble into a good shot-blocker).
also, it’s not like a 6′ player is going to block a 6’10” player driving the lane, so you have nothing left but to concede the dunk
Would you like to erase the records of my high school basketball career while you’re at it??? I kid, I kid…
This is a really, really stupid argument. The basic idea of solid defense is positioning yourself between the ball and your goal. If you have positioning, the offense has to figure out how to go around or shoot over you. Should hockey remove the crease? C’mon, how else can defense be lessened?
Way too many rules already help the offense. This is just one more way to lessen the value of passing the ball and playing intelligently. Charging shouldn’t be called less, it should be called more. When an offensive player barrels into multiple defenders, it should be a charge even if the defender isn’t 100% set: because that’s a common sense call. It doesn’t matter how athletic the move is, it matters if it’s the right decision.
Basketball is less interesting every year I get older. Watching the Thunder proves this better than any other team: Iso Westbrook or Iso Durant. And they draw a foul on almost every drive. That’s where this rule takes basketball…Thunder brand of ball. The least assist % ever. Weak, selfish, diving, snatch ball. No thanks.
It takes a form of athleticism to take a charge: it’s called toughness and fitness. It’s a lot more athletic , not to mention honorable, to take a charge than take a dive. It’s an ugly part of the game, but it’s respectable to take a charge for your team. It’s an embarrassment to take a dive for your team.
Iso, 1-on-5, “Weak, selfish, diving, snatch ball.”
So…the NBA since, like, 1999 then?
I’m wholly against this idea. Let’s say someone is barreling down the lane for an easy layup, and I’m doing what a defensive player should do and getting in the way. With your rules change, the offensive player, instead of trying to work around me or protect the ball smartly, just shoves me to the ground and scores (and may even get a foul against me because we made contact).
Somehow that doesn’t seem like the right approach. Basketball, like most sports, should reward anticipating your opponent’s moves and attempting to stop them.
Nope since 1998 🙂
Craig, on a semi-related note: What is your position on the whole base runners vs. catchers kerfuffle?
No. That’s an offensive foul still as long as you don’t run in his way last minute plant two feet into the ground and flail backwards like you got shot in the chest in an action movie.
I agreed with you until you got on your little rant at the end… I’ve been watching the NBA intently since the early 90s, and I feel like team basketball is more prevalent now in the NBA than it has been in many years. You still have ISO plays in the second half of the 4th quarter, but it’s been that way for as long as I can remember… ISO Kareem for a sky hook, ISO MJ for a shake-and-bake jumper, ISO Bird in the high post, ISO Isiah at the top of the key, etc. However, the rest of the game is very much reliant on team play. Look at the much-hated Miami Heat… when Wade, LBJ, and Bosh conspired to join forces in that first season, their raw talent wasn’t enough to win the championship. It wasn’t until they increased ball movement in their offense that they became the juggernaut they are now. Likewise the Spurs and Pistons don’t win their titles in the 2000s without sharing the ball.
You’re going to take exception to this, but I don’t care: it’s a lazy argument that I’ve heard too many times from people who stopped watching the NBA because of the Allen Iverson, Kenny Anderson, Derek Coleman, Starbury, one-man-show era of basketball. That era is dead and buried. The best teams now, especially the Thunder, share the ball and play their roles appropriately.
yes, the Lowe article from earlier this week points out exactly why it has happened as well. because defenses have gotten so good at packing the lane and helping on the ISO (or off the PnR) that offenses have had to evolve to use that action and then flip the script to the weakside shooters.
My initial reaction is that it seems that the collision at home plate is outdated at this point in history. I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it though. In a lot of cases we’ve revered catchers who purposefully and dutifully block the plate. I’m sure I’ll think about it more now that you just brought it up and made me think about it. 🙂
What you want is to get rid of the charge circle — thats what incentivizes defenders to jump in an offensive players way, rather than simply use defensive position to earn a charge call. The point is that charges keep an offensive player honest. Without them (even the caveat about penalties for lowering the shoulder, etc), ball movement ends and you turn the game into 5 players taking turns playing Dwyane Wade in the 2006 NBA Finals: artless drives into packs of players, knowing that if there’s contact, the deck is now stacked against the defender.