I'd just try having howard pass the ball in and run toward the locker room. sure we'll be down one player, but i want to see if the player will chase him off of the court, or if we'll get a violation of some type.
Yes. The Lakers fouled him out of bounds on at least one occasion that I can recall during that home loss a few weeks ago. I would imagine if Dwight tried to run into the stands or the locker room after inbounding the ball, the refs would T him up.
so, that's my simple rules change to stop this nonsense, yet still preserve all legitimate reasons to foul a player without the ball. An inbounder does not have to come into play, and cannot be fouled until his does.
I wonder if he could avoid it by running along the baseline. I know its childish but he could avoid at least one tag by doing that.
That's not entirely accurate wrt to what we were discussing, and it's not a technical, but loss of possession. You can't leave the court and fail to come back...that's the change. What I'm saying is an inbounder is already out of bounds. When is he required to enter the court (immediately?), and can you foul him while he's still out of bounds after the pass. here's the rules change that you were citing A team on offense will lose possession if its player leaves the floor and does not immediately return to the floor, unless he is injured, attempting to save the ball or in other extenuating circumstances.
So if this is the case, Maybe Howard could test the rule and run along the out of bounds along the baseline area right after throwing the ball inbounds, avoiding the defender. You could then say that the extenuating circumstances would be an attempt to avoid being intentionally fouled by the defender. If he can manage to buy a few seconds the Rockets could quickly attempt a three point shot.
What if two of our players made a barrier around DHO, like join hands around him so they would have to foul one of the other guys first.
If Howard in-bounds the ball could the person who received the in-bounds pass just throw up a shot as Howard crosses in-bounds and the defender is trying to foul Howard? That should result in a 3 point try and thus 3 free throws for the one who attempted the shot???? I did not even realize that rule existed until last night but it seems if timed right it could be used to benefit the team.
that is exactly what i was thinking....pass it up to half-court and chunk it...why would this not work
The opposing team could just sit back and laugh and not do anything on defense and wait till the shot clock expires.
Guys, you're over-thinking this one. If the hack strategy forces the Rockets to basically take three guys completely out of the offense, then the strategy has worked, and they'll gladly sit back and watch you look stupid as the shot clock ticks down. The ONLY legitimate counter-strategy (besides taking the big man out of the game) is to do what Harden does, and jack up a shot at the same time the foul is occurring.
I don't think it's the end of a hack-a-Howard because Dwight isn't consistant enough with his free throws attempt made, I do sense an improvement with Howard's free throws and a good instance is against San Antonio, Howard was sent to the line to make free throws and he made 5-8 if I'm not mistaken, it's a really encouraging for Howard because with Howard it's mostly a mental thing. I believe it won't end soon because Howard is still the one you would rather send to the line other than almost any player from our current roster, but if Howard's amelioration from the line prolong I'm sure hack-a-Howard won't have any affect on Howard and would be just a waste of fouls for the contestant.
I don't see we have the vulnerability that the Lakers had to hack-a-Shaq. Howard just isn't as important as Shaq to the team's success. If we're up by a lot and the opponent is hacking to get back into the game, we can pull Howard out, go small, and run up the score that way. They may have 'won' the strategem by forcing Howard out of the game, but a team in the hole isn't going to be able to mount a big comeback if our offense can keep scoring, so they'd have to shut down Harden too to have any hope.
Howard 9-14 FTs last night and in the month of December he is over 60% and appears to be improving. I don't think Hack a Howard has been as issue all month. I hope it continues, then I can say that I called it way back when
Major props to Howard. He's obviously doing something different mentally and his form on the shot is much more consistent.
He's comfortable again, LA and his last season in orlando were disasters. He'll be around 60% by years end, he won't lead any FT clinics, but good enough to thwart the hack strategy.
