I think guys going for fouls is an evolution of the game. Defenders got more physical and packed the paint. Fouls weren't called unless it affected the play greatly. Offensive players countered by either becoming soft jump shooters (Patterson), by flopping, and/or by causing contact that does affect the shot. If refs swallow the whistle, defenders will get more physical and about the same amount of fouls will be called. Granted, anyone going for a layup will shoot a much lower percentage as the defense is much tougher. Players will be forced to become three point shooters.
We seem to have many floppers pass through our team: Scola Lowry and lets not forget the GOAT Kmart and now we have Harden and Lin.
ever wonder why it seems as if he gets no calls this year? it's because he is a flopper extraordinaire. his head kickback and finishing EVERY drive by falling down does him NO favors in the eyes of the refs. he needs to develop a floater and to use the stop n pop. he also gets blocked plenty. harden of course aint getting the calls he was at the beginning of the season. the team as a whole needs to adapt and play for the bucket not the foul.
James isn't an elite scorer without free throws. Look at lebron, he averages more than harden but gets to the free throw line half as much. Now that's talent.
I don't know if the D has gotten better lately, or if the guys are just tired, but where earlier in the season we seemed to be good at driving the paint, finishing AND drawing contacts/fouls, lately it looks like more of a lowry thing where we are just jamming ahead into the paint and hoping for the best. I hope we find the strength to focus more on the shots and less on the contact as we go from here, but the last few games it doesn't look that way. Maybe lack of back to backs will help that, or maybe we'll figure it out, but for now it seems to be getting worse and not better. Sadly, criticism of this (going for the contact above the shot) was misplaced earlier in the season as we were getting both very often. Lately it seems more focus on contact than baskets.
Haven't seen all the games, but Smith and Asik together has caused some of this. The Rockets really need floor spacing. The Rockets also need to get better at getting ball to the weakside.
It's just simple math though, Harden takes ball off a screen and he has AI guarding him for the final shot, does he: 1) Take a contested shot with AI in his grill (25% accuracy) 2) Drive the ball in to the hoop crowded with opponents (30%) and hope for a foul (5%) Personally I've never seen a player straight out flop instead of taking a reasonable shot, most of the time players "fish" for a foul because they have no chance of making the shot anyway, so they flop so that possession could be saved. In the case of late game heroics, driving to the paint in hopes of getting a foul makes more sense than taking heroball style step back Js, and that style of play leads more to getting fouled then just taking the shot. At the end of the day, you need to the things which has a greater success rate, and driving to the hoop is already factually proven to give you more points than taking contested Js.
the difference is durant gets fouled because the opponent wants him to earn it at the stripe. harden on the other hand, draws fouls with his gimmick move. stop fouling durant and he'll just dunk on you. stop fouling harden and his driving into 3 defenders wont turn out so well...
I swear very time I watch OKC's game, there are always some phantom calls when Durent attempts. Let it be little bump under the rim or a finger 2 inches away from Durent's arm when he shoots. They are not even superstar calls. They are simply bad calls.
