Sorry, I saw you had essentially the same thoguht I had in a later post (not sure if you are joking, but I'm not). You actually only need just one other rocket player (DMO?) to cover Dwight if he stands in a corner before the inbound. THe other three players need to advance the ball beyond half court. There would likely be one defender on Dwight and DMO initially, but he would sag back after he sees the cover. DMO would then have to run in front of Dwight and cover him up again if the defender approaches. THe other three defenders could see if there is an opportunity, but playing 3 on 4 they'd probably have to hold the ball. With 14 seconds or so left on the clock, you break out of this pattern and have Dwight and DMO approach. You then probably have 10-11 seconds or so left on the clock to run a play. The benefit of this is that it runs down the clock late in the game when the other team is likely behind and looking to score quickly. If your expected value from the ensuing possession with only 10 second is less than 1 point, then this probably won't even out in some case. Also you would look really stupid doing it.
lmfaoooooo... your solution to hack-a-dwight is ring-around-the-dwight... this would literally be the funniest thing in sports history.
Practice and make free throws. There's no way around this. If we are going to make rules just to favor certain players, it might as well like game fixing. Let everybody overcome their weaknesses. That's sports. That's the game.
If you think fts are so bad they make the game unwatchable for customers then don't watch basketball. The only reason hack-an-X is going is because you have guys like Dwight and De Andre Jordan who don't work on their fts enough. It's not like being big's supposed to make a you bad at fts, Yao Ming is taller and has larger hands than either of them and he shot at a high clip. Hack an X was available since the ft was invented, and yet nobody tried that crap on Dream, Tim Duncan, Robinson, Ewing, Moses Malone, etc. and that's because it a stupid strategy that will only work if your big guy can't hit fts to save his life, you want to give guys like De Andre Jordan who shoot fts in the 30-40% range a pass? So what's next? Guys like Howard can't really dribble the ball from half court against defenders so why not take away traveling? Nobody like watching half court ball so why not make the game fast paced by making the shot clock 15 secs? Everybody likes seeing dunks so why not make the whole stadium a trampoline so everybody can dunk from half court? Why doesn't the NBA make it all about watchability and turn the sport into this: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2ouXw328WYI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The nba is an entertainment product, if the solution is "don't watch", then the nba has a problem that needs fixing. None of those other things would add to the game, or prevent something that is clearly detracting from it. The Hack-a-Dwight has a significant number of people saying it detracts from the game, including coaches who use it. the nba knows it's a problem, hence the 2 minute rule, but it has never been used like it is being used this year. Last year it happened to Dwight half a dozen times, Bogut a cpl, DeAndre a cpl, this year it has already happened that much, it's getting much much worse, and it's only a matter of time before it reaches critical mass. This is why I hope it continues to happen as much as it is, because it may end up being one of Stern's final "good of the game" all encompassing power edicts.
Maybe we could just have one guy with the ball and then surround Dwight with the other three guys so they'd have to foul somebody else to get to Dwight. I don't really have a problem with it. The only issue is how time consuming it is. I like the idea of not being able to do it in the backcourt.
In the fourth quarter, allow the team to choose who takes the free throws. That would get rid of the hack-a-whoever strategy real quick.
I am against changing the rules to prevent Hack-a-Dwight, and most of the suggestions in this thread suck. The only one I could perhaps support is not being allowed to hack in the back court.
Like I said in another thread, I don't want to reward Howard for being a bad shooter, but I also hate punishing the fans by destroying a game with this crap at the end. I also don't think a team that has been bad all game long should get rewarded for being able to cheaply kill possessions. Fouls are supposed to be a punishment. I'd like to see them count like a defensive 3 seconds. Technical free throw. I could get behind any solution really. 1) Player that is fouled gets two shots, team gets 1 technical free throw 2) Player that is fouled gets two shots, team gets possession 3) Player that is fouled gets two shots, it foul occurs in final 5 minutes of a quarter you run off the shot clock 4) Player that is fouled gets number of shots coinciding with a shooting foul at his position on the court Any of those are viable for me. Another would simply to set a team foul type limit on them and say basically if you have more than 3 in a 2 minute span it's a technical that results in two technical free throws for the team.
I think intentional fouls for someone who does not have the ball or not in the play setting a pick, should result in a delay of game. They slow the game down way more than touching the ball after it goes through the hoop. In this case a team would get three free throws, two for the foul and one for delay of game and would be able to have their best FT shooter take the technical foul shot.
This. Most of us said this when Howard was with the Lakers. Now he's with us and a lot of Rockets fans want to stop it. I think it's hypocritical. Opponents are going to exploit your weaknesses. If FT shooting is your weakness, then they are going to use it against you. Disallowing the hack tactic would protect teams with poor FT shooters. I do like the half-court suggestion. That would reduce the slowing down of games but still make it a disadvantage for teams with bad FT shooters.
100% Only change I see is if they don't allow hacking in the back court, but the players have to be across halfcourt with the 8 sec rule, as in he can't just stay back in the back court to not get foul.
Are you proposing this to be the case or are you confused about the rule? If it's the former, then I think this is unnecessary. "No hacking in back court" would be good enough. If it's the latter, the rule concerns the ball (the dribbler), not the players.
