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Adam Silver: NBA will likely look at change to Hack-a-Whoever rule

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer

During the 2015 playoffs, we saw an uptick in coaches ordering the intentional away-from-the-ball fouling of bricklaying free-throw shooters, like the Los Angeles Clippers' DeAndre Jordan and the Houston Rockets' Dwight Howard, to short-circuit their teams' potent offenses. That sparked much discussion about whether the grind-the-game-to-a-halt eyesore of a practice should be eliminated from NBA basketball.

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Commissioner Adam Silver remained neutral on the matter, saying he was of two minds about whether to prioritize the legitimate tactical benefit of allowing coaches to exploit poor foul shooters' weaknesses, just as they do with deficient defenders or bumbling ball-handlers, over the fan experience of watching contests get submarined by hack after hack. Ten months later, with the practice spreading beyond just two or three targets and being taken to absurd extents, the commissioner now appears to be off the fence, according to Jeff Zillgitt of USA TODAY Sports:

After months of media debate, putrid foul shooting, lengthy games and fan discontent, Silver told USA TODAY Sports in an NBA A to Z podcast that, “I’m increasingly of the view that we will be looking to make some sort of change in that rule this summer.” [...]

“Even for those who had not wanted to make the change, we’re being forced to that position just based on these sophisticated coaches understandably using every tactic available to them," Silver said. "It’s just not the way we want to see the game played."

As my colleague Eric Freeman has noted, it's kind of funny to talk about sophistication when one of the more recent innovations in Hack-a-Whoever is literally players jumping on guys' backs:

Not exactly "state-of-the-art technology." Still, the point stands.

Yes, the practice has been around for ages, dating back to the days when opponents realized they'd be better served gambling that Wilt Chamberlain couldn't make two free throws than dealing with the certainty of Wilt dunking on them. As our Kelly Dwyer noted last year, then-Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson sending Bubba Wells out to foul Dennis Rodman in hopes of slowing down the Chicago Bulls in 1997.

Like everything else in the sport, though, the pace has picked up. More players are being intentionally hacked, and more games now feature intentional hacking, than ever before.

The apex — or nadir, I guess — came on Jan. 20, when the Rockets started the second half of their game against the Detroit Pistons by intentionally fouling All-Star Andre Drummond on 12 possessions, hoping to close a nine-point deficit and derail Detroit's offense:

The Rockets would lose the game, but the tactic worked. Drummond missed 11 of 16 free throws in that span before coach Stan Van Gundy lifted him; at that point, Houston trailed by only one. Drummond would shoot 36 free throws, missing an NBA-record 23, in a game that wasn't very fun to watch.

The spike in hacking has come even as NBA observers continue to debate its efficacy, especially when factoring in the value of teams rebounding their shooters' free-throw misses. From a Jan. 21 story by Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press:

Teams intentionally fouling away from the ball have won only 56 percent of the time this season when utilizing the strategy when they had the lead, according to the NBA. Teams trailing [...] have won just 17 percent of the time.

On the other hand, from Zillgitt's story:

Teams have won 16% of the time using the strategy when trailing but 61% of the time when using the strategy while ahead.

“All the analytical people say the best time to use it is when you’re up, not when you’re down. That’s the best time to do it,” [Clippers head coach Doc] Rivers said. “It prevents you from making a comeback. A couple of teams have done that, and it’s pretty smart.” [...]

From a pure data standpoint, the strategy is sound way to keep a team from piling up points. Avid NBA observer and data cruncher, Haralabos Voulgaris, said on Twitter recently that teams using Hack-A-Player allow [.72] points per possession – which is better than NBA-best .951 points allowed per possession by the San Antonio Spurs.

One night after the Rockets/Pistons fiasco, then-Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt deployed the tactic for precisely that purpose. He called for intentional fouls on the Clippers' Jordan on four consecutive third-quarter possessions, and again on a pair of trips during the fourth quarter, taking the bat out of the hands of L.A.'s offense to help Cleveland hold onto a lead.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has come taken a side in the Hack-a debate. (Gregory Shamus/NBAE/Getty)
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has come taken a side in the Hack-a debate. (Gregory Shamus/NBAE/Getty)

Blatt said at the time that he wasn't a fan of the league's current rules and that he "absolutely" supported a change, but that he would coach according to the rules that actually existed. That echoes the approach Spurs coach Gregg Popovich relayed last spring to Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News:

“Principle-wise, I feel really strongly that it’s a tactic that can be used. If someone can’t shoot free throws, that’s their problem. As I’ve said before, if we’re not allowed to do something to take advantage of a team’s weakness, a trade should be made before each game. ‘We won’t foul your guy, but you promise not to block any of our shots.’ Or, ‘We won’t foul your guy, and you allow us to shoot all uncontested shots.’

“So we’d have to make a trade. On an intellectual or principle basis, I think you’re on high ground. Now, visual-wise, it’s awful. It couldn’t be worse. I tend to side on the principle side where it’s basketball, and if we have a guy who can’t shoot and it’s an important part of the game, I should probably get him off the court. We’ll see how it comes out."

Despite expectations that we were living in the last days of Hack-a, though, nothing changed this summer, due to a lack of support from the league's general managers and a belief that intentional fouling is "one of those perception is bigger than reality issues." With the incidence increasing, though, the gap between the two seems to have narrowed in Silver's eyes, according to Zillgitt:

“Again, as I travel around the league, there’s that one school of thought ‘Guys have got to make their free throws,’ ” Silver said. “But then at the end of the day, we are an entertainment property, and it’s clear that when you’re in the arena, that fans are looking at me, shrugging their shoulders with that look saying, ‘Aren’t you going to do something about this?’”

What, exactly, will be done remains to be seen. (Making it illegal to just jump on a dude's back while he's in the middle of going for a rebound seems like a decent start.)

The NBA could also consider implementing the change it made at the D-League level before last season: apply the penalty for intentional fouling levied in the final two minutes of fourth quarters and overtimes, when the fouled team gets one free throw and retains possession, throughout the entire game. Silver might be reluctant to do so since, as NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper recently reported, "it really hasn't been tested out in the D-League" due to an overall lack of intentionaly fouling; then again, maybe the fact that nobody's tried it down there is proof of its effectiveness. (For my money, the most elegant solution remains the one long proposed by SB Nation's Tom Ziller: give the intentionally-fouled team the option of either taking the free throws or just taking the ball out of bounds and getting a new possession.)

Whichever tack Silver takes, that he's interested in revisiting the issue seems like heartening news for fans disinterested in watching a free-flowing game halted with clanks. There's a way to prevent sullying the integrity of the sport and respecting coaches' desires to press tactical advantages while also working to keep basketball watchable. Here's hoping the commissioner is serious about finding it.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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