Good riddance, Take Foul

The NBA appears poised to significantly sanction the take foul.

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Two Officers and a Groom in a Landscape, Benjamin West, 1777

Yahoo!’s Chris Haynes reports that the NBA’s competition committee is pushing a proposal to establish penalties for so-called take fouls that kill fast breaks. If officials ascertain a take foul was committed, the team with possession will get a single free throw plus possession. In the past, the only disadvantage to committing a take foul was to pick up an additional team foul plus a player foul on whoever committed it.

Clearly, someone did the math and determined that in most cases the trade-off was worth it for the defensive team, because take fouls seemed like a growing epidemic over the last couple of seasons. Jeff Van Gundy has been particularly vocal in railing about take fouls, both from a league watchability standpoint and in criticizing star players who commit take fouls and potentially end up in foul trouble. While many, many people hate the take foul (myself included), I think JVG’s strident obsession with it warrants calling this the JVG Rule.

The league’s Board of Governors still needs to approve the change (why would they say no?) and I’d argue it’s still not perfect. To hell with making the team whose fast break was halted shoot a free throw: just give them a point. I know we don’t do that in the NBA — every point is earned, even delay of game and illegal defense penalties — but I think it’d be a way to keep the game’s pace up and further disincentivize take fouls. We don’t need more free throws in the NBA. We need more fast breaks. Award a point for an illegal take foul (hell, for clear path fouls: make it one free point for the aggrieved team plus one free throw plus the ball) and give them side-out. Keep it moving. Really penalize the behavior you want eliminated without making fans watch a free throw.