Daily Knicks
Fansided

Adam Silver and the NBA to Explore Eliminating Hack-a-Shaq Strategy, Is This a Good Idea?

By William Lee

facebooktwitterreddit

Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com recently had a conversation with Adam Silver about potentially banning the use of the Hack-a-Shaq strategy.

"“It’s something that I’m on the fence about,”“My thought used to be that we should definitely change the rule, and then having sat through several general managers meetings, competition meetings and having heard from some of the game’s very best, the view is the players should hit their free throws. That’s changed my view a little bit.”“Having said that, when I watch some of these games on television, frankly, it’s not great entertainment for our fans, and that’s important as well. What I’ve said is we have another general managers meeting coming up in May, we have a competition committee meeting in June, and I’m sure it’s going to be a hot topic of discussion. Then, we have an owners meeting in July, so I think at all three of those meetings we’re going to be having full-throated conversations about what the right rules should be going forward.”"

Silver and the owners will have to weigh the pros and cons of potentially banning the Hack-a-Shaq strategy, but honestly it seems foolish to make a rule change just for a hand full of players that this strategy gets implemented on. As Silver said in the brief conversation with MacMahon, players themselves had told Silver that they the players just have to hit those free throws, so it really makes little sense to change the rule.

More from Daily Knicks

Yes, from an entertainment standpoint it is difficult to watch, and yes, the NBA wants to cater to casual fans because that is where all the money lies. The NBA already knows they have all the die-hard fans in their pocket, they already know all the NBA League Pass-ers will go to games and will buy NBA team afflicted merchandise. The NBA is looking to ban the Hack-a-Shaq strategy so that the casual fans watching an NBA game do not have a reason to flip the channel, and that is very understandable but nonetheless Hack-a-Shaq strategy is used on so little players and occurs so infrequently that the rule should not be changed.

Silver does understand that this is a matter that is not to be taken lightly.

"“But at the end of the day, it’s about the game,” “I used to run something called NBA Entertainment, but I always remind myself in my job now as commissioner and managing the league office, it’s the game above all. So I think we have to [determine] what makes the most sense for the game.”“We’re very conservative when it comes to changing the rules of the game. That’s why changing the rules of the game requires more than the majority of the owners; it requires a super majority. So we’ve got to be very careful, but it is something that we’re looking at closely.”"

Currently the Hack-a-Shaq strategy is being deployed by Gregg Popovich and the San Antonio Spurs on DeAndre Jordan in their Round One match-up with the Los Angeles Clippers. Jordan is atrocious from the charity stripe, shooting 39.7% from the free throw line this season.

San Antonio sent Jordan to the free throw line a dozen times in game one. The Spurs hacked Jordan on four straight possessions to end the first half, but failed to make up ground on Los Angeles. Jordan went 4/8 from the free throw line during that stretch and finished the game 5/12 from the charity stripe. Popovich did not try the strategy in the second half and lost game one 107-92.

In game two the Spurs again deployed Hack-a-Jordan, sending Jordan to the line on two straight possessions. Jordan made the first two but would go on to miss the next two attempts, prompting Doc Rivers to take Jordan out of the game.

Popovich curiously continued to use Hack-a-Jordan despite a ten point lead mid-way through the fourth quarter. Jordan went 4/12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, but the Clippers erased the double digit deficit during that stretch.

More from Knicks News

The Hack-a-Shaq strategy allows for the recipient team to get back and set their defense, eliminating any transition points for the team deploying the strategy. San Antonio scored only once while doing Hack-a-Jordan and that was on a scrappy tip in shot by Boris Diaw. Another result of the Hack-a-Shaq strategy is that a majority of your players get into foul trouble; in fact this essentially cost the Spurs Manu Ginobli in game two. Ginobli picked up his fifth personal foul doing Hack-a-Jordan, and then on the next possession fouled out of the game by fouling Matt Barnes to stop a fast break. It was clear by Ginobli’s facial expressions that he had forgotten that he already had five personal fouls, and was visibly frustrated that he had just fouled out of the game mindlessly. San Antonio was able to hold on and win in overtime due to the brilliance of Tim Duncan but this game could be an example of when not to do the Hack-a-Shaq strategy.

The Hack-a-Shaq strategy is a double-edged sword; it can be beneficial and harmful to you at the same time. It is great when the player is missing free throws, but the deficit is difficult to trim down because the opposing team is able to then get back and fully set their defense. Coaches will have to make the difficult in-game adjustments based on what is occurring on the basketball court.

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do” – Michael Porter

Home/Knicks News