James Harden of the Brooklyn Nets has been the “poster boy” for players affected by the NBA's new foul rule chance, but he's far from the only superstar affected by them. Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young was vocal on the new rules after his team's Thursday night loss to the Washington Wizards.
Young mustered just three free throw attempts for the game, which pulled his season average down to 4.4 through the first five contests. That's less than half of the nine free throw attempts he used to average in the past two seasons.
Via Noah Trister of AP:
“I don’t want to get fined too much, but it’s frustrating,” the Hawks star said. “There’s a lot of missed calls,” he said. “It’s basketball. It’s just, it feels that they’re learning, and they’re just — I don’t know. It’s frustrating.”
The league's new rule change has NBA officials cracking down on offensive player-induced contact that used to be called against the defender. Young along with guys like Harden and Damian Lillard have been masters at drawing such contact in the past. It's no surprise that they've been the hardest hit thus far.
“I saw James [Harden] said it’s about him, but it’s not targeting just one player or two players,” Young said.
“You can watch basketball. Damian Lillard’s never averaged 17 points probably since his rookie year,” the Hawks star continued. “There’s a couple guys. I mean, Book’s averaging 18. There’s a lot of things that, when guys are driving straight and guys are getting knocked off balance — it’s still a foul, whether they’re using their lower body or their hands.”
In all likelihood, NBA officials are just overreacting to this manner of officiating to send a clear message that the self-inflicted contact will no longer be called. More than likely, the non-calls will slowly adjust to a happy middle as the season goes along.
We've seen this in the past when the NBA enforced the delay of game rule after a made basket. Early into that season, officials would call the violation even if the offensive player was simply helping recoup the ball.
The current state of such calls simply feels like a rude awakening for the players, but don't expect them to remain victims for too long.