Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is tired of the side-to-side swipe foul, one Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant popularized dating back to his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder. After watching Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals between the Warriors and the Houston Rockets, Cuban took to Twitter to explain his displeasure.
It’s on the @nba competition committee to get rid of the side to side foul. The defender has every right to the space. Offensive players are smart enough to take advantage of this. It’s not on the refs. It’s league stupidity
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 28, 2019
2 minute report is going to be very interesting tomorrow. Will tell you so much about the management of the nba officiating group
— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) April 28, 2019
Durant got the advantage of his mastery for drawing this foul in several instances, but so did Chris Paul, getting to the line four times for it, as teams hit the bonus early.
KD's long arms allow him to go side-to-side on his natural shooting motion and create shooting fouls, a tactic he used to get forward P.J. Tucker; a hand-active defender, in foul trouble during the second half.
Rockets general manager Daryl Morey agreed with Cuban, saying he's been trying to get rid of it for more than a decade.
Been working on things since 2006 ¯_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/DchJM8vl2l
— Daryl MorΞy 🗽🏀 (@dmorey) April 28, 2019
However there were more atrocious calls throughout the game than side-to-side swipes, like this Captain Hook from James Harden that was called on Kevon Looney, despite the evidence below.
https://twitter.com/dkurtenbach/status/1122612722770694144
If the league office takes a look at side-to-sides, it will also be forced to look at things like the unnatural swing of the legs during the shooting motion.
For anyone who watches Harden closely, he hardly ever leans forward during a jump shot (pull-up or not), yet he did each and every time a defender was close enough to contest it — exaggerating so in each opportunity.
https://twitter.com/TheRenderNBA/status/1122600611726409731
While he got two of such calls in the first quarter, officials went away from the call as the game went on, considering he tried to exploit this.
The defender is no longer endangering the player as much as the player endangers himself by leaning forward on the shot. But that and Cuban's beef with side-to-sides will have to wait until the committee talks about it during the offseason.
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