Fouling away from the ball?

This is an excerpt from hoopedia, and it tells you exactly what this strategy is. It's formal name is Hack-a-Shaq. Personally, as soon as shaq runs over someone or slams someone who does it, I doubt any teams would do it anymore. and shaq knows this, yet he doesn't care and beleives he will hit crucial shots one game because of it.

"Although there are a number of game situations in which it may make sense for a defense to commit an isolated intentional foul, from its inception, the strategy of repeatedly fouling intentionally, on each and every possession by the opposition, was used only as a desperation measure. It was thought to make sense only when time was so short in the game, that a team trailing in the game, when they were on defense, had to make stopping the clock an even greater priority than stopping the other team from scoring. The strategy was not thought to make sense at most other times because the strategy of repeated intentional fouling, as mentioned above, allowing a team to shoot free throws typically will generate more points for them over time than does playing a standard defense.

In the late 1990's, however, Don Nelson theorized that if an especially bad free throw shooter were targeted every time, then intentionally fouling him repeatedly might actually yield fewer points per possession for his team than would playing a typical defense against them.

Since Nelson would be employing the strategy even in the absence of any late-game need to stop the clock, he would be free to use it with more than two minutes left to play. Thus, the off-the-ball foul rule would not apply. So Nelson's innovation was not the creation of the strategy. Rather, his innovation was to take a strategy whose primary purpose had always been simply stopping the clock, and employ that strategy in an entirely different fashion: with a primary purpose of minimizing the opposition's scoring. "

The nerds have done the number crunching for you if you want to google the Hack-a-shaq method. Mathematically it isn't as disadvantegous as you may think. Because typical NBA games:

Teams shoot between 40-50% from the field. (A good defensive team should be able to hold teams closer to the 40% mark)

Take an average of 100 shots per game.

With these two basics a player would have to shoot <40% from the line in order to mathematically be advantageous to using the hack-a-shaq method. Not even Shaquille shoots that badly. What it can do however (and the reason Pop is using it) is disrupt the offensive flow of another team. Kind of like how coaches call timeouts when opponents go on a run.

Well you have to consider both the advantages and disadvantages ... first of all, the first poster is right ... if you foul away from the ball inside two minutes, the team who was fouled chooses the player that gets to shoot ... but say for example your team is down by 16 and there are 4 minutes left ... first of all, in the 2 minutes where Shaq has to shoot his own free throws, you need to have your best offense out on the floor so you can cut into the lead ... therefore, you have to have your regulars out on the floor on offense ...

Take the Spurs ... Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Bruce Bowen and Kurt Thomas are out on the floor on offense after Shaq just missed his second free throw ... Ginobili hits a 3, you're down by 13 ... now Phoenix has the ball, so San Antonio cannot substitute until there's a stoppage of play .. therefore, they are forced to have one of their starters foul Shaq ... you don't want Febricio Oberto or Jacque Vaughn in on offense so you can't have them in the game to foul .. thus, if every time the Spurs score, they foul Shaq, one of their premier players is gonna get in foul trouble ... Whether it be Thomas or Duncan or Bowen, whoever, you can't continue fouling Shaq every 20 seconds without sacrificing one of your best players ... So IF the Spurs did end up making a comeback, they'd be playing the final minute or overtime with reserves ... You can't call timeout without the ball so that option is also a moot point .. even if you could, like they do in the NCAA, there's another luxury you have to burn before the two minute warning ...

To cut it short, fouling Shaq away from the ball and putting him at the line might be a reasonable strategy, but it comes at the cost of some of your most important resources..

One more thing: what the person below me failed to mention is that: #1, it stops the clock .. on average, from the time a fifteen foot shot is released to the time the ball is inbounded by the opposing team, approximately 2 to 3 seconds pass... this goes without even MENTIONING that without fouling, why would the team ahead even consider shooting the ball with more than 5 seconds left on the 24? so even if Shaq is shooting 50% from the line, letting a play fun itself out takes off approximately 21-27 seconds more off the clock than fouling ... he also didn't mention the impact of three point shooting in today's game ... you can crunch numbers all you want, but this is just about rational thinking

Its a way for them to get back in the game cause shaq cant shoot free throws to save his life... the strategy here is to take shaq out in the final minutes of the game..... sorta like what riley did during his play off runs with shaq

The team that gets fouled can chose who shoots, under 2 minutes in the fourth.

if you dont want to have that as a disadvantage....then practice from the line.

its not the spurs responsibility to baby the suns just because shaq cant shoot

Here you go, its from Wikipedia, enjoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_A_Shaq