NBA Officials Points of Emphasis for the 2026-27 Season: Crackdown on Off-Arm Push-Offs and Offensive-Line-Football-Style Screening
Can’t wait for the push-offs to be called for one and a half months and then disappear.
Think it will really last that long?
It will happen until a superstar does the move on a game winning iso that gets called off due to an offensive foul. Then they’ll protest and you’ll see it called less and less until it’s back to how it was. I’m pleasantly surprised to see the examples in the video though.
Because the fact of the matter is, they want offense. And they want it at all costs.
Lebron for the last decade
When I think of the off arm pushoff Tatum and SGA are the first 2 that come to mind
And will any of this be enforced during the playoffs?
Rules? In the playoffs? Who let this guy in?
oh theres rules alr, rugby rules. Defending legally isnt allowed come playoff time, gotta tackle them.
PLAYOFFS? Don’t talk about playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs?!
See yall at Christmas, everyone
Remember a couple years ago when Jordan Poole got called for carrying like 3 times in the first month of the season then they randomly stopped calling it?
Good times.
One and a half weeks. And they are going to target the players who aren’t superstars. Then, it’s back to business as usual.
I give it 3 weeks, rookies only
Can’t have all these 25 PPG 60 TS% perimeter scorers suddenly being 19 PPG 52 TS% scorers because they have to use basketball moves to score again.
Enough to take SGA out of the MVP running
/s
Oh you think this will be enforced on SGA? Bless your heart
those 2 weeks when hanging on the rim was a T
You already know the drill
More like one and a half weeks
It’s always like that. I loved that month and a half when they stopped calling players JUMPING INTO defenders but that was quickly gone.
Eh. I get it, but this’ll stick. You only need to put emphasis on it up until the All-Star break anyways. Afterwards, the professionals will adapt.
Hope so.
First week
I give it 3 weeks max.
Or when they want to call a foul on one team during the playoffs.
more like 2 weeks
And called wrong as well, since you can legally protect the ball with your off arm but they’ll call shielding the ball fouls instead, and Shai will still be allowed to push himself off of defenders backwards and get fouls
There will be 764 calls the first week and zero the rest of the aeason
Physical play is always tough to call. Remember when the casuals thought Brunson was a flopper? Now our Prince is going to get blamed for the opposite… pushing off to create space (which he does brilliantly)
They should re-emphasize the flopping technical foul again. That shit lasted less than a month. Still in the rulebook.
This video is just showing that the defender will be rewarded for flopping. Their definition of a legal vs illegal push off is basically just how far the defender moves.
Yeah, this video sucks ass lol. The fact that they chose so many clips where it was called seems totally self-serving on their part just to be like “see? we call most of em”
Almost every one of those push offs is basically the same. I don’t care about how far your elbow extends… you can push a lot of force without “fully extending.” The PG vs Hauser clip, you can see how much Hauser recoils back.
Or the “legal” Stewart screen still probably had more force than the one that sent Davion Mitchell flying on the clip prior.
The emphasis needs to be on unnatural moves from the offensive player to create contact (whether it’s with their off arm, their shoulder, or just veering into the defender’s chest). And then the issue with screens is still so much more than the little bit of handsy-ness they seem to be emphasizing here. There’s issues with moving, never being set, having feet way too wide apart, etc.
So the NBA basically saying “we were calling it pretty good all along as evidenced by these clips, move along.” They aren’t emphasizing anything this year.
Yeah this is pretty much spot on. This is basically the league saying “stop complaining about this.”
kevin sorbo sucks ass btw, you should make a new account.
100% agree that he sucks… and yeah, I shoulda made a diff account long ago. It was probably publicly known even when I made this account that he was a dipshit, but idk, I guess I wasn’t deep in on the Kevin Sorbo lore at the time. Just picked some random non-sequitur and went with it (and really, it wasn’t when I made this account, it was when I made some gaming name on Counter-Strike in like 2003 maybe)
I guess but in what scenario are you as the ball carrier putting your offhand arm into the defenders chest with no intent to do it with force? That doesnt really make sense to me, but your right the move is effectively banned, not forcefully doing the push off
Uh, ball handlers are allowed their cylinder of space and are allowed to protect that space. You see ball handlers use their arm as a driving force or in a sweeping motion to clear our defenders who have a hand or two on their chest/hip. Which again, is legal.
What are you wanting, no contact at all? Defenders are allowed to place hands on chest/hip/shoulder, but aren’t allowed to use any force to impede an attacker, only get in the way. The hands/arms are supposed to help the defender stay in front, but if a defender “gets your hip” then you’ve either got to get out of the way or try and get back in front of the attacker.
The problem for refs and fans, is that some players are extremely flexible or shifty when they attack, so to fans it looks like pushoffs or shoving defenders down, when it’s really just the attacker putting their forarm on the defender and using what little space that gives for a step-back or they’re quick enough to use that space to get around their hip.
Remember, contact is okay, force is only okay to keep your arm in place, it’s the pushing motion and generally an upward pushing motion that gives away the intention to displace a defender instead of using the point of contact to pivot or as leverage to secure a step, which is legal. Pushing off is literally you trying to knock someone off balance, using your arm as a pivot is legal, a defender that’s in motion and loses their balance because the attacker uses their arm on you as a pivot? That’s not a push-off, that’s just a defender that didn’t have their feet under them well enough and lost their balance knowing that if they run through the attacker’s arm, it’d be a foul on them.
Defenders that know they aren’t able to stay in front of attackers like that will commit fouls, but if they know that, then they’ll try to oversell the contact of the attacker in order to try and put the foul on them, or they’ll complain about the attacker instead. To fans of the defending player, they look at the attacking player like he’s cheating or the refs are favoring them.
In other words, good defenders know how to stay in front of a player without committing a foul because they know how to keep moving their feet and how to keep shifty attackers from shaking them off. Other defenders will know that they can’t, so they’ll inevitably commit fouls, some are okay with that and just do their best, others won’t be okay with that and try to oversell contact in order to try and fool their fans and the refs.
I just mean theres a sincere reason for a defender putting a hand on you without pushing you. And even with this new rule theres plenty of motions the ballhandler can use to clear the defender or protect their space still. Its just the specific movement of putting your elbow into their chest like in the video, theres really no reason youd be doing that if not pushing off with force
Facts. The PG “push off” and the Suggs “push off” make it clear that it will be based on how far the defender flops.
The only flopping fine all year was on the Kings i think too. Calling it when it really matters
They got Steph one time, it went viral, and then the league killed that shit.
Push offs and foul baiting are 90% of SGAs bag, and they want him to be the face of the league.
I’ll believe it when I see it called.
Also, if the line between foul and not foul is “forcible impact” and otherwise you’re just “feeling your opponent” you’re about to see a lot more defenders demonstrating how they were victims of forcible impact.
Even in this vid, the difference between marginal contact and a correct call is virtually impossible to determine - for example the PG clip where it’s true it’s not an off-arm extension push off, but the arm/shoulder in chest does create space.
It’s the full extension of the arm. You are allowed to use your shoulder and even push out slightly with the elbow to create space but you can’t straight out your arm
I’m not watching a game without my protractor. You hit 46° with that elbow, and I’m writing letters!
Yea I’m not saying it isn’t a gray area (particularly due to flopping or embellishing contact) but at least regarding the off-arm, not fully extending it seems like a fairly reliable tell. The shoulder is the one I wonder more about.
Eh that’s not true. Yes full extension makes it easy to call but the NBA is clearly saying it isn’t required to call a push off. When there isn’t extension, whether the push was “forceful” is the question.
Watch the very first play in the OP video. Jaylen Brown very clearly doesn’t extend his forearm, and they still say it should be an offensive foul because the push was forceful.
What the person you are replying to was saying is that “forceful” is very vague and even in this video the line between the Jaylen Brown play and the McCollum and PG plays (which they say aren’t offensive fouls) is not very clear because both of them look forceful IMO
Yeah that was my takeaway– CJ looked like he pushed off to me. Most of these look like pushoffs… it used to be that you had to actually shake the defender to get a clean shot up but now you can just transfer all of your momentum/force onto the defender through your forearm and not get called.
I don’t agree about CJ but Suggs absolutely looks like he pushes off the same way Mitchell does so I’m failing to see how one is a foul and the other isn’t.
Until they take an actual strong stand on flopping any “marginal vs. illegal contact” calls will be impossible to figure out with any regularity or objectivity.
If they can’t tell if it’s marginal or not, then they can’t tell if it’s a flop or not.
so where do you draw the line then? it’s always going to be a delicate balance between flopping and shoving.
I think they need to make a much more serious effort to punish flopping (bigger fines, retroactive techs, etc) which will cut down on flopping writ large, and make all these calls a lot easier
Can’t wait for this to be like the Premier League where they make these calls for a week and then all of a sudden just stop when a big decision goes wrong.
Still waiting on the ref to book players surrounding him. That is by far my biggest pet peeve
I would love to see this called because it’s gotten out of control BUT it being a preseason POE means they’ll call it for the first couple weeks then completely ignored for the rest of year
It’ll stop getting called when superstars that need the move to create space stop scoring as many points
Ahem Shai
The second Shai ends a game with 29 points that rule is done for.
And really, push offs are just the start. If a defender is square and an offensive player plows into him that’s a play-on at best and often an offensive foul (the defender doesn’t need to fall over). If a defender is in normal guarding position and an offensive players throws his arms into the defender and it’s not a shooting motion that’s a play-on and not a defensive foul.
Really, clean up these three things and the game is watchable again.
Would love this to be true but we know it never lasts
And what’s funny is if the refs stayed consistent the behavior would change. Players can adapt super quickly, but if they notice it isn’t being called again, they’ll go right back to doing it.
The refs can absolutely ref this correctly, but the league tells them to let these things go. It’s a show
The words “if only” come to mind
Don’t worry, they’ll be really strict in enforcing this… for the first 2 weeks.
“Interesting” that a top 2 user of the pushoff move wasn’t used as an example. I guess it’s more PC to open with Jaylen Brown than SGA…
100% fan service just to say they’re “trying”. The actual content of these videos is disturbing and near impossible to judge, let alone in real time. It will just result in players with stature getting all the benefit of the doubt, which is the exact opposite of what these rules should do.
I just want to see the top few guys who are the worst at this to stop.
The freedom of movement section is wild, too. At 6:35 in the video, Stewart shoves the defender and it’s O.K. I don’t really understand why the screener gets to shove the defender in any situation lol… so they can shove them, just not that hard…?
More like…it’s now written into the rules that you only get that call by flopping. Great stuff.
They are trying to toe the line between calling fouls that matter but not having too many whistles. It’s the same thing as in the NFL with holding calls. They let a ton of holds go if they deem that the defender couldn’t have made a play anyway. Otherwise you would have a flag every other play.
I actually think you could argue that in the Stewart play, Stewart shoving Black slightly made a bit of space for the bounce pass. But the NBA is saying that even though Stewart shoved Black, it didn’t affect the play so no-call.
The actual content of these videos is disturbing and near impossible to judge
Yeah definitely agree. I was on board up until they showed the examples of no-calls, which looked very similar to the first Jaylen Brown play IMO.
At the end of the day though it is a really tricky situation. If they start calling more pushoffs, defenders will start embellishing more to sell the contact. But if they don’t, offensive players will continue shoving defenders more and more.
So is this gonna be like the jumping into a defender on a jump shot where they called it for like 2 months and then forgot they made that rule?
Don’t forget flops! They cracked down hard on that for a month.
that actually worked and that particular play is much much less common now
I 100% disagree. It did not stick at all.
It happens all the time still and doesn’t get called. Maybe not quite as absurdly frequently, but still way too often and refs hardly call it
lol
Next they’re going to crack down on the insane amount of carries and travels by every ball handler for 2 game(every AS or All NBA guard about to avg 10 Turnovers)
This happened 3 years ago. They called that shit for literally like the first 2 weeks of the season and then suddenly never called it again.
That rule actually worked, though. You never see players pump faking and jumping sideways for free throws anymore.
Shai literally did that in game 7 this year, he jumped 4 feet sideways to collide with Vassell who was trying to contest his 3 from the side, and Shai was awarded 3 free throws. Totally natural shooting motion
People have literally no idea what the nba was initially trying to Crack down on. It was the fly by 3 contest where you jump into a guy that’s no close to hitting you. Which they actually stopped from happening nearly as much. Ot was never for getting people to jump directly into your path and then taking that foul
Getting people to jump into you on a fake is an actual basketball skill, the foul is the reward. Jumping forward into people who never left the ground is just dishonest grifting lol.
I’m really hoping this is sarcasm but this is Reddit so I can’t tell
Haven’t watched an OKC or Lakers game lately huh
Brunson literally spammed that move in the last game of the Finals lol. I think he did it 3 times on 3 point shots.
That type of play has definitely become less common, but they still let offensive players get away with it sometimes.
Not having one clip of SGA is diabolical
Bc Shai isn’t extending his elbow like they do in these clips. The refs have been fairly consistent in saying that’s not a foul akin to the NFL’s pass interference rules.
Extending your elbow is an automatic foul. Shoving with a chicken wing is allowed going back to Jordan in the 90s
Watch literally the first play in the video.
Jaylen Brown shoves off with a chicken wing, which they say is an offensive foul because “it is forceful, not just firming up.”
But watch the CJ McCollum clip, I think he’s right - they’re going to say if you push off with your forearm or elbow without extending your arm past 90°, that’s fine for some reason.
No, they are saying there are two considerations: full extension and level of force. Either one is sufficient to draw an offensive foul. The first clip is Brown getting called for the latter.
As I said in another reply about the McCollum clip:
Yeah, the difference between the McCollum one and the Brown one is level of force – which is extremely difficult for refs to discern and largely dependent on how hard the defender sells it.
Stop it, get some help.
Bad bot
Thunder fans are so delusional lol
You just said that bot.
The push off rule will last about a week, unfortunately.
and the ref’s will NOT be able to determine what is considered “marginal” or not. This will be a failure. They should use the arm extension and shoulder dipping to signal offensive fouls - like back in the day.
[deleted]
The 2:27 McCollum push off is still legal ? McCollum absolutely initiates the contact, Brunson is in good guarding position, the contact forces Brunson to fly backwards which creates the shooting space for McCollum.
The league needs to put accelerometers into player’s wristbands
McCollum isn’t shoving or creating any outward force he’s just holding his arm out. It’s a pretty clear and obvious difference.
He’s very obviously creating space by pushing off.
The only difference between him and Brown was the level of force.
It’s very minor. And he didn’t extend. He didn’t go through Brunson. It’s a good no call and should stay that way. Level of force is also pretty important idk why you’re saying “the only difference is level of force” as if that isn’t a significant part of it
CJ was more of a brace to gather his balance. There was no force behind the push.
Keeps his forearm square. That’s the difference? He still uses that forearm to initiate contact and dislodge Brunson.
Same thing on the screen. That final example with Isaiah Stewart he totally extends his arms attempting to shove the defender off balance he just fails at it
he just fails at it
But this is why they are saying it should be a no-call. They are trying to toe the line between calling fouls that matter but not having too many whistles. It’s the same thing as in the NFL with holding calls. They let a ton of holds go if they deem that the defender couldn’t have made a play anyway. Otherwise you would have a flag every other play
No kidding - imagine being a ref watching this and actually trying to figure out the actual difference in what he’s supposed to call.
All he does is raise his arm. He’s not shoving. Pretty clear difference.
This is absolutely the loophole they’ll use to justify SGAs BS. I can see it now already. McCollum just hid it better there. SGA is the GOAT of the quick push off and bringing his arm back to 90 degrees.
I saw your post and noticed there was also part 2
“Part 2 of the 2026-27 Points of Emphasis video (narrated by SVP, Head of Referee Development and Training Monty McCutchen), which provides examples and guidance regarding Freedom of Movement – Perimeter & Post and Straight-Line Pathway Plays”
Via the NBA official website.
I posted it on Streamable for you guys
Good video, if they clean this up it’ll be a big help. But given that of their like 15 examples they claimed like 13 were called correctly it doesn’t give me a lot of hope.
I hate the straight line pathway fouls.
Same. What gets me is that it’s not just bad to watch, but it also wouldn’t be any fun to play under those rules. Surprised you don’t see players complaining about that.
e: Shout out Scottie Barnes
In this I feel like the defensive fouls on the pathway rule are pretty ticky tack. And the example of a dribbler veering and shoulder barging was totally egregious
100% those are weak AF. Just look at the video from Thinking Basketball from a few weeks ago about offensive fouls and how they have turned into defensive fouls
Thanks for sharing this, appreciate seeing the POE going into the year!
I thought they were going to go over Deni and Jaime Jacquez just running down the court and ramming the defender but they didn’t
The last example was pretty ridiculous. Oh really? Just full on veering into a shoulder chuck is an offensive foul? If that call needs to be emphasized the refs have a problem.
Jaylen Brown goes to the Sixers.
Adam Silver: it’s about time we do something about push offs.
Let’s not pretend like he didn’t called for it like 7 times in the playoffs.
Good thing we didnt get a player known for the off arm push!
They wait until JB is off the Celtics to finally enforce his pushoffs smh.
This is a bigger penalty to Kawhi than he got for having the Clippers launder 10s of millions of dollars
Sure, Jan.
How is this a multi-billion dollar league showing points of emphasis in 360p pixelated video?
That would be great. So many “stars” have fake bags and just shove guys to make space.
They were already calling that; how about emphasizing the “throw your shoulder into the chest of the guy running next to you while driving” move that drew hanlon has been teaching his guys for years and NEVER gets called?
These first three games where they care are going to be awesome!! It’s too bad it’s not about flopping, they’ve really just given up on that
This is a sorry interpretation, it shouldn’t matter if you’re extending your arm all the way or just using your elbow. All are displacing defenders.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I don’t think they know what the word forceful means. I get the concept that you can use your arm to maintain your space, but that you can’t push the defender away forcefully. Yet McCollum, George, and Suggs all clearly pushed the defender away from them with their off arm, as you can see by their elbow moving away from their body and the defender’s momentum being shifted toward the basket involuntarily.
Pairing a push with a stepback, or pushing at the elbow with it lowered or with a braced forearm instead of extended it doesn’t mean you didn’t use your off arm to push the defender away to create extra space. If the defender’s momentum is clearly being reversed/shifted way from the offensive player as a result of the contact, that is the indicator that a forceful push has occurred. Otherwise what’s the freaking point?
It’s like they care more about it not looking obvious instead of whether it’s actually happening.
The narrator is like 1984 style “deny the evidence of your eyes” when they show the “legal” video clip of someone getting shoved backwards and saying “nor does he push off his legal defender in a forceful manner”…
I’m watching the video of it. He absolutely does the thing that the narrator assures us didn’t happen – we can all see it.
Push off, pump fake, jump into defender you illegally pushed off, free throws. Such an enjoyable experience to watch!
Yep. There’s an entire orientation in the rules that isn’t really changing, but arguably should be to improve the product. Rules have evolved to favor a ball handler facing the basket and maximize his ability get in his bag.
Would love to see a lot less latitude on offensive players instigating contact of any kind. Reward quick decision-making, crisp passing, off ball movement, etc. I don’t think anybody wants 90s style dumping the ball to the post and letting a giant guy back people down. But the current ISO game reliant on step backs, drives, and fouls just isn’t as fun.
Last year was actually one of the lowest rates of isolation possessions since the stat started being tracked. The top team for iso frequency was OKC at 11%, and if you look back through the last decade it wasn’t uncommon to see multiple teams in the 15-19% range every season.
Interesting. I guess we’re past peak “iso.” I guess it’s more about drives in general, not just iso per se’.
“NBA Officials Points of Emphasis for the 2026-27 Season first week”
Fixed
CALL THE DAMN FLOPS!
CALL THE FUXKING CARRIES!
Calling it now.
The NBA will enforce the push-off until a certain someone sees a marked dip in their production. I won’t say who 👀
Tatum is fucking done for
I don’t care anymore NBA, fast forward to the playoffs where things are called more fairly.
Yeah alright. Forearm shivers are still legal ? Why? It’s horrible to watch and still allows for the bogus trifecta of unenjoyable basketball. Illegal Push off, pump fake, dive into defender, free throws. Horrible.
It’s funny to highlight freedom of movement of screens AGAIN, it was in the 23-24 Points of Emphasis
Sga not being anywhere in this is wild.
Not a single clip of SGA in there with the push offs. That’s wild. Don’t expect him to be called on those this season.
I was waiting for an OKC clip to show up but it never did.
Yeah, it should be common sense to officiate properly instead of making it an emphasis. And btw, we know it would only be enforced for 2 weeks like the flopping rules then everything will be back to normal
Hopefully, unlike the flopping technical, this will last more than 3 weeks.
Ah the old pre-season point of emphasis before refs are forced to stare into a Neuralyzer
Ok can we actually see a crackdown instead of just words. I’m so sick of the screening tbh. That isn’t basketball to just completely illegally take a defender out of a play.
They’ll call it for a month, Silver will be disappointed to see a lot of 107-102 final scores as teams don’t adjust to the new officiating points of emphasis, and then it’ll be business as usual.
i knew brown was gonna be in this vid lmao
If only they actually call it all season. One thing I’d add to the list is the offensive player veering into their defender and initiating the “contact.” I’d say that’s worse than the push off as the defender gets a foul call and the offensive player usually gets free throws.
I’m still waiting for flops to be called.
Not that it matters because the officials say they are going to do things and then stop calling it after the first month anyway, like the flopping techs.
That being said… Of course the year the Sixers get Jaylen Brown they plan to start officiating push offs more closely. The whole Boston team has been pushing off for a decade, but let’s crack down this specific year for some reason.
Damn you Silver!!! You found a way to spite the Sixers still!
All the new gen guys have the off arm push off as their signature move. I’m barely joking here. Shai is known for his mid range jumper which usually comes with a shove to his defender before he pulls up.
Still to lenient, in this interpretation.
How is there not one clip of shai
The SGA rule
Me getting mentally ready to watch SGA get away with it all season
That offensive callon jaylen suggs was because he veered into the defender- not because of off-arm. I don’t understand how they can cherry pick the exact plays they want and that’s what they show or the explanation they give.
Every year they call 1 or 2 of these “points of emphasis” in the first few games and then never again.
I remember when carries were a point of emphasis a few years ago. Players are taking a smoke break between dribbles.
“High-five” contact on shooters? You still see it every game.