Part 2 of NBA Officials Points of Emphasis for the 2026-27 Season: Off-ball holding (for both offense and defense) and clarifying what is considered a foul on drives
Could be huge for the Spurs if they actually called this against Wemby’s defenders. Castle is gonna get even more fouls though lol
If they do enforce this, I am so ready to see Wemby either shoot a ton more free throws and everyone but Spurs fans turning against him ala SGA, or defenses can no longer hold on to him for dear life with no fouls called leading for him to actually dominate the paint more
I know for a fact that every Knicks defender was constantly bumping Wemby offball when he rolled to the basket. If he gets foul call, then Wemby could lwk be unstoppable like Shaq
Yeah it was clearly part of their gameplan to tag him hard on rolls and the refs let them play. Those plays are what led to the Brunson and Alvarado shoves too. He was frustrated.
yeah it will be interesting to see considering this is what a lot of teams use to slow down SGA and worked well against him in the WCF. Wemby might shoot 15 FTs a game though so it will balance out lol
Sure.
I still expect to see Curry with 1-2 players wrapped around his waist every offensive possession without getting the calls.
We will still see the Thunder and Spurs do this all game and get away with it lol reputations matter more than the rules
The Spurs will hugley benefit from this if you aren’t allowed to top lock Wemby.
I’ll believe it when I see it, has anyone here ever watched a single playoff game. Trying to set a screen ends up being a 10 second wrestling match, it’s ridiculous
Their definition of “straight-line” isn’t great tbh. A lot of time the offensive players veers off his path and it’s not straight
playoff refs will call the softest foul on ball while let you free for all off ball.
They’ll stop calling this stuff in week 3
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Good that they’re taking a closer look at this. Teams are all trying to see what kind of contact they can get away with
Watching the playoffs, offence get the advantage on-ball, while defence can get aways most of the times off ball.
This and the other one feel specifically targeted at OKC. People keep saying they are top two, but with these rules in place, I don’t see how they break away away from teams the way they did last year.
They are going to be in a lot of close games
OKC lane defense is their strength.
this one in particular is one of the main ways the Spurs kept Shai in check in the WCF. It would help them just as much as you seem to believe it would hurt them lol
I agree that OKC is an obvious target of these rule changes, but if they do call off-ball holding more, it would definitely help SGA, especially in the playoffs. I also think their defense is going to look different regardless of the rule changes, having lost Dort and playing more offensively-tilted players like McCain, Ajay, and Stirtz. As for more close games, that started to happen last season. 34 clutch games, up from league-low 24 the season before, 71% winning percentage, behind only the Lakers. I still think they are a regular season wins machine if they want to be, though I’d prefer them playing the young guys more to figure out if we have anything there.
lmfao funny you say that when luka is worse
OKC has it on both ends though. They hold a lot on defense and the push a lot on offense.
Why was Aaron Gordon’s a foul? He steps to that spot before the offensive player and braces for contact.
It’s good that the off ball holding is a point of emphasis but I don’t understand how it got to that point. We’ve been watching guys get away with egregious off-ball stuff for quite awhile and it should’ve just always been an obvious foul.
I’ll see it to believe it
Every year they hope Steph has gotten old enough they can make this illegal. Steph has like three good games and then they remember this is the only way to keep him from breaking the game.