Taking a Charge in the NBA
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"Taking the Charge" in NBA Basketball

Taking the Charge in NBA Basketball

There are some obvious individual measures that should without doubt be part of the official NBA statistics -- with some form of plus/minus data topping the list for us. However an even easier number to introduce would be foul drawing, and fans would relish and indeed have been clamoring to see data on which NBA players draw the most offensive fouls from their opponents.

Leading 2006-07 NBA Players in drawing Offensive Fouls

Full Regular Season
Rank
Team
Player
Off.Fouls
Drawn
1 CLE  Varejao  99
2 DAL  Harris  77
3 MIL  Bogut  74
4 PHO  Bell  72
5 GSW  Ellis  64
6 PHO  Nash  62
7 IND  O'Neal  57
8 CHI  Nocioni  50
9 HOU  Battier  50
10 Gs/Ind  Dunleavy  49
11 MIA  Posey  46
12 NJN  Collins  45
13 UTA  Fisher  45
14 CHI  Wallace  44
15 Phi/Den  Iverson  43
16 Den/Phi  Joe.Smith  43
17 NOK  Mason  42
18 CHI  Hinrich  40
19 NJN  Moore  37
20 LAL  Parker  37
21 CHA  Wallace  36
22 NJN  Nachbar  35
23 DAL  Howard  35
24 WAS  Daniels  34
25 MIA  Haslem  34
26 Ind/Gs  Harrington  34
27 TOR  Parker  33
28 TOR  Bosh  33
29 NJN  Carter  32
30 SAS  Oberto  31
31 SAS  Ginobili  31
32 SAS  Bowen  31
33 PHO  Barbosa  31
34 SAC  Martin  31
35 UTA  Collins  31



Last year we posted a similar article looking at '05-06 Offensive Fouls Drawn, and that season the leaders in most offensive fouls drawn were:

2005-06 Leaders
1. Raja Bell - 76
2. Andres Nocioni - 67
3. Andrew Bogut - 65
4. Jarron Collins - 63
5. Mike Dunleavy - 63
6. Ben Wallace - 50
7. Nenad Krstic - 50
8. Derek Fisher - 49
9. Desmond Mason - 49
10. Shane Battier - 48

We also looked at offensive fouls drawn per 48 minutes and found that Anderson Varejao had the most per minute played...

Now the mid-season look for 2006-07 showed Varejao with a big lead, and he more than held on to run away with the title for most offensive fouls drawn, and last year's leader Bell dropped to 4th overall, with Devin Harris coming in second, and Andrew Bogut third.

The little guys/point guards were certainly doing their fair share of stepping in front of the onrushing player, with Harris, Ellis, Nash, Fisher, Iverson, Hinrich, and Parker all making the top twenty.

Now there was a bit of a rancor about flopping finding its way into the NBA storylines during the second half of the season and we often get requests for "flop" stats. Certainly some of the players represented here are, ahem, guilty of a little acting now and then, and do sometimes choose the "fall to the ground" defense over trying to actually contest a shot. Still, let's not fault the masters of the trade for being successful. There may be some anti-flop rule changes coming however...

Team by Team Leaders in drawing Offensive Fouls

All right, the league leaders are fun, but you want to know who's been getting knocked to the floor most often on a team by team basis, and also whether offensive fouls have any correlation with team success.

Last year the top teams in drawing offensive fouls were:

1. Chicago
2. Utah
3. Phoenix

Team
Off.Fouls
Drawn
Off.Fouls
Committed
Net
Off.Foul
 Phoenix 265 166 +99
 Chicago 254 203 +51
 New Jersey 240 162 +78
 Golden State 237 151 +86
 Indiana 235 188 +47
 Utah 217 184 +33
 Toronto 216 150 +66
 Dallas 207 148 +59
 Milwaukee 203 157 +46
 Miami 198 175 +23
 Cleveland 197 169 +28
 Philadelphia 195 165 +30
 Washington 184 193 -9
 San Antonio 181 148 +33
 Denver 180 201 -21
 Charlotte 170 167 +3
 Memphis 168 185 -17
 Sacramento 162 167 -5
 L.A. Lakers 158 175 -17
 Orlando 153 179 -26
 Atlanta 151 197 -46
 New Orleans 150 167 -17
 New York 149 269 -120
 Houston 147 138 +9
 Boston 138 212 -74
 Minnesota 137 182 -45
 Detroit 117 150 -33
 Portland 112 226 -114
 Seattle 107 176 -69
 L.A. Clippers 106 203 -97

So two of last year's top three are right back in the high life, while Utah has dropped only slightly to sixth. Hmmm, seems like there's a pretty strong year to year pattern here!

Now last year there wasn't a huge correlation between charges drawn and wins, but this season it is up some:

.52 Net offensive fouls (drawn minus committed)
.41 Offensive Fouls Drawn
-.45 Offensive Fouls Committed

We'll have more to say about fouls in future articles, but to summarize it looks like this:

  1. players who are among the leaders in offensive fouls drawn are likely to have positive on court/off court influence
  2. the correlation between team totals for drawing offensive fouls and net offensive fouls to wins is quite significant this season (although less so last season)
  3. it takes one bad ass/crazy dude to stand in the way of an NBA superstar driving full speed to the basket!
..oh and yes Knicks fans, Eddy Curry did lead the league in offensive fouls committed by a very large margin.


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