Shaquille O'Neal Needs to Stop Fouling

On a second-half drive in Saturday night's Bulls-Celtics game, Chicago's Derrick Rose drove left and took off from the left block. He sailed under the basket, actually hovering in midair over the endline, looking for a way to squeeze the ball through a tangle of limbs attached to green jerseys. He was trapped; to score, he would need to pull off an incredible shot (which he is capable of doing, of course, but that's not the point).

Shaquille O'Neal bailed him out by fouling him and sending him to the line for two shots.

I've said it before, but Shaq needs to stop fouling. It's not that we don't have the bodies to replace him; even when we're not completely healthy, it's not like he can handle playing a bunch of minutes per night. But for a team whose (highly effective) defense over the past three-plus seasons has been predicated on forcing the other team to make tough shots, Shaq's attempts to "protect the rim" amount to so much sabotage.

In addition to having an excellent defensive point guard (Rajon Rondo), one of the best team defenders in the game (Kevin Garnett) and an underrated defensive center (Kendrick Perkins), Boston has been successful on the defensive end in recent seasons by deciding, in a sense, which shots they are most happy with the opposition taking, and forcing said opposition to win the game that way. Lebron James wants to shoot long jumpers? Fine; better than him taking the ball to the rim. Kobe Bryant wants to go one-on-one? Great; he'll get his, but it keeps the ball out of Pau Gasol's hands. So on a night when Garnett wasn't around to help on Rose or guard Carlos Boozer, Boston should have been more or less okay with Rose beating them, if he was going to beat them, with circus shots. Instead, he took 19 free throws and had 36 points and the Bulls won by 11.

I don't know if it's laziness on Shaq's part or that he's not able to recognize his diminished athleticism (which seems unlikely; he's been playing at his current weight for several seasons now). Perhaps it's something else. But fouling a guy who is trying to shoot with his back turned to the hoop is just bad basketball. It's okay to clobber a guy to save a sure two points; it's dumb to clobber a guy who has a very slim chance to score.

At his size, it should be very difficult to score over Shaq, and the opposition, generally speaking, isn't all that willing to create contact with the big fella. Thus, while he's no longer a big shotblocking threat, O'Neal should be able to affect his share of shots simply by getting in the way. By fouling, he bails the opposition out (and puts his team in the penalty earlier in the quarter, leading to even more points, potentially).