Charges are evening the playing field for NBA defenders

And stars are sacrificing the body as much as role players.

On Nov. 3, in a game that will be best remembered for LeBron James scorching the Washington Wizards for a career-high 57 points, the Wizards’ Tim Frazier suffered what has become an everyday maladyfor players of his ilk. In an attempt to take a charge, Frazier hit the deck and sprained his left wrist.

The charge rule, although its criticisms operate a decibel level lower than that of intentional fouling or lottery reform, has always been controversial. Charging calls often invalidate the most entertaining plays: dunks, high-octane layups, and dimes in transition. There’s nothing quite as mystifying (or frustrating) as seeing a poster dunk get waived off because it’s deemed an offensive foul.

How many great plays have been waived off as offensive fouls? How many wrist injuries could be prevented if this simple rule didn’t exist? These questions lead to the big question: Why do we have charges at all? After all, there is nothing about the charge that is fundamental to the sport.

And reckless attempts to draw charges can be downright dangerous. When a defender undercuts a guy who is jumping full-throttle to the basket, bodies are inevitably going to crash to the floor. And that, the argument goes, does not even touch on the damage it can inflict on the defender.

But recklessness — Russell Westbrook notwithstanding — doesn’t, in the long view, serve professional basketball players very well. The NBA’s best charge-drawers insist that with some experience and discretion, the most dangerous attempts to draw charges can be phased out of the game.

See it from Frazier’s 6’1 view, and things change. Charges aren’t a mere brutish holdover from a bygone sports era. They actually democratize the ability of the game’s smaller, less athletic players to play effective defense. As long as they’re willing to rotate hard, read the scouting report, and understand positioning, guards who would otherwise have no business thwarting the opposition can become defensive stoppers in the paint. In that regard, charges are distinctly modern. It can’t be understated how much drawing offensive fouls has paved the way for the modernization, and eventual normalization, of help defense.

“That gives us an advantage,” Frazier says. “The bigs have advantages as well. I think it's needed.”

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At one point in time, drawing charges was the domain of the hustle guy; the rotation guard who was forced to add it into his acumen in order to balance out his putrid one-on-one defense, or the undersized big man who thrived on his motor.

But nowadays, stars are taking charges too. Kyle Lowry has made an All-Star career out of maximizing his strong, if less explosive, 6’0 frame. He currently leads the league in charges drawn, at 19. “It's a game-changer when the smallest guy takes a charge on the biggest guy on the floor,” he says. “I think it's a momentum changer, also.”

DeMarcus Cousins, defense or no defense, would demand a maximum contract by way of silky smooth scoring and the defensive advantage of being seven feet tall and merely existing in the paint. But he does have defensive acumen, at least when it comes to taking a hit; the three-time All Star ranks second in the NBA in drawn charges.

He sees it as a tactile way to even the playing field against guards who create contact mid-air against big men. “I don't jump. I just take it in the chest. It's easy for a guard to sell a call against a big, so you just try to use, I guess you could say, their momentum, or their advantage, against them.” For a player who has always squabbled with referees, it’s Cousins’ way of trying to control his fortunes.

And, you know, “I'm just not the most athletic guy, so I use my brains.”

Charges do come with a cost. Quincy Acy, whose place on the leaderboard of drawn charges has helped him stay on the floor in his five-year NBA career, has progressively gotten better at picking his spots. “If I see somebody's already taking off, I usually won't go. I don't ever wanna undercut anybody. I like to take them when people are driving to pass, because they can't always stop. They just drive, dish it out, they're not really looking.”

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He knows the consequences, too. When Acy played for the Knicks in the 2014-2015 season, he sprained his wrist taking a charge. “It's really just about absorbing the contact. I try to put my arms in front of my chest, so my chest isn't taking the majority of the contact.”

He reserves most of his attempts to draw offensive fouls close to the basket where, according to him, any player wandering in with the ball in their hands is already bracing for contact. Nobody ventures into the paint and expects not to get hit, he explains.

“It's good that they added the [restricted circle],” he says, “because a lot of guys aren't jumping from way out to do a lay up.” The restricted circle, in the age of Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James, might need to be extended further into the paint.

But Acy didn’t hurt his wrist because of the initial contact. He fell back hard, and his wrist endured most of the blow. “It’s just working on falling,” he says, but at the same time, he admits it’s hard to work against the innate self-preservation instinct to protect your head at the expense of another joint. “I still don’t do it every time.”

“It’s just a feel,” he continues. “Sometimes, it’s the wrong feel.”

As for the inevitable dust-ups? The injuries that happen despite experience, discretion, and practice, as a result of the fact that, no matter how many safeguards are implemented, chiseled 200-pound bodies aren’t meant to be knocked together at full speed?

Frazier, who played two nights later against the Raptors, put it simply. “I don't think they should change anything about it. If you don't wanna get hurt, don't take the charge.”

A Sideline Story

Situations in which Russell Westbrook just *had* to play like that to get his team the win:

• Alongside Kevin Durant, with Scott Brooks as head coach
• Alongside Kevin Durant, with Billy Donovan as head coach
• Without Kevin Durant
• Alongside Paul George and Carmelo Anthony

Situations in which Carmelo Anthony has ever deferred to anyone else:

• Team USA 2008

I say this not to paint a one-sided portrait of two stars (although, yes) but to illustrate a key point in the discussion surrounding the Thunder's struggles. Over and over again, you hear the same refrains:

“They'll eventually figure it out.”

“Super teams don't always gel right away.”

But those are blanket statements that don't necessarily apply to every team, and there is very little in Westbrook or Anthony's track record to suggest that eventually, things will come together. There are personnel issues. Westbrook has been an effective off-ball player. Carmelo, even when he is set up, often defers to instinct and pump-fakes, dribbles, and pulls up for a worse shot. He is also a poor defender that's clearly on the tail-end of his career, and doesn't seem to have any designs on aging gracefully.

Now compare him to Dwyane Wade, who is thriving in a sixth man role in Cleveland, and you’ll see just how important mentality and the right personnel is.

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My two cents: Wade is incomparable, in mindset and ability, to nearly any superstar in the NBA. He was never supposed to age gracefully. He's not a very good shooter, after all, and so much of his game relied on athleticism. But over time, he built a strong mid-range game, and has always been one of the smartest players in the NBA. He's an adept passer, and his craftiness still allows him to produce within the confines of a reasonable offensive role.

Wade won his first championship, and Finals MVP, in his third season. For over a decade, they called it Miami-Wade County. He has always struck me, whether it was a result of early success or a lifelong mindset, as one of the most secure superstars in the NBA. That allowed him, in his prime, to defer to LeBron and later, to Jimmy Butler and LeBron again now. Even as he declines, Wade oozes levity.

All of which is to say: Not every super team is built the same, and not every clash of egos merely needs a reconciliation. Westbrook and Melo, like anyone else, are capable of change. But I'm not going to start thinking they will until they actually give me a reason to.