"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!