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ONE OF TRAE YOUNG'S favorite moves is simple. He gets the ball, calls for a screen and turns the corner, putting his defender on his hip as the help comes over to corral the drive. Once he feels his defender behind, he brake-checks, pulling up into a quick shot.

A little old thing called Newton's first law of motion kicks in: A body in motion remains in motion unless acted upon by a force, i.e., the defender runs helplessly into Young's back.

The whistle blows. The foul is called. Two free throws are given.

Young hit the Brooklyn Nets with the move on Dec. 30. Nets head coach Steve Nash was not a fan.

'That's not basketball!' Nash yelled at the officials.

Nash's criticism went viral, and Young and the Hawks defended the star guard's tactic while others debated and discussed its fairness.

'I learned a lot about drawing fouls from [Nash],' Young told reporters in early January. 'If he says it's not basketball, he must've been saying it about himself because he's done it a couple of times throughout his career and was so successful.'

For his part, Nash said he was just sticking up for his team and trying to gain an edge with the refs. It was a heat-of-competition comment, but he has no real issue with Young's play. Players have constantly been searching for advantages within the game: inventing and reinventing different ways to bend the rules.

'Other guys have pet moves that are there to deceive or to fool not just the defense, but the referees,' Nash said. 'That's where the game continues to evolve.'

Moves like Young's stop-short jumper are crafted, refined and mastered through years of innovation. And like a cartoon rowboat, the league plugs one hole only to find another.

The prevailing feeling around the league: If you're not pushing the boundaries, you're not trying.

MONTY MCCUTCHEN HAD never seen such trickery.

Ben Gordon, an undersized shooting guard who spent time with the Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Charlotte Bobcats and Orlando Magic, was dribbling at the top of the key.

Gordon, a right-handed shooter, brought his left hand toward the ball as if he was preparing to gather, rise and take a jumper. But right before the ball hit his left hand, Gordon put the ball back down on the floor as his defender went flying. It was a pump fake without the pump. (Today, players such as Stephen Curry and Kemba Walker have mastered the move, too.)

'I almost blew the whistle,' said McCutchen, a 24-year veteran referee who now works as the NBA's vice president of referee development and training. 'I went up to Ben during the game and said, 'You almost not only fooled [the defender] but you almost fooled me.'

'He goes, 'I know, I've been working on that move.'

McCutchen is well aware of the schemes players pull. It was routine before games that players would approach him to pitch a sneaky move they'd been workshopping in the lab and ask whether it was legal.

Referees watch tape. They know what kind of offenses teams run, if they play on the low block or spread the floor. They also pick up on players' tricks. But there's balance involved in not predisposing oneself to player tendencies. 'You can't let that knowledge turn into anticipation [that] leads to a quick decision,' McCutchen said.

Like every front office and coach, referees are well aware of the surging impact of analytics. Efficiency drives the game, and that means plenty of corner 3s, shots at the rim, and, of course, free throws. In the same way coaches design offenses to create the most efficient shots, players try to find ways to the stripe.

If deceiving an official is the best path, so be it.

'There's all these concepts that are very clinical in the rulebook,' McCutchen said. 'Our teams and our players then push that limit of what the rulebook says, until we as the league say we like or don't like how our game is right now.'

Plays like Young's brake-check jumper have created a lot of conversation within the league. But there are so many clever maneuvers players use. Some are so subtle to the point of being nearly unnoticeable, like Kyle Lowry setting up to take a charge and gently pulling the offensive player into him to make it look like he got plowed over.

McCutchen has a polite name for these players: innovators. He won't name names, though NBA fans know the prime culprits and the strategies they deploy.

'Innovators, such as some of the players you may be imagining,' McCutchen said, 'are always going to test the rules.'

A good example: The rulebook is clear about two steps after a gather. But what it doesn't say is that the steps have to be forward, backward or sideways. Players such as James Harden, Jayson Tatum and others have, ahem, innovated to take that step-back to extremes.

McCutchen recalled Boston Celtics great Paul Pierce splitting double-teams, jumping from one foot to the same foot, then taking a second step with his other foot. At the time, it technically wasn't a travel. The league's competition committee amended the rule: no hopping.

'Referees and the league are always going to be a half-step or step behind our teams and players,' McCutchen said. 'Because their job is to find the advantage. That's how you win, is finding little advantages that over 48 minutes add up to seven points or three points or one point.'

Separating players from their reputations is part of the referee's job. It might seem that there could be some prejudice for the players who routinely make officials look bad, or lower their grade for getting more calls wrong. But officiating those players is a challenge to embrace.

'That's the challenge of a referee that you let the outside noise of status run to the side, and you don't worry about the status, you worry about the actual rule,' McCutchen said. 'You start to take on the mentality that it's about the concept.'

'Now,' McCutchen said with a grin, 'some players are better than others at maximizing the concept.'

CHRIS PAUL IS a true basketball genius. He plays in the game in a perpetual state of bullet time, with plays going by in slow motion. Details and intricacies are seamlessly picked up on the fly.

And Paul, who has served as players' union president since 2013, isn't bashful about talking about the rules of the game -- even bending them. If he sees a defender hanging his leg out, Paul will run into contact and force a whistle.

A cousin to Young's brake-check pull-up is Paul's stop-short, where a ball handler will feel a defender on his back, typically in the backcourt, 50 or more feet from the basket, and slam on the brakes to let an unassuming defender run over them for a foul. To some, that's simply known as 'the Chris Paul.'

Once an opposing team puts the Phoenix Suns in the bonus, there isn't a more dangerous player on the floor.

Another favorite of Paul's is the rip-through, a tactic seemingly popularized by Kevin Durant in 2009. It's simple: Your defender is on you with an arm outstretched. You swing the ball in a counterclockwise motion (if you're right-handed) into the defender's unassuming arms, catching contact as you begin something resembling a shooting motion.

As a young player, Durant struggled with defenders crowding him and needed something to counter their aggressiveness. He was taught the move by teammate Desmond Mason.

'Desmond warned me that guys were going to get up into me on defense,' Durant said in 2010. 'I saw him do it a few times and I kind of stole it from him.'

Coaches and opposing players constantly complained about it before, during and after games. Durant didn't care. It was free points any time a defender had a mental lapse.

'They've said it's a legal play, so I'm going to keep doing it until they tell me I can't,' Durant said after a game in March 2011. 'That's when I'll stop.'

Now, players like Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid are picking up the move from watching Durant. But it's a technique that goes back decades, used by Kobe Bryant in the NBA Finals in 2008 and Tim Duncan before that. Like Young's pull-up, Paul said he remembers Chauncey Billups doing the rip-through some 20 years ago.

Until 2011, this was a shooting foul, but the league legislated against it, turning it into a foul on the floor. Like he said he'd do, Durant stopped using it nearly as much. (He did hit the Washington Wizards with it in January in a critical spot late in the game.)

Paul, though, as he does, found a gray area to continue to expose the rule: just wait until his team is in the bonus. It's still a foul, just not a shooting foul. So late in quarters, Paul will deploy the rip-through and get two free throws. You can see the exasperation on the faces of defenders the moment Paul gets them.

Nba Hostile Act

'Like, 'Damn, why does this dude do this stupid s---?' Suns forward Abdel Nader said when asked what goes through his mind when opponents pull off a successful rip-through. 'Other than that, you've gotta keep playing, move on.'

In surveying players around the league, the rip-through was by far the most popular answer for biggest pet peeve move.

'That's what great scorers do though, they know the rules and know how the refs call it and they get fouls drawn,' Oklahoma City Thunder forward Mike Muscala said. 'It doesn't seem like a natural basketball play.'

Paul said he hears assistant coaches screaming at defenders to be ready for it, to get their hands back. Milwaukee Bucks guard Donte DiVincenzo was a recent victim, and as coaches yelled at him to be aware, DiVincenzo said, 'What?'

'By the time he heard it,' Paul said, 'it was too late.'

If there's a player who seeks those advantages within the rules of the game McCutchen talked about, it's The Point God.

'They're not annoying. If you watch enough games every night, you know what to expect. There's a skill to that,' Paul countered. 'That stuff James [Harden] does where he puts the ball out, that's a skill. DeMar DeRozan is great at it. That's a skill.'

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to say who invented the pump fake. Basketball footage as far back as the 1950s will show players pump-faking defenders and driving past them. They use all sorts of dekes and counters and hesitations.

But one innovation started teetering into clever/annoying territory -- the pump-and-jump. You pump-fake your defender to get them to leave their feet, then use their groundless situation against them to jump into them for a foul call. Pierce was good at it. Dwyane Wade mastered it. Walt Frazier did it as far back as 1973.

The pump-and-jump is one of the eye-rolliest plays in the game, but to an official, it's more straightforward than it appears. It's the more subtle ones, like an offensive player throwing his head back to draw attention to contact, or a big man disguising a moving screen as a roll to the basket, or a big man giving a slight nudge to clear space.

'It's called the Black Tornado,' Shaquille O'Neal said of his savvy veteran and very legal move. 'Bump, spin, bump, get you off balance and then dunk in your face. Just to let you know that you ain't strong enough and you ain't ready.'

The league gathers feedback every season on player moves and tactics. The competition committee looks at them and will sometimes legislate changes. Because at the core, the league wants to make sure the game stays beautiful, can flow and not get driven down by gray-area maneuvers. Still: It's almost impossible for the league to stay ahead of the players.

There are plays like Reggie Miller's scissor kick, where he'd cleverly leave one leg hanging out on a jumper for a defender to potentially clip. It was irritating, and in 2012, seven years after Miller retired, the league implemented, you guessed it, 'The Reggie Miller Rule,' that made it an offensive foul to leave a leg out.

By next season, we might be talking about 'The Trae Young Rule.' But until the league legislates it out of the game, it's fair play. And it's up to the players to discover counters.

There are extreme measures, like in 2018 when LeBron James picked Paul up about 40 feet from the bucket.

LeBron was shading Paul on his right hip, as Paul dragged the ball around near the floor. LeBron, who does his homework, knew Paul was in position to deploy the rip-through. So LeBron put his hands behind his back.

Patty Mills guarded Harden for basically an entire playoff series this way. Because there's not much you can do to counter these clever plays. A foul is a foul and the referee has to call it. Some are embellished, like when Harden or Paul, or any player takes a bit of awkward-looking contact and falls to the floor, forcing a whistle.

Harden is an offensive craftsman and has perfected the art of drawing fouls. He'll do little things, like calling for a screen and waiting for the on-ball defender to glance over his shoulder to see where the screen is coming from and then drag his arms into the defender's outstretched arms.

Is it cheap? Most players and coaches say definitely. Is it a foul? Also yes.

Before a recent matchup with Nikola Jokic, Suns center Deandre Ayton pored over film of Jokic's favorite moves and foul-drawing tactics. Because as Ayton said, all he can do is be prepared.

'Whatever my matchup is, whoever I'm playing against, I look at their tendencies, what's their bread and butter. I counter it and I learn from it,' Ayton said. 'That's something I'm good at is watching my matchup and knowing what he loves to do. ...

Nba Shot Clock Change

'We want you to make a mistake. I'll defend you until you make one.'

The other thing to try, Ayton said: Get in front of it. Talk to the ref before the game and tell them to be on the lookout for these cheeky plays.

'In the post, I'll tell the refs, when I know it's a center that likes to bang, like Jokic, I'll tell the ref, 'Hey, just watch my hands,' Ayton said. 'Showing my hands when I'm taking contact, so don't call a foul. Just reminding the ref, 'Yo, we bangin' but my hands aren't in there, I'm straight up.'

With every savvy play, there are two perspectives. If it's in your favor, it's a good thing. If not, it's cheap.

That's how Nash felt about Young's savvy move in the heat of the moment. And, as former Thunder center Steven Adams said last season when asked about Paul's favorite:

'Oh, it's great. [When] he's on my team.'

ESPN's Marc Raimondi contributed to this story.

______________________________

Section I—The Game Officials

1. The game officials shall be a Crew Chief, Referee, Umpire and Replay Center They will be assisted by an official scorer, two trained timers, and courtside administrator. One timer will operate the game clock and the other will operate the shot clock. The courtside administrator will be stationed at the scorer’s table to facilitate communication between the Replay Center Official, on-court game officials, official scorer, and other personnel at the scorer’s table. All officials shall be approved by the League Office.

Section II—Duties of the Officials

1. The officials shall, prior to the start of the game, inspect and approve all equipment, including court, baskets, balls, backboards, timer’s and scorer’s equipment.
2. The officials shall not permit players to play with any type of jewelry.
3. The officials shall not permit any player to wear equipment which, in their judgment, is dangerous to other players. Any equipment which is of hard substance (casts, splints, guards and braces) must be padded or foam covered and have no exposed sharp or cutting edge. All the face masks and eye or nose protectors must be approved by NBA Basketball Operations and conform to the contour of the face and have no sharp or protruding edges.
4. The use of any foreign substance during games is strictly prohibited. A “foreign substance” is any substance that is applied during games to a player’s body, uniform or equipment, or to any game equipment, that is designed or intended to provide a player or a team with a competitive advantage.
5. All equipment used must be appropriate for basketball. Equipment that is unnatural and designed to increase a player’s height or reach, or to gain an advantage, shall not be used.
6. The officials must check the game balls to see that they are properly inflated. The recommended ball pressure should be between 7 ½ and 8 ½ pounds.
7. The crew chief shall be the official in charge.
8. The Replay Center Official will make the final ruling on all replays, except for Flagrant Fouls and Altercations.
9. If a coach desires to discuss a rule or interpretation of a rule prior to the start of a game or between periods, it will be mandatory for the officials to ask the other coach to be present during the discussion. The same procedure shall be followed if the officials wish to discuss a game situation with either coach.
10. The designated official shall toss the ball at the start of the game. The crew chief shall decide whether or not a goal shall count if the officials disagree, and he shall decide matters upon which scorers and timers disagree.
11. All officials shall enter the court prior to the 15-minute mark on the game clock to observe the warm-up period and report to the league office any atypical situations and to review scoring and timing procedures with table personnel.
12. The crew chief must check the Active List prior to the start of the game.
13. Officials must meet with team captains prior to the start of the game.
14. Officials must report any atypical or unique incident to the Basketball and Referee Operations Departments by e-mail. Flagrant, punching, fighting fouls or a team’s failure to have eight players to begin the game must also be reported.

Section III—Elastic Power

The officials shall have the power to make decisions on any point not specifically covered in the rules. The League Office will be advised of all such decisions at the earliest possible moment.

Section IV—Different Decisions By Officials

Nba Clear Path Foul Penalty

1. The crew chief shall have the authority to set aside or question decisions regarding a rule interpretation made by either of the other officials.
2. If two officials give conflicting signals as to who caused the ball to go out-of- bounds, they will conference and reconstruct the play in an attempt to make the correct call. If no resolution is reached, a jump ball will be signaled between the two players involved at the nearest circle. If the two players cannot be identified, the jump ball shall be administered at the center circle between any two opponents in the game. If one official signals and another official clearly knows the call is incorrect, they should conference and the calling official may change the call on the information given. However, if both officials are adamant about their ruling, a jump ball should be held similar to above.
   1. EXCEPTION: Last two minutes of fourth period and last two minutes of overtime. (See Rule 13—Section I—a—(7))
3. In the event that a violation and foul occur at the same time, the foul will take precedence.
4. Double Foul (See Rule 12B—Section VI—f).
5. If the two officials differ on a block/charge foul involving the restricted area and/or lower defensive box, they will conference and share information in an attempt to make the correct If no resolution is reached it will be treated as a double foul (See Rule 12B— Section VI—f).
   1. EXCEPTION: Last two minutes of fourth period and last two minutes of overtime. (See Rule 13—Section I—a—(12))

Section V—Time and Place for Decisions

1. The officials have the power to render decisions for infractions of rules committed inside or outside the boundary lines. This includes periods when the game may be stopped for any reason.
2. When a personal foul or violation occurs, an official will blow his/her whistle to terminate play. The whistle is the signal for the timer to stop the game If a personal foul has occurred, the official will indicate the number of the offender to the official scorer, the type of foul committed and the number of free throws, if any, to be attempted or indicate the spot of the throw-in. If a violation has occurred the official will indicate (1) the nature of the violation by giving the correct signal (2) the number of the offender, if applicable (3) the direction in which the ball will be advanced.
3. When a team is entitled to a throw-in, an official shall clearly signal (1) the act which caused the ball to become dead (2) the spot of the throw-in (3) the team entitled to the throw-in, unless it follows a successful field goal or free throw.
4. When a whistle is erroneously sounded, whether the ball is in a possession or non- possession status, it is an inadvertent whistle and shall be interpreted as a suspension- of-play.
5. An official may suspend play for any unusual circumstance (See Rule 4 – Section XIII).

Nba Shot Clock History

Section VI—Correcting Errors

A. FREE THROWS

Officials may correct an error if a rule is inadvertently set aside and results in the following:

1. A team not shooting a merited free throw that will remain in play.
   1. EXCEPTION: If the offensive team scores or shoots earned free throws as a result of a personal foul prior to possession by the defensive team the error shall be ignored if more than 24 seconds has expired.
2. A team not shooting a merited free throw that will not remain in play. The error shall be corrected, all play shall stand and play will resume from the point of interruption with the clocks remaining the same.
3. A team shooting an unmerited free throw.
4. Permitting the wrong player to attempt a free throw.

1. Officials shall be notified of a possible error at the first dead ball.
2. Errors which occur in the first or third periods must be discovered and rectified prior to the start of the next period.
3. Errors which occur in the second period must be discovered and the scorer’s table notified prior to the officials leaving the floor at the end of the The error(s) must be rectified prior to the start of the third period.
4. Errors which occur in the fourth period or overtime(s) must be discovered and rectified prior to the end of the period.
5. The ball is not in play on corrected free throw attempt(s). Play is resumed at the same spot and under the same conditions as would have prevailed had the error not been discovered.
6. All play that occurs is to be nullified if the error is discovered within a 24-second time The game clock shall be reset to the time that the error occurred.
   1. EXCEPTION (1): Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct and all flagrant fouls, and points scored therefrom, shall not be nullified.
   2. EXCEPTION (2): If the error to be corrected is for a free throw attempt where there is to be no line-up of players on the free throw lane (technical foul, defensive three seconds, flagrant foul, clear path-to-the-basket foul, punching foul, away-from-the-play foul) the error shall be corrected, all play shall stand and play shall resume from the point of interruption with the clocks remaining the same.

B. LINEUP POSITIONS

In any jump ball situation, if the jumpers lined up incorrectly, and the error is discovered:

1. After more than 24 seconds has elapsed, the teams will continue to shoot for that basket for the remainder of that half and/or If the error is discovered in the first half, teams will shoot at the proper basket as decided by the opening tap for the second half.
2. If 24 seconds or less has elapsed, all play shall be nullified.
   1. EXCEPTION: Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct, all flagrant fouls, and points scored therefrom, shall not be nullified and play will resume from the original jump ball with players facing the proper direction.

C. THROW-IN

If the second, third or fourth period or any throw-in begins with the wrong team being awarded possession or the teams facing in the wrong direction, and the error is discovered:

1. after 24 seconds has elapsed, the error cannot be corrected.
2. with 24 seconds or less having elapsed, all play shall be nullified.
   1. EXCEPTION: Acts of unsportsmanlike conduct, all flagrant fouls, and points scored therefrom, shall not be nullified.

D. RECORD KEEPING

A record keeping error by the official scorer which involves the score, number of personal fouls, team fouls and/or timeouts may be corrected by the officials at any time prior to the end of the fourth period. Any such error which occurs in overtime must be corrected prior to the end of that period.

Section VII—Duties of Scorers

1. The scorers shall record the field goals made, the free throws made and missed and shall keep a running summary of the points scored. They shall record the personal and technical fouls called on each player and shall notify the officials immediately when a sixth personal foul is called on any player. They shall record the timeouts charged to each team, shall notify a team and its coach through an official whenever that team is granted its final timeout and shall notify the nearest official each time a team is granted a charged timeout in excess of the legal number. In case there is a question about an error in the scoring, the scorer shall check with the crew chief at once to find the discrepancy. If the error cannot be found, the official shall accept the record of the official scorer, unless he has knowledge that forces him to decide otherwise.
   1. NOTE: Rule 14, the Coach’s Challenge, is an experimental rule in effect for the 2019-2020 NBA Season. For the purposes of Rule II, Section VII, the official scorer shall record, only after notification by the on court game officials, if and when a coach uses his/her Coach’s Challenge. The full duties of the official scorer with respect to the Coach’s Challenge are defined in Rule 14—II—c.
2. The scorers shall keep a record of the names, numbers and positions of the players who are to start the game and of all substitutes who enter the When there is an infraction of the rules pertaining to submission of the active list, substitutions or numbers of players, they shall notify the nearest official immediately if the ball is dead, or as soon as it becomes dead if it is in play when the infraction is discovered. The scorer shall mark the time at which players are disqualified by reason of receiving six personal fouls, so that it may be easy to ascertain the order in which the players are eligible to go back into the game in accordance with Rule 3—Section I.
3. The scorers shall ask the timer to sound the horn to signal the officials. This may be used when the ball is dead or in certain specified situations when the ball is in control of a given team. When a player is disqualified from the game, or whenever a penalty free throw is being awarded, the timer will sound the horn to notify the game officials. It is the duty of the scorekeeper to inform the timer to sound the horn and be certain that the officials have acknowledged a player’s sixth personal foul and/or the penalty is in effect.
4. The scorer shall not signal the officials while the ball is in play, except to notify them of the necessity to correct an error.
5. Should the scorer sound the horn while the ball is in play, it shall be ignored by the players on the court. The officials must use their judgment in stopping play to consult with the scorer’s table.
6. Scorers shall record on the scoreboard the number of team fouls up to a total of five, which will indicate that the team is in a penalty situation.
7. Scorers shall, immediately, record the name of the team which secures the first possession of the game.

Section VIII—Duties of Timers

1. The timers shall note when each half is to start and shall notify the crew chief and both coaches five minutes before this time, or cause them to be notified at least five minutes before the half is to start. They shall signal the scorers two minutes before starting time. They shall record playing time and time of stoppages as provided in the rules. The official timer and the 24-second clock operator shall be provided with digital stop watches to be used in case the official timeout, game clock and/or 24-second clocks/game clocks located above the backboards fail to work properly.
2. At the beginning of the first period, any overtime period or whenever play is resumed by a jump ball, the game clock shall be started when the ball is legally tapped by either of the jumpers. The 24-second clock will be started when player possession of the ball is obtained. No time will be removed from the game clock and/or 24-second clock if the ball is not legally touched before a violation.
3. If the game clock has been stopped and the ball is put in play by a throw-in, the game clock and the 24-second clock shall be started when the ball is legally touched by any player on the court. The starting of the game clock and the 24-second clock will be under the control of the official timer.
4. During an unsuccessful free throw attempt, the game clock will be started when the ball is legally The 24-second clock will be started when player possession of the ball is obtained.
5. The game clock shall be stopped at the expiration of time for each period and when an official sounds his/her whistle. The timers shall record only the actual playing time in the last minute of the first, second and third periods. They shall record only the actual playing time in the last two minutes of the fourth period and the last two minutes of any overtime period(s).
6. For a charged timeout, the timer shall start the Time-out Clock immediately after an official signals for a timeout and play will not resume until the Time-out Clock has expired.
7. The game clock and the scoreboard will combine to cause a horn to sound, automatically, when playing time for the period has expired. If the horn or buzzer fails to sound, or is not heard, the official timer shall use any other means to notify the officials immediately.
8. In a dead ball situation, if the clock shows :00.0, the period or game is considered to have ended although the horn may not have sounded.

EXCEPTION: See Rule 13