Indiana Pacers point guard Jeff Teague has become a master at drawing fouls while attempting three-point shots.
Even with a crackdown by the NBA on players trying to pick up cheap free throws, Indiana Pacers point guard Jeff Teague has become adept at the quick-release three when he detects contact.
The NBA league office began to notice in recent years that players were trying to get to the foul line by throwing the ball at the basket after an opponent made contact with them — and for a time, referees were awarding free throws in some of these scenarios.
Going into the 2016-17 season, a point of emphasis was established with officials that these "fake" shot attempts would no longer be rewarded by assessing a shooting foul on such plays.
Due to this, the instances of drawing a shooting foul this way have been virtually eliminated this season. However, there are some players who are good at getting a shot up early enough to draw a legitimate shooting foul when contacted by an opponent.
Further, there are perhaps even fewer who are crafty enough to regularly draw three-shot fouls while making an attempt from beyond the arc.
There may be no one in the NBA today who is more adept at this skill than Teague.
Teague typically executes this cunning move in the pick-and-roll. As Teague goes around the screener, he will patiently wait to see if the defender makes contact with him.
If Teague feels any body or arm contact, he will quick-release a three-point attempt — and more often than not, the whistle blows and Teague heads to the line for three free throws.
Using this technique effectively generates "free" points, because if this play hadn't taken place, the Pacers would have continued running their normal offense. Indiana is averaging 1.05 points per possession in 2016-17, so that is their expected output any time they have the ball.
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However, putting Jeff Teague at the free throw line for three shots is a far better option. Teague is shooting 86.4 percent from the line this season, so his odds of making 2-3 or 3-3 free throws is very high.
To be exact, the probability that Teague will make 2-of-3 or 3-of-3 of his free throws is a staggering 95 percent. Clearly, this a winning play for the Indiana Pacers any time Jeff Teague uses his savvy to draw contact outside the three-point line.
Gaining one or two extra points on a possession may not sound like much, but even if Teague only executes this move once per game, it could be significant over the course of an 82-game season where the differences in scoring among NBA teams is relatively small.
In the Eastern Conference, not sure there's much of a difference between teams 2-10 #NBA
— Greg Hrinya (@GHrinyaNets) January 18, 2015
In terms of the playoffs, imagine being in a close contest and having a player like Jeff Teague who has the potential to manufacture two or even three "easy" points in crunch time — that could literally be the difference between winning or losing a hotly-contested playoff game.
The NBA may look at this situation at some point and decide to limit the assessment of shooting fouls in these cases, much as they did with the more blatant trick of a player flinging the ball in the general direction of the hoop after a foul had been committed against him.
Until then, however, Jeff Teague is cashing in on this unusual skill, and the Indiana Pacers are all the better for it.
