re: Spin off: intentionally trying to draw fouls

After Curry just had the most Harden-esque game of his career with sub-30% shooting and needing 14 FT attempts and Harden put up 42 points on 60+% shooting? Trolling or not watching very closely?

Back on point, I've always felt they should tighten up on offensive players that diverge from their direct path to the basket just to initiate contact with a defender. It's tough to legislate exactly what is and isn't legal guarding position though and usually when these plays happen both players are moving in to each other somewhat so it's natural to give the advantage to the offensive player.

As it is now, any contact (other than push-offs, elbows, act.) that isn't the defender being between the offensive player and the goal and getting hit squarely is called a defensive foul. If you can't keep a guy like Harden in front of you, he's either taking advantage of the rule by veering into the desperately recovering defender once he's got them on his hip or taking advantage of lazy/unfocused defenders who lazily have their hands low at their sides instead of high and swiping up through their arms. It's hard to legislate either of these out, as defenders could easily take advantage of not being called for fouls for leaving their arms out to impede motion and offensive players should have the freedom to dribble where they please if the defense isn't cutting them off.