Thanks, this board is an incredible resource. I did spend some time searching, but hadn't found definitive answers. Or maybe I just didn't want to accept the no-time-and-distance thing.
A couple of points of clarification:
- My pass-blocker (I don't have the ball) isn't extending elbows, but he does move into me if I try to move around him. Once he's facing me, if I try to move past him at, say a 45 degree angle, my first step is 1/2 completed (but not head and shoulders are not past him), can he move sideways into me? He's not "getting beat", but I think he is "crowding me out". Yes?
- I'm trying to reconcile a couple of concepts here. Since time and distance DO apply on a screen, but not a block, it seems you're "better off" without the ball, as far as foul calls. YET:
1. When I'm boxing out and have an established position facing the basket, if my opponent is against my butt/hip and tries to go around me, I've always been happy to slide over to prevent him. I'm moving, he's moving, but he can't get there because I'm pushing back (not pushing him off his spot or out of *his* position, just maintaining pressure as we move more-or-less parallel to the basket).
AND
2. If I drive for the basket, I've always thought it was illegal for a defender to maintain significant contact/pressure as he moves parallel with me, because he's pushing me off my path. I'm not trying to move off my path directly toward the hole, just straight down the lane, but I'm still being impeded/pushed. I *think* (not sure of anything anymore) this would be a defensive foul.
BUT:
The only major difference between #1 (which I thought was okay) and #2 (which I thought was a foul), is that in #2, the outside player has the ball, which-- if I understand correctly-- should be, more or less, a point AGAINST him, not FOR him, because time and distance don't apply. Augh!
Phew.
So, is there a way to reconcile all this, or am I just a pathetic, hacking, ignorant punk?