[rockyroad]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

Lateral movement always has to do with the location of the offensive player, not any specific direction on the court or direction the defender moves from their initial spot.

If the offensive player has moved to the side of the defender, the defender can't move "laterally" relative to their initial position or the offense's prior location as that would put them moving towards the opponent. It may have been a lateral direction before the offense moved but that is no longer a lateral direction....it is towards the opponent.

If you were to imagine a curtain/wall/plane directly between the offense and defense at all times, such that it moves relative to the positions of the two players, the defender can't be moving into/towards that wall when contact occurs. They can only move along that wall (laterally) or away from that wall (obliquely away). That wall/curtain/plane can be at any angle at any given time but is always passing between the torsos of the players.

So you are talking about the whole "head and shoulders past the defender" type of thing? If so, I agree...