Foul after ball released not a foul.

[KansasJoe]

I've been seeing this a lot lately in the NBA when there's a challenge. Happened last night in the Lakers / Nuggets game. Russell went in for a close shot and got hit in the face after the ball was released. Since the contact was after the release they said it wasn't a foul despite the fact he clearly got hit. To me a foul is a foul. If there's illegal contact at any point a foul should be called. If a player shoots from any sort of distance they're landing is protected all the way through so why is this different? I've seen in so many times whenever there's a challenge and it just doesn't make sense to me.