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Kevin Durant Admits He Still Doesn’t Understand The NBA’s New Transition Take Foul Rule

The NBA’s biggest rule change of the year came before the start of the 2022-23 season and is regarding transition take fouls.

The new ruling is aiming to prevent these fouls by not only awarding the opposing team one free throw, but also granting them possession after the free throw:

“A personal foul and team foul shall be assessed and one free throw shall be awarded to the offended team when a defender commits a transition take foul. The free throw may be attempted by any player on the offended team in the game at the time the foul was committed. The offended team shall be awarded the ball on the sideline at the nearest point where play was interrupted but no nearer to the baseline than the free throw line extended.”

But even after a good third of the season being played already, the rule change still causes some confusion here and there. While transition scoring is up from 112.3 points per 100 possessions last season to 113.5 points per 100 possessions this season, per Cleaning the Glass, Kevin Durant thinks the rule still is confusing.

The take foul still confuses me

— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) December 26, 2022

According to FTW, NBA referees have called 102 transition take fouls so far this season, equateing to around 0.10 calls per 48 minutes. That means each team may get called for a transition take foul around 8 times per season.