I just saw a video of Wembanyama dribbling between Bullock Jr.’s legs, and I’m kind of curious as to why a defensive player doesn’t just box out in this situation? It seems like less of a struggle to just turn your body and box out the offensive player, claiming the ball is now loose, and I was wondering if there is some NBA rule prohibiting this.
Yeah, I’m sorry that I wasn’t super clear. I didn’t mean turn and try boxing them out/stopping them in their tracks, I meant more so in a box out/loose ball kind of situation. Where you use a pivot to shift into the lane they want to occupy forcing them outside of their path towards the ball, allowing you the best lane.
Much like when you use your arm or side to “box-out” a player when you’re going for a ball going out of bounds, where you are just forcing them to take a less ideal lane
What you’re describing is a blocking foul. A defender cannot possibly swing around quick enough to beat the ball handler to the spot to be in a legal position, and so it would be illegal contact impeding the ball handler.