Why are team fouls kept?
Team fouls are kept to try to hold down the total number of defensive or loose ball fouls a team commits in a quarter. This is done by penalizing a team that commits four team fouls by awarding the offended team with two free throw attempts on any defensive or loose ball foul, whether or not the offended player is in the act of shooting. By the way, no matter how many fouls a team has committed in the first ten minutes of a quarter, that team is only permitted to commit one team foul in the final two minutes of a quarter before the penalty is put into effect. If a team has committed three or fewer fouls before the final two minutes of the quarter, it is therefore said to “have a foul to give,” that is, it can commit a defensive or loose ball foul without sending a team to the line (unless of course the offended player is in the act of shooting). And of course just to keep this point clear, offensive fouls never count as a team foul.
