Here is the case for bad, as in it should not be permitted:

1. Your guy just did a bad thing for which there is a penalty; the coach should not be able to lighten the penalty by calling a timeout to diminish the odds and making a free through less free.

2. The counterargument might be that there are other strategic reasons that a coach might want to call a timeout in the final few moments before the shot is taken as opposed to after--the shooter misses, the other teams is not given time to recover and reorganize; you don't have the issue of getting it inbounds. Very good benefits but see no. 1; you either have to be able to communicate with you boys on the floor during the time alotted before the free throw is taken, or wait until later because YOUR GUY committed the foul, perhaps even on purpose.

3. The kids, not the college or even high school players, but the young kids, who get iced by some adult.

What brought this to mind was a rerun last night of the Indiana/Syracuse Championship game. Knight iced the shooter with 20 seconds to go and Indiana down one; Coleman, a freshman, missed, and Indiana came down, worked it to Smart who caught in a great spot, took one dribble and scored I think it was his 17th point in the second half. Game, set and match.

I actually think that Knight might well have called the timeout before the shot because he wanted to be able to attack quickly off of a miss and that "icing" Coleman might just have been an added benefit.

Made me think. Interesting issue, it seems to me.