Since the calender turned to 2013, the NBA had issued only four flopping warnings, something pointed out by Beckley Mason at TrueHoop. You’d like to say that the league early season push to reform behavior had an impact on the incidents of flopping (I’m sure it did have some), but often when the league pushes a particular rule early in the season they relax enforcement as the season moves on. The water finds its level.
Which is bad when it comes to flopping — that became a big issue in the playoffs last year. As we get closer to the playoffs the incidents and attempts by players are going to go up — there is more on the line, which means guys will push the limits of what they can get away with.
Thursday the league cracked down on two flopping incidents with warnings (the first violation for each player). Both are from the same game. First is Chris Paul in the video above, with what is my favorite flop of the year. CP3 is one of the league’s most notorious floppers and this was a particularly egregious attempt to draw a foul on DeMarcus Cousins.
The other is from Tyreke Evans (video below). After Matt Barnes blows the uncontested layup Evans gets the rebound and while there is a little contact Evans sells it like there was a sniper in the third row. It works, he got the foul call (from the referee on the other side of the play, shielded from the acting.
What Evans did is what we will see a lot of in the playoffs — guys are willing to risk a lot for free throws when the games really matter. The league has to be on this.