Flopping to draw fouls was a topic around the NBA all season long, then the volume got turned up to 11 during the playoffs.
The NBA Competition Committee has talked about giving more power to the referees to make a FIBA-style call — call the flop, give the aggrieved team a free throw and the ball out of bounds. The committee voted to experiment with that during Summer League.
The proposed In-Game Flopping Penalty will be in effect on a provisional basis for all 2023 NBA summer leagues. pic.twitter.com/eqdJ5gHr7d
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) July 4, 2023
The keys here are this:
• The referee will determine the flop during the flow of play.
• Referees do not need to stop play to make the call, so as not to take away an advantage, and they can call it at the next break in play.
• The team flopped against gets a free throw and the ball out of bounds.
• The player who flops will be assessed a non-unsportsmanlike technical, so it does not count toward them fouling out of the game.
While the league needs to look into reducing flopping, do not expect this to go smoothly. First, the referees — the ones sometimes fooled by flopping in the first place — will make the call, and their angle on the infraction and other factors will go into that whistle. What makes this difficult for the referees is the best floppers — Marcus Smart, James Harden, Chris Paul, etc. — embellish and exaggerate existing contact. There is always a little something there. Referees must be sure this was a flop, not genuine contact and a foul before blowing a whistle. Which is to say, fans at home may be calling for a flop while watching on television, but in the moment the referee will not want to make this call.
On top of seeing how Victor Wembanyama, Scoot Henderson and the rest of the rookies and young stars perform in their first NBA moments, another thing to watch will be this flopping call.
