Already two NBA players — J.J. Barea and Donald Sloan — have gotten warnings about flopping. Do it again and they get fined, although the real goal of the new NBA flopping rules is make it kind of a public embarrassment that has players hesitating to make a grandiose gesture to sell a foul.
But the big question has long been — will it really matter at a key point in a game? Or the playoffs? It’s one thing not to sell a call in the second quarter of an early November night, it’s something else entirely in the fourth quarter of a close playoff game. Will it still have an impact?
Stan Van Gundy — the former Magic coach and current partner of NBC Sports Radio and the NBC Sports Network — told Sports Illustrated he doesn’t think so.“I think the attempt to try to address it is a good thing but I don’t see the rule having much effect,” said Van Gundy, the former Magic coach who is transitioning this season to broadcasting with NBC …. “First of all, I think the only ones that you will see penalized are very, very egregious flops. I’d be surprise if it even got to one a game, and I think anybody who watches basketball knows that there is far more than one every game.
“And I don’t even think this is the NBA’s fault. I just think it’s impossible the way the rule is written where they can ‘crack down’ on it. I think they will make sort of a cursory attempt, and make it look like they are trying to do something about it.”
When you look at what Sloan and Barea got called out for, they were both pretty over the top. Sloan’s in particular. And Van Gundy is right, that will be the trend.
But the question of impacts, the question of if this rule changes things late in the season and into the playoffs when not just hard-core fans are watching remains to be answered.
