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Don’t be surprised if there is far less flopping in the NBA during the 2023-24 season.
That is because such flops will result in a technical foul free throw for the opposition. The NBA announced that was one of the two new gameplay changes the NBA Board of Governors approved Tuesday.
The other change will be a second coach’s challenge if the first one is successful.
This is not a surprise, as the NBA already announced it was testing the new flopping rule in Summer League to see how it unfolded during game action.
The NBA’s announcement explained any player deemed to have flopped will be given a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul. That means said player cannot be ejected because of an accumulation of flopping violations like they can be for other technical fouls.
Officials will also have the opportunity to wait until the next neutral chance to stop play and issue the flopping violation, meaning they do not have to stop live play if it would take away a clear scoring opportunity.
Officials can also call fouls and flops on the same play.
While coaches cannot directly challenge a flopping violation, officials can retroactively call one upon review or challenge of another play.
The NBA first put an anti-flopping rule in place with the 2012-13 season. Players were issued a warning for their first violation and then fines of $5,000 for their second, $10,000 for their third, $15,000 for their fourth and $30,000 for their fifth.
There will still be a monetary punishment system in place, but fines will start at $2,000 and then increase for repeat offenders.
Perhaps this will discourage flopping on the floor. After all, hurting one’s chance at victory and potentially letting your teammates down in a critical moment may be seen as far more punitive for players than a simple warning or fine.
As for the additional challenge, this will almost assuredly lead to more aggressive use of challenges for coaches.
There won’t be as much hesitancy early in games if there is a clear missed call because there will still be a second one to use in crunch time if it is successful. It should also decrease the number of times officials make mistakes that cannot be overturned in critical moments because a coach already used his challenge.
