NBA to crack down on over-the-top flopping

Nobody cares for egregious flopping in the NBA.

Not players (even though they’re sometimes guilty of it). Not coaches. Not referees. Not fans. Not media.

The NBA is cracking down on those kinds of flops with technical fouls issued during the game, starting with the 2023-24 season, NBA senior vice president of referee training and development Monty McCutchen explained to reporters on a video conference call Thursday.

“We do want to get rid of the egregious, overt over-the-top examples in which NBA players look bad,” McCutchen said. “It has the chance to make (an) NBA referee look bad, and it's just bad for the game.”

Using the acronym STEM when it comes to flops, NBA refs are looking for secondary, theatrical and exaggerated movements to minimal contact. The league doesn't want players to act like they were shot out of a cannon.

If refs recognize the flop in real time, they will let the play continue until there is a neutral opportunity to pause the action and call the flop. For example, if the defender commits a STEM flop, the play will continue and the offense can try to score. Then, the one-shot technical foul will be assessed.

The technical will count as a non-unsportsmanlike tech so a player can’t be ejected for flopping. The kind of flop posted below on X, previously Twitter, is what the NBA wants to eliminate and penalize.

What to watch for on STEM flops, according to the NBA:

∎ Considerable distance traveled by the flopping player

∎ Excessive flailing of limbs

∎ Potential to have injured another player as a result of having flopped

However, not everything that may appear as a flop will be called a flop. Head snaps are not automatically considered a flop and will be allowed. Also, reflexive reaction to contact or expected contact will not automatically be called a flop, and natural falls by shooters or defenders are allowed. One thing the league did not want to do is have refs calling 20 flops per game and interrupting the flow.

If a player is called for a flop during a game, he won’t be fined. However, if a flop isn’t called during the game but is later determined to have been a flop, the player will be fined.

“The thing that the competition committee made very clear to us is that we didn't want to parade to the free throw line for 20 of these a game based on small enhancement or embellishments,” McCutchen said. “We want to get the big ones. We want to get the clear ones that are an embarrassment to the competition, and if we do that, we think this is a pretty good middle ground to addressing the issue.”

Teams receive a second coach’s challenge

NBA coaches are now allowed a second challenge if they are successful on their first challenge. After the first successful challenge, a team will retain the timeout used to review the play. However, even if a coach is successful on the second challenge, the team will not get the timeout back. Previously, a coach had just one challenge per game.

Follow Jeff Zillgitt on X @JeffZillgitt