The NBA’s Board of Governors voted this week to make the in-game flopping penalty a permanent part of the league rules, according to a press release. The rule, which charges the offending player with a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul and gives the opposing team a free throw attempt, was adopted ahead of the 2023/24 season on a one-year trial basis and will remain in place going forward.
The Board of Governors also approved a tweak to the tiebreaker rules for the NBA Cup (in-season tournament), removing overtime scoring for the purposes of the point differential and total points scored tiebreakers.
There were scenarios last season in which it would have benefited the winning team to play for overtime – where it could build a bigger margin of victory – rather than trying to win in regulation by a smaller margin. That won’t be the case under the new rules, as an NBA Cup group-stage game that goes to overtime will result in a point differential of zero for both teams, regardless of how the extra period plays out.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Anthony Gill is drawing interest from a pair of EuroLeague teams, according to Alessandro Maggi of Sportando, who says that Barcelona and Anadolu Efes are eyeing the veteran free agent forward. Gill has spent the past four seasons with the Wizards, appearing in 179 regular season games during that time, almost exclusively as a reserve.
- Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports takes a closer look at how the NBA’s new tax apron rules are impacting teams’ decisions this offseason, suggesting that players whose contracts are heavy on unlikely incentives may become harder to trade going forward. Wizards guard Jordan Poole, Heat guard Tyler Herro, and Nets forward Cameron Johnson are a few of those players, Fischer writes — their deals each include between $2.5MM and $4.25MM in annual incentives. Whether or not they’re earned, those incentives are counted when determining where a team is operating relative to the aprons.
- ESPN’s Brian Windhorst recaps Team USA’s Wednesday win over Serbia, while Joe Vardon of The Athletic provides a handful of takeaways from the squad’s time in Abu Dhabi, which also included an exhibition victory over Australia. Kevin Durant (calf strain) didn’t practice with the club in Abu Dhabi, but is hoping to get on the court in London during Team USA’s final stop before heading to Paris, Vardon writes. The U.S. will face South Sudan on Saturday and Germany on Monday in its last pre-Olympic tune-up games.
- The Clippers sent $4.3MM to the Jazz in the Russell Westbrook/Kris Dunn trade, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), more than covering Westbrook’s $4.03MM salary for the 2024/25 season.
Wow Scrooge, I mean Ainge, is hunched over, wringing his hands, counting the cash and stockpile of draft picks he’s hoarding.
Clippers gave the Jazz MORE than enough to cover Westbrook’s salary? For backup Kris Dunn? Danny is just loving this.
Open spots are so valuable today there’s a strong tax
Nico should get a medal for his swift work with Det and THJr
I think you have issues. Lol
But seriously, stuff like this happen all the time. In fact, the first round pick the Jazz could potentially convey to OKC was from a similar type deal. However, that was when the Jazz had a noob at the wheel. =)
I’m very happy with what Ainge has already done for the Jazz. =)
The Clippers sent $4.3MM to the Jazz, more than covering Westbrook’s $4.03MM salary for the 2024/25 season, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski
That is insult to Westbrook?
In my opinion,
market value of Westbrook is 1 million dollars
real value of Westbrook is 12 million dollars.
And these figures are justified how?
Why is flopping a non-unsportsmanlike technical foul? It’s totally unsportsmanlike.
Regardless, won’t matter unless they actually start calling it.
True
They do call it…in situations where they pick and choose. And they’ve been wrong too. It’s a really bad, and overall dumb, rule, and isn’t evenly called, and doesn’t even make much sense in general, for how it was instituted, and how it’s supposed to be called
KD should just withdraw. The last time he came back from a calf injury too soon we all know what happened.
Still one of the worst flops of all time across all sports. As a matter of fact, Dillon Brooks should be charged with a NBA technical retrospectively, even though it happened in a Pac-12 college game.
link to youtube.com
Imagine LeBron fouling out of a game for flopping
LeBron would have half his points cut in half if they actually called it when he came into the league
I’d love to see the league get a handle on flopping and all the ranting and raving at officials occuring the entire game. I was trying to watch both Euro and Copa and I gotta say, as I get older I find that sport harder and harder to watch. Insane acting, time wasting and all-out defensive shells makes it very hard to watch.
One simply moves on from watching sports on TV. It’s the same dynamic that makes so much of what passes for entertainment on TV seem insipid. Seeing an event live is one thing, being buried with all the moronic ads and knuckle dragging commentary just gets old and tedious.
With all the issues the NBA game has right now, only their board of governors could worry about a non-issue like flopping while ignoring guys hunting fouls and the ineptitude of its officials regarding the initiation of contact.
Flopping would end if officials just called an offensive foul when the offensive player initiates the contact. Nobody wants to go to the ground. It’s a way (often the only way) of saying HEY idiot, I was fouled. If a particular player is gaming the officials by going to the ground when there isn’t contact initiated by the offensive player, that can be punished by suspension or fine. But that rarely happens.
Jason Tatum gets away with an offensive foul, or a travel, on almost every single possession. He extends his off arm fully every time
James Harden flails his arms into people, and somehow gets fouls called in his favor. .
If the league were really serious about flopping they would go back and review vision from every game and administer penalties that start with a fine and escalate to suspensions for repeat offenders. Right now, the risk of a 1-shot technical vs the impact of drawing a foul on an important player that might mean they foul out our at least have to sit, it’s well worth the risk.