Yeah, a flopping discussion is probably in order. (Getty Images)

Welcome to the 4-Point Play. Every Thursday we'll give you a look at what's happening in the league, provide some odds and ends, the best photos, and our Tweet of the Week. This week our discussion begins with the NBA's new flopping policy. 

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Upon Video Review

When the NBA Board of Governors finishes discussing the new flopping policy Thursday, and with the season starting Tuesday, this thing is almost a reality. The NBPA will continue its action against the league to try and block it, because anything that takes a dime out of the players' pocket is something the union is obligated to try and fight. They'll find this one to be pretty hard to overcome, most likely. If it does stand up, it'll be one of the things we watch closely during the season and you can bet that fans, media, and bloggers all around will be talking, writing, and blogging about the plays, breaking them down, and passing judgment. 

The policy has an escalating penalty structure. For every flop established, the league will issue a warning, then structured fines increasing with the number of violations. After the fifth fine, the league will use its own discretion on the penalty, which can include more severe fines and/or suspensions. 

When the rule was announced there were two reactions. Casual fans and pundits cried "Hurrah!" as one of the most unseemly parts of the game will seemingly be limited if not erradicated. But devoted followers of the game worried about the league's discretionary powers in this field, and how it could result in unfair penalties. Others were concerned about the amount of attention paid to national television games instead of the majority of games which occur on local brodcasts. 

The NBA has informed teams and the media that the process for isolating these events starts with the loggers at the NBA home office in New Jersey, who will review all games. From there, the selected possible violations will be weeded out through various levels until the most egregious violations cross Stu Jackson's desk, and from there the punishments will be enacted. 

NBA officials have stressed that they're not going to be going hog-wild with this policy and only the most egregious violations will face the hammer. And that's the way it should be, since if we look at many possible violations, establishing whether the play fits the definition of a "flop" is extremely difficult. 

Let's look at the definition per the NBA: 

“Flopping” will be defined as any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player. The primary factor in determining whether a player committed a flop is whether his physical reaction to contact with another player is inconsistent with what would reasonably be expected given the force or direction of the contact.

Physical acts that constitute legitimate basketball plays (such as moving to a spot in order to draw an offensive foul) and minor physical reactions to contact will not be treated as flops.

OK, well, we know what we're talking about as far as what's obviously going to get a fine invoice. Let's establish that first. If a player "fakes" contact, that is, acts as if contact has been made where there has been none then he's going to get a letter. Who's the most obvious violator of this kind of play? 

CP3, of course. 



Wow, Chris. Just wow. 

ESPN has done quite a bit of workcategorizing and talking about what are clearly flops. They also touched on how the policy leaves the door open to protect players in the most obvious and frequent flop: the drawn-charge fall-down. 

The NBA's news release says: "Physical acts that constitute legitimate basketball plays (such as moving to a spot in order to draw an offensive foul) and minor physical reactions to contact will not be treated as flops."

I read that part in parentheses as a clear endorsement of the age-old technique of drawing a charge, even if -- even as coached by referees -- it does involve theater. I also read it as the league taking a pass on plays where it's hard to say whether the player should have gone sprawling.

via HoopIdea - TrueHoop Blog - ESPN.

Here's an example of one where the player does it right. Nick Collison is a master at this. Notice in the clip below at the freeze-frame mark where Collison has established position by the time the offensive player has gathered to go up for the shot. That's crucial in getting this call. But more importantly, notice how when Collison falls, he's not shooting himself backwards across the floor. He doesn't push when he lands to exaggerate how far he goes. He takes a legitimate hit, and the contact creates a fall pattern consistent with what you would expect if he were just falling. 

Let's look at one that's a bit more borderline. In this one, Collison takes a pretty hard hit, and you can tell in the slow-motion replay that he's starting to go backwards when Watson makes contact. But his fall pattern is again consistent with what you would expect. A player can even start going backwards, because you would expect a person to normally do that. A guy swings at you, you're going to instinctively try and avoid it, even if you're expecting him to swing. This is another good play by Collison. 



Let's go up a notch and look at an even closer call. On first run through, this one looks like the rest. Collison takes a hard hit, falls, no big exaggeration. But there's two things to notice here. Take a look. Watch where he's at when the shooter takes flight, and watch his hands when he lands. 



Separate of the flop, he's still moving into position once the player has lifted to take the shot. That's an area of emphasis this year that should draw a block. He's there but he hasn't established position. His feet can still be moving, but he has to have position. But also note that he slide his arms out when he lands and slides further across the floor. That's an action designed to generate a call. 

But this one would in all likelihood not have drawn the fine. If it's borderline, the officials are going to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

Now, these are tough, they're plays where Collison is trying to make a basketball play to force a turnover. Then there are other times...

I want to start by saying that I watched every single charge Blake Griffin took last season yesterday and the vast majority of them were legit. I could show you clip after clip (no pun intended) of Griffin making the legitimate play. He's actually really good at establishing position and willing to take some pretty brutal hits. 

But then, there's stuff like this. 



Now, Ibaka pushes him. That's clear. He's got full-arm extension to create room to receive the pass. Griffin gets shoved, and that force sends him back. But look at where he starts and where he ends. Look at the amount of force and speed that Ibaka applies, even with as strong as he is, and where Griffin winds up. Griffin is a strong dude. Would that kind of push really have sent him backwards? And notice the arm-flail, a classic flop move. That's clearly an action designed to draw a call. 

And yet, this, also, will probably not draw a fine next year. The league simply doesn't want to get into the habit of trying to establish how much contact should determine how much of a reaction. Zero contact should create zero reaction. That one's easy. A light graze shouldn't create the "I've been shot!" reaction. But plays like this, Griffin is likely to get the benefit of the doubt due to the legitimate nature of the initiating contact. 

And finally, here's a great example of a drawn-charge fall-flop. 

You'll notice David Lee jump stops to avoid running him over. He's going for the floater, but he can't slow himself down enough. You'll notice two things, 1. Lee does lean into him because he's trying to create separation for the jumper, and 2. Griffin leans in to take the contact. Then of course, Griffin goes into limbo-mode. There was legitimate contact. Was it enough to draw the reaction? Was the reaction enough to draw the fine? That's going to be the battle for the league office this year. 

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Picture Perfect 

The future is now. (Getty Images)
Hello, Brooklyn (Getty Images)
Coming on strong (Getty Images)



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Locker Talk

Preseason quotes from players on the new flopping policy:

James Harden, known flopper: ““Good. It’s good. Guys can’t be flopping and getting away with it anymore. It was bound to happen at some point and obviously the league got fed up with it and put it in, so I’m happy they did it.”


Nick Collison: “We’ll see how it plays out. I’m not really sure how it’s going to work. I think it’s something the league feels like they need to do something about, but they’re not sure exactly the best way to do it. I guess, until I hear what the system is going to be and what exactly is going to define a flop, I don’t really know exactly what to say about it… Some of them you get pretty hard, others not as hard. So I’m definitely interested, curious to see how they regulate it.”


Collison on if he thinks a charge is a flop: “It depends man, some of those you get hit pretty hard. Others, not as hard. I’m definitely curious to hear what they’re going to say because that does equate to some of the things I do on the court for sure.”


Kendrick Perkins: “I like it. It just takes away from the game, man. It’s one thing to take charges and put your body in the way like Nick does for our team all the time. I think he led the NBA in taking charges. That’s the sacrifice because a lot of guys won’t sacrifice their bodies to really get hit. You see guys who be flopping all the time and not really getting hit when you have guys who really taking hits who have bruised ribs and cracked ribs or whatever out there taking a punishment. You have guys out there flopping, it’s just bad for the game. Bad for the game and I’m glad we are finally making a stand on it."


Andre Iguodala: "It'll be interesting to see. I may have flopped once in my whole career. I'm not a big flopper. In fact, I've had people tell me I need to flop because I'm a defensive player I'll get away with it. It's just not in my nature to flop. But it's not really going to help me out so I really don't care."

"I think it's a positive," he said of the fines. "It's at both ends, where you flop offensively and you flop defensively. It's something that is annoying to coaches and probably fans."

via Nuggets coach George Karl fond of NBA's new rule designed to stop flop - The Denver Post.

"Dwight (Howard) is going to love that rule," Carlos Boozer said. "Most of the big men are pretty finesse but for us powerful guys like myself, Dwight, Zach Randolph, Blake Griffin, guys flop on us. To me, I think it helps our game. It’s almost like a bailout. They flop and the possession is over as opposed to playing defense.

"We don’t flop over here. We play D. If we take charges, it’s a real charge. There are some teams that live and die by the flop. I like the rule. It puts pressure on guys to play better defense."

via Bulls praise NBA's anti-flopping rule - Chicago Tribune.

"It's really hard on film to make an opinion on whether a guy goes down or not," Adelman said. "There's some big, strong, powerful people in our league. If someone bigger than me is coming at my chest, I'd probably go down a little quicker too. Somebody's going to get hurt."

via Minnesota Timberwolves not thrilled with NBA anti-flopping rule - TwinCities.com.

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They Tweeted It:



Kendall Marshall is aware of his limitations, but apparently not of what would happen due to physics in such a theoretical world. #hardtoplaybasketballwhenyoudiefromoxygenstarvationafterfloatingintospace