It deals with flopping and is quite ingenious http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...n-own-ideas-stop-flopping-175814547--nba.html Anyone who studies economics will tell you that incentives matter. This rule change would align incentives perfectly.
What I love is it takes the official out of it. If someone falls then the player has a wide open jumper or an uncontested layup. It will create new problems as players like Battier will go from flopping to falling back but staying on their feet, but that's a better condition than we have currently.
All this rule would do is increase the acting jobs a flopping players has to do to get a call. I don't see how it improves anything. Here's my rule: no offensive fouls in the key. Also make it very hard to get a defensive foul in the key (bodying a player while blocking is ok, but no arm extensions through the body). The key is for tough guys now.
Let em flop. Don't call it if the ref decides its a flop. The penalty for flopping is giving your man an uncontested shot.
The best part about my rule is that it barely affects the blazers since we get no respect in the key anyway.
The very reason players flop onto their backs is because if they don't, the refs won't call the offensive foul. How about if the refs just do their fucking job to the benefit of the game instead of the benefit of the star players and teams? More likely, if this rule were implemented, no foul would be called in either case (falling down or getting run over by the offensive player) and the game would be a lot more physical, with yet another advantage to the offensive player. Especially the big ones. Of course, this might not be a bad thing, either, if the physicality is allowed to go both ways. Best case is that the exaggerated "stagger" would replace the all out flop and slide. I do hate the flopping, and I agree this (odd) rule might help but only if the refs are willing to do their jobs and call a foul on an offensive player who initiates contact that results in an advantage. I'm not optimistic.
Wouldn't this lead to a lot more injuries? It would incentivize guys like LeBron and Carmello to go full steam at the rim, and if you got in the way to draw a foul you are going to get knocked down. Guys like Zach Randolph who are masters of leverage will back people over in the post. There'd be more incentive to use oversized goon type centers who can hold their ground. All of this would result in even more physical play and more injuries. I think it makes a lot more sense to take a behind-the-scenes approach. Sheed had a rep for technicals, so he was on a much shorter leash. The NBA should do the same thing with flopping. Guys like Ginobili and Battier have a rep for flops. Make a de facto black list for floppers, and tell refs that they have a much higher bar. If you blow a whistle on a charge and you suddenly realize it was Ginobili sprawled on the floor, shrug and declare it was an inadvertent whistle and play on. Floppers will realize they get all of the downside of flopping (open shots for opponents) and none of the benefits. Do this for a few months and all the flopping goes away. Clear out the black list and start again.
Flopping on the perimeter sucks, but the bigger problem is allowing defensive players to slide in under a guy going to the hoop after he's left the ground. No rule change needed, just call it like it should be called. To be fair though, lateral quickness of the average NBA player has gotten so good in recent years, it can be pretty tough to tell at game speed.
