The new flopping rule tested last season by the NBA has been a successful test. The new regulation put in place for the 2023/24 financial year has been definitely adopted by NBA owners in Las Vegas on Tuesday, and added to the rulebook. For several months, flopping has been punished with a “non-unsportsmanlike” technical foul and awards the opposing team a free throw.
This rule had mainly been applied in the first part of the season, before the league gave more latitude to defenses, the majority of these fouls for flopping having been whistled before the transition to 2024.
In total, 103 floppings were sanctioned. according to Spotrac's countwith a leading trio of Josh Richardson (Heat), Lu Dort (Thunder) and Jevon Carter (Bulls), penalized three times. These fouls were not, however, included in the count of two technical or unsportsmanlike fouls leading to an exclusion from a match.
In another rule change approved by the NBA on Tuesday, the NBA Cup will see its tiebreaker rules slightly modified. Points scored in overtime will no longer count toward point differential and tiebreakers in the event of a tie.
These matches will be considered as draws for the point average. However, the direct confrontation remains the first criterion used to decide between two teams finishing the group stage tied. Then comes the point difference, now affected by this change of regulation.
