The new NBA season will introduce some significant rule changes. During a press conference on Thursday, the league announced an addition of a flopping penalty and a second coach’s challenge for 2023-24.
According to Monty McCutchen, NBA’s senior vice president of referee development and training, “flop” will now be regarded as non-unsportsmanlike behavior and will result in a technical foul.
“Flop” is regarded as a “secondary, theatrical, and exaggerated” reaction to a contact that happens between two players.
“We’re doing a good job of non-calling these now. All we’re adding is a layer at the top (where) we really want to get rid of these overt actions,” McCutchen explained.
McCutchen added that a technical foul called for flopping wouldn’t count towards the two unsportsmanlike technical fouls that result in ejection. Also, if a player gets away flopping in the game, but his act gets discovered later, he will be subject to a $2,000.
The second major change is that coaches will now have two challenges for a single game. Until now, coaches could challenge a referee’s call once.
Moving forward, a coach that is successful with their first challenge won’t be charged a timeout and will get a second challenge to use later in the game. However, the second challenge, regardless of whether it is successful or not, will cost them a timeout.
