This Awful Flop By Chris Paul Is Exactly The Type Of Play The NBA Wants To Get Rid Of
Before the season, the NBA approved new anti-flopping rules that allowed the league to fine or even suspend players for repeatedly flopping.
The point of the rule is to deter players from trying to trick offenders into calling a foul. Players are still allowed to embellish things when they are objectively hacked, but the plays the league REALLY wants to eliminate are the ones where a player flops and draws a foul when nothing happened at all.
There is no greater example of what the NBA wants to get rid of than this Chris Paul flop from last night's Clippers-Kings game.
After a missed Matt Barnes three-pointer, Paul jogs back up the court, edges towards an unsuspecting DeMarcus Cousins, and then flails his body wildly without even being touched.
Paul was trying to trick the ref into calling a loose-ball foul. Cousins (who is not exactly known for his hustle) was barely moving and not even looking at Paul.
Even though no foul was called, it's still the worst possible type of flopping. It's only Paul's first flop of the year, so he won't be fined. But this is awful:
This video is lower-quality but it shows a close-up replay of the flop: