Report: NBA looking into new way to combat flopping

The tactic can be successful, but it doesn't always work. The online mockery, however, is guaranteed.

Marcus Smart has a few egregious flops since entering the league and was in postseason form in the season opener on Oct. 18, 2022, against the 76ers' James Harden. Thankfully, Harden wasn't called for a foul, not that it mattered. He badly missed the wide-open three.

Harden has several flops of his own, including in 2019 with the Rockets when he was battling the Jazz and, apparently, also a ghost that had him by the neck.

His former team honored his legacy two years later when Mason Jones flopped in an attempt to get free throws off a missed three-pointer. He was initially successful, but a coach's challenge overturned the flop.

If the rule being discussed by the league was in place then, it would have resulted in Charlotte getting a technical free throw.

A potential downside to the idea is that it would likely lead to more stoppages during games for reviews, and there are already enough of those. Plus, does anyone really want Tony Brothers and Scott Foster deciding what's a flop and what's not? 

Another idea floated around would be for plays to be reviewed after the game and for a player to be given a one-game suspension without pay for every two flops with which he is charged.

That could lead to more consistent results in punishments doled out to the league's floppiest floppers.

The league began fining players for flopping in 2012, but the financial penalties are minuscule compared to the money NBA players make.

Perhaps either a technical free throw or a quicker path to a suspension will be a stronger deterrent. While we can argue about what the solution is, everyone is in agreement that flopping is a problem the league needs to address.