Cuban says flopping rules may have “unintended consequences”

It’s just not going to be clean and simple.

The NBA announced plans for new fines for flopping (which the union is appealing). The idea of punishing floppers sounds great and it’s an easy move on the most obvious and egregious calls. But most calls fans thinks of as flops are embellishments of real contact, and drawing that line for the NBA suits in New York is not going to be that simple or easy.

And Mavericks owner Mark Cuban expresses a legitimate and interesting concern — will this cause the referees to call things differently. Via ESPNDallas.com.

“It depends on whether or not it changes how flopping in game is called,” Cuban replied in an email from Berlin, Germany, where the Mavericks are playing an exhibition game this weekend. “If it just causes the refs to give floppers the benefit of the doubt knowing the league can deal with it after the fact, it could have some unintended consequences.

“A big question is going to be how much depth of explanation is going to be given when a fine is [assessed] and whether or not the league will enforce teams paying the fines for the players who get caught flopping.”

Where does the league draw the line? Where do the referees on the court — who have always had the ability to call a foul on flopping — draw the line? How the league enforces all this will be interesting.

And is it going to come down to how a guy falls when hit? Cuban suggested as much.

“The one thing the NBA should do, but of course it won’t, is to make it so an offensive foul is NOT called if a guy falls on his butt,” Cuban wrote. “The biomechanics of force and resistance don’t cause you to fall flat on your butt on contact, unless the defender intends to fall on his butt upon contact So if you see charges called because a guy lands on his ass, you know nothing has really changed. If the ‘look at me, I’m on the floor’ gets you nothing but a smirk, you know the rules are working.”

It’s not going to be clean and simple. Not at all.