Ut Oh! Referees Making Changes

Reports out of the referees pre-season meetings are that they are going to be emphasizing calling illegal screens this season.  That could be a problem for one of the best screeners in the league that we all know and love.   Perk sets some great screens, but I have to admit, some of them are bordering on illegal.  I'm hoping this doesn't mean that Perk will be in foul trouble 5 minutes into every game.  

The refs have announced that they will also be enforcing their bogus respect for the game rules even more this season.  I'm wondering if that means that Perk will get more technicals for the look on his face as he did a couple of times in Boston.   Let's hope that Perk's scowl doesn't become a technical foul. 

 They will also be calling flagrant fouls on the floor and will no longer be differentiating between flagrant 1 and flagrant 2 fouls.  So I guess this means no more ejections for a flagrant.  After the fact,  upon review by the league office, any flagrant will be then classified as a flagrant 1, flagrant 2, technical, or downgraded to a regular foul.  Could be interesting.

And they aren't just picking on Perk,  KD's rip move is going to continue to get extra treatment and won't be called as a foul.  They said that last season, but then ended up calling it anyway half the time. 

They are also going to address flopping.  Good you say as you recall LeBron flopping his way through the playoffs.  But they aren't going to address it in games, they  are going to review all games the following day when they can look at it from different angles and include a player's intent and reputation and then make the call.  If a player is deemed to have flopped, the penalty is likely to be a fine.  But as Ken Berger opines, this could cause some very sticky situations.

Some will like the league's answer to flopping, and others will say it's not enough. And while I recognize the benefit of taking it out of the referees' hands, the new approach -- if adopted -- could open up a whole new can of worms in a sports environment that clearly does not tolerate officiating incompetence. Suppose LeBron James drives to the basket on the final possession of a playoff game, with the Miami Heat trailing by a point. He misses the shot, but dupes the official into calling a shooting foul by flopping. James sinks both free throws, the Heat win the game and advance to the next round. But what happens when the league fines James $25,000 the next morning for flopping on the play? What the league would be saying, essentially, is that James shouldn't have been awarded free throws and the Heat shouldn't have won. Chaos, would ensue, as it often does with these controversies -- be it a disputed Hail Mary in the end zone or a superstar call late in an NBA game.