Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The NBA announced today what the fines would be for players flopping.

Players will first be given a warning if caught flopping. Then if caught a second time will be fined $5,000, then $10,000, then $15,000 thousand and for a fifth time $30,000.

The NBA defines flopping as “any physical act that appears to have been intended to cause the referees to call a foul on another player,” according to RealGM.

The league policing flopping has been a long time coming. Many believe flopping to be a huge problem in the NBA and this can hopefully cut down on it to some extent.

The problem is that by the definition provided by the NBA, players should be fined nearly every play. This will obviously only be for the biggest flops out there and it will be interesting to see which flops the NBA cracks down on first.

Many players in the NBA are known for flopping and the Oklahoma City Thunder have a few themselves. Kevin Durant up until last season got a lot of foul calls using the “rip through” move on jump shots from the perimeter. That wasn’t exactly a flop but was taking advantage of the rules.

James Harden is the biggest flopper for the Thunder mainly while on offense. He very much exaggerates the contact he receives on drives to the rim and could be one of the players that ends up getting fined a few times next season.

Then there is Nick Collison who may not be known for flopping exactly but excels at taking charges. Players who take charges will probably be affected by this new rule a lot as that always involves some degree of acting to get the call.

Russell Westbrook is probably the best player in the NBA who never flops. This is because he only knows how to play at full speed so there is no time to sit back and plot a flop.

The penalties don’t seem to sever right now but we’ll see just how often the NBA decides to hand out fines.

Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

The NBA Board of Governors had their annual summer meeting yesterday and approved some changes to the use of instant replay and also into advertising on jerseys.

NBA commissioner David Stern talked with the media following the meeting and said the league would be looking o add possibly $100 million in revenue by adding small advertising patches to uniforms beginning in the 2013-14 season.

The NBA would model itself after European soccer teams by doing this. This is something that was probably inevitable with the NBA especially because they can earn so much money implementing it.

The NBA has also altered some of its rules regarding the use of instant replay. Officials can now at any point in the game go to replay to review every flagrant foul to determine if it was a Flagrant 1 or 2.

This is a good move because every potential flagrant deserves to immediately be reviewed by video. Many times hard fouls will look worse in real time than on video and vice versa.

Officials can also now use replay in the final two minutes of regulation or in overtime to review if a player was in the restricted area when attempting to take a charge. Officials can now also review goaltending calls at this time.

Charging calls in general are some of the most frustrating calls made in the NBA. Any attempt to improve the accuracy of these calls has to be a good thing for the league though.

The competition committee is set to meet in September to look at flopping and dealing with fouls away from the ball.

Addressing flopping is a very good idea for the league. It will be interesting to see how they come up with a way to reduce it though.

World Peace of course elbowed Harden at the end of the regular season in what was one of the dirtiest plays in the NBA this season. He never really apologized for the act claiming it was an accident.

During Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night, World Peace Tweeted this about Harden.

No brain All beard

— Metta WorldPeace (@MettaWorldPeace) June 18, 2012

It was right after Harden tried to draw an offensive foul on LeBron James late in the fourth quarter.

World Peace has been critical of Harden as a flopper ever since the elbowing incident. He even suggested that Harden may have flopped some from his elbow.

So we know World Peace is crazy and has something against Harden but saying “no brain” is a little mean. It’s probably harmless because in the end that’s who World Peace is but he just comes off as stupid Tweeting something like that.

Flopping has been a big talking point this year in the NBA and particularly in the playoffs.

Serge Ibaka was asked about flopping and who the biggest floppers were in the NBA Finals. He initially mentioned Mario Chalmers and Derek Fisher casually. Then when Shane Battier’s name was brought up he called him the biggest flopper of them all.

With players like Battier and Fisher, flopping could play a big role in the NBA Finals. Even LeBron, Wade, Durant and Harden do their fair share of flopping trying to get calls.

It is becoming a big deal though even for NBA commissioner David Stern.

“Flopping almost doesn’t do it justice,” Stern said Tuesday. “Trickery. Deceit designed to cause the game to be decided other than on its merits. We’ll be looking at that.

“We’ll be looking at a number of things that make it easier for us to say to our fans what we all know to be true: Our referees want to get everything right.”

The goal with flopping and tweaking officiating in anyway should be to get the referees out of the spotlight in as much as possible. The worst thing about watching a game is feeling that the referees affected the outcome afterwards.

Flopping puts referees in the limelight. There won’t be a perfect fix to immediately get rid of flopping but the fact that Stern is talking about it is a good sign for the NBA.

Dennis Wierzbicki-US PRESSWIRE

Derrick Rose injured his knee late in the fourth quarter of the Chicago Bulls’ 103-91 Game 1 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers Saturday.

Rose scored 23 points on 23 shots in 37 minutes before the injury and this is now the sixth injury Rose has suffered this season. Rose will have an MRI on the knee today.

It is amazing how good the Bulls have been despite Rose’s injuries this season but if they are to lose him in the playoffs, they would surely fall short of their expectations which are to win an NBA championship.

When you look at the injury it does look similar to those that result in ACL and MCL tears. An injury that sever would leave Rose sidelined for the rest of the year.

Considering the force and torque that Rose plays with, I have a feeling the injury will be a bad one. I lump Rose into the same class as Blake Griffin and Tiger Woods: they can do incredible things athletically but the wear and tear from playing the way they do makes it seem like injuries are inevitable.

The Bulls win Game 1 nonetheless and with or without Rose should have enough to get by the 76ers in this series.

Update: Rose now done for the season with torn ACL

It has been confirmed now that Rose is done for the year. The Bulls still played great this season without him and finished with one of the best records in the league but they definitely will need him to get past Miami in the playoffs and Boston.

It is very unfortunate that a great season by the Bulls and a team that had the potential to win an NBA title with their star healthy may now be wasted.

The road for Miami just got a lot easier.

Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The Miami Heat led by LeBron James destroyed the New York Knicks 100-67 in Game 1 of that series.

LeBron played some of the best basketball he has in awhile scoring 32 points in 32 minutes, going 10-of-14 from the field and 11-of-14 at the line and the Heat were plus-35 when he was in the game.

Carmelo Anthony was the complete opposite of LeBron shooting 3-for-15 in the game and scoring only 11 points.

Shane Battier did the most impressive job in the first half denying Anthony the ball when the Knicks tried repeatedly to get it into him in the post.

The defense overall was very impressive by Miami and the Knicks simply were not ready to match the intensity combined with execution.

I do feel that the blowout loss isn’t as bad as it looks for the Knicks in this series. Sometimes I feel that it can be more demoralizing to lose a close game than a blowout. Now, this was a huge blowout and I don’t feel the Knicks have a good chance of coming back in this series but I do think it can still go six games.

Tyson Chandler was noticeably not himself and had flu-like symptoms before the game. He is as crucial as any Knicks player to beating this Heat team.

With the Rose injury and Knicks no-show, the road to the Finals looks as bright as ever today after the first two NBA Playoff games of 2012.

If I had to rank the best chances that the Heat do not make it to the Finals this year it’d go something like this:

1. They meet Boston in the ECF and Rajon Rondo goes to another level and completely dominates four games of the series.

2. LeBron or Wade gets seriously hurt.

I think that’s it…

I was always afraid that by joining forces in Miami, LeBron and Wade would have too easy a time of making it to the Finals and winning championships. They had to go through a lot last year beating Boston and then Chicago but this year it may become a much easier path.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-US PRESSWIRE

The Thunder will cap off the first day of playoff games tonight when they host Dallas for their Game 1.

We’ve seen some potentially severe injuries so far today so hopefully that can be fully avoided tonight.

We’ve also seen the style of play picked up a notch by the top teams, Miami and Chicago. Oklahoma City needs to replicate this and send a statement to Dallas tonight. That is their next step to becoming a great team.

James Harden and his health will also be very interesting to see when he checks in roughly six minutes into the game.

You can read my preview of the Dallas series here. Also check out Pippen Ain’t Easy for the latest on the Rose injury and All U Can Heat and Buckets Over Broadway for more analysis on the Heat-Knicks series.