Los Angeles Clippers Have Already Won the Title: 'Best Floppers of the League'

After a season filled with highlights and monstrous dunks, the Los Angeles Clippers have won a title already. However, this title does not come with trophies or any national praise—this title comes with backs sore from players falling to the ground more than any other team in the league.

As the season comes to a close, the Clippers have won the title as "Best Floppers of the League." 

To be clear, flopping is problematic league-wide, but the Clippers take it to an entirely new level. Most teams usually have one or two players who exaggerate contact and most know their names. Some that are famous for it include: Luis Scola, Manu Ginobili, Derek Fisher, Anderson Varejao, Pau Gasol and Paul Pierce.  

However, what separates the Clippers from the rest of the pack is the fact that they have multiple players that constantly fall down when there either is minimal contact or no contact at all whether it is on offense or defense. These players include: Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Mo Williams, Reggie Evans and previously Chauncey Billups. In fact, fans around the country have renamed them "Flop City," which is a parity on "Lob City," a nickname invented by Blake Griffin upon hearing news of the Chris Paul trade. 

Most people know what is an obvious flop.  This is where the offensive player is dribbling or posting up, and on minimal or no contact at all the defensive player falls backwards while snapping his head back in an effort to draw an offensive foul.

However, the Clippers players have also mastered the offensive flop. This occurs when the offensive player has the ball, he aggressively dribbles the ball while bumping the defensive player and, at the slightest sign of resistance, falls down.  Also, intentionally running into the defender and falling down is another form of offensive flopping. 

Most fans will see this on screen and rolls, where the point guard (Chris Paul) comes off the screen and the center power forward, who is attempting to hedge the point guard, comes out to meet the point guard. So what does the point guard do? He runs right into the center/power forward and throws his hands up and snaps his head back to get the referees' attention and get the foul called.  

Recently, many people in the media have been arguing that opposing players have been targeting Blake Griffin by trying to rough him up with hard fouls and dirty hits.  

Vinny Del Negro, who was quoted by ESPN while talking about the hits Griffin received, stated, "[T]he league has got to do something to protect this kid," Del Negro said. "The kid is in pain right now." 

Many have argued the hits are coming because Griffin is in so many highlight reels and that teams are trying to prevent highlights by giving him hard hits.  However, there have been great dunkers before in the league who did not receive half the hard fouls Griffin has this season alone.

Dunkers like Vince Carter and a pre-injury Amar'e Stoudamire did not get cheap shots yet created many posters in their time. Therefore, the theory the pundits are trying to pawn off as a reason why he is getting cheap shots left and right does not seem correct. 

The real reason for these cheap shots and hard fouls is because Griffin has not refined his game and attempts to dunk everything around the rim.  In the meantime, he commits dirty plays himself and flops at the slightest contact from the opposing players.  This gets opposing players really agitated and makes them retaliate. 

Although I don't condone retaliation hard fouls, I will show you exactly what goes on in the mind of the defendant. 

Every time Griffin catches the ball near the rim, the opposing player probably feels these are his options: 1) Don't jump and get posterized; 2) Jump and try to cleanly block the shot and get a foul called because Griffin will act like he got shot by a cannon, or 3) Because the foul is going to be called anyway, take a hard foul to prevent the continuation for the and-one play.

Add on the agitation caused by Griffin jumping on people's backs and flopping around the entire game and you get some players who choose option No. 3. 

So the fact that Griffin is extremely aggressive around the rim and extremely floptastic is the reason why he receives such hard hits.

As for Chris Paul, his flopping has become legendary. He has even been coined a nickname: CP360. The 360 stands for the flop move he has invented, which was aptly been named "heliflopter" by fans around the league. The "heliflopter" is when Paul gets the smallest contact and spins and falls to the floor in an attempt to draw the foul. 

The team is rounded out by Mo Williams and Reggie Evans.  Williams, using the same techniques as Paul, has become very effective as a player, although he is primarily a spot-up shooter.

Evans, however, is a big, tough rebounder known to be a physical defender.  He is known to jump over people's backs and even grabbed Chris Kaman's "privates" in order to get a rebound. However, just like Paul, at the slightest sign of resistance by the opposing player, he falls to the ground in an attempt to get a foul. 

These type of players make it really frustrating not only for opposing players, but for fans of the sport and the league.  To have players acting on the court rather than playing the game the way it is supposed to be played will be the downfall of this league if the NBA does not take a stand against floppers throughout the league. 

Two summers ago, the league instituted a rule where the officials would have the discretion to give a player a technical foul for acts they believed were flops.  However, in almost two full seasons there has not been one flopping technical given, while flopping has almost become a part of the game for certain teams that rely on them.

Therefore, although the NBA playoffs are less than a week away, I feel the need to hand at least one title to the Clippers. I feel the Clippers earned this title as a team, starting from their All-Stars and ending with their bench players. Therefore, your "Best Floppers of the League" Award goes to the Los Angeles Clippers.