Worst Flopping Teams in NBA History

Flopping has become more of an issue in the NBA recently. The reason teams flop is simple: It works. When you look at some of the worst flopping teams in NBA history, you also see a lot of team success. Most of the teams that flop a lot win a lot. 

The fact is the team that flops gets stops. As long as the NBA allows flopping to continue, there will be a rise in it. Already, more than half of the worst flopping teams ever are playing right now. Every one of those teams has made it to at least the second round of the playoffs. 

Here are the seven worst flopping teams in NBA history, and how much success they've achieved through flopping. You'll note that it's all recent teams, but that's not being exclusive. Flopping is a more modern phenomenon. It just didn't start happening on this level until recently. 

The "Bad Boy" Detroit Pistons

Bill Laimbeer was the co-captain of the Detroit Pistons, who were known as the "Bad Boys" of the NBA. He was also their worst flopper, but he wasn't the only one. Players like Dennis Rodman and Isiah Thomas were known to take an exaggerated spill or two as well. 

As the video above does an admirable job of illustrating, the amount of contact in the Pistons games was a tad uneven. 

While the Pistons were extremely physical if not outright violent on their side, they would fall down at the hint of contact on the other side. They were the original team to make flopping a part of their strategy to winning, and it helped them to two NBA titles. 

The Recent Los Angeles Lakers Teams

Pau Gasol can flop with the best of them, but he's hardly the only flopper the Lakers have ever had. Matt Barnes and Ron Artest, aka Metta World Peace, have both been known to take a dive or two as well.

Those three together can barely even touch the flopping of Derek Fisher, whose surname is ironic when you think about it. It's little wonder his nickname is "Fish" since he flops like one out of water. 

The Lakers with Gasol and Fisher together (and by the way let's not give Kobe Bryant a complete pass here either) won two NBA titles and committed roughly one billion flops, give or take. 

The Current Boston Celtics Team

The single greatest flop in the entire history of the NBA looked more like a Saturday Night Live skit than an actual basketball game. Paul Pierce doesn't just flop a lot, he really commits to the flop. 

He's hardly the only Celtic that has been known to flop either. Ray Allen is not innocent, and for a player that plays as dirty and physical as Rajon Rondo does, he'll fall down if you blink to fast around him. Kendrick Perkins, when he was with the team, was known to drop pretty quickly as well.  

The core of the current Celtics team have won a title together and have been to another finals. It's possible they could get there again this year. Flopping sure hasn't hurt them. 

The Bruce Bowen vs. Manu Ginobili Spurs

An interesting thing about flopping is that being good and flopping aren't mutually exclusive. One of the best perimeter defenders of all time, Bruce Bowen, was also a renowned flopper. 

His antics were nothing, though, compared to Manu Ginobili, considered by many to be the worst flopper in the history of the NBA. 

The pair combined to be instrumental parts of a backcourt that brought the San Antonio Spurs three NBA titles and one of the longest-sustained runs of success in the history of the game. 

It can be argued that those Spurs teams are the ones that proved that flopping can be a vital aspect of bringing home a championship trophy. 

The Current Version of the Miami Heat

The Big Three of LeBron James, Chirs Bosh and Dwyane Wade form one of the great trios in the history of the NBA. They also form one of the worst trios of floppers the league has ever seen. 

Every one of them has been noted to flop on a regular basis, and the video above provides enough evidence of that. They certainly don't need to flop in order to take over a game, but the fact that they have a tremendous amount of talent doesn't mean they don't flop. 

In addition, they've now added Shane Battier to the fray. Battier is one of the best in the league at drawing the charge call, even when he should be called for blocking. In large part, it's because he's an absolute master flopper. 

The Heat are one of the best teams in the NBA right now. In the two years the Big Three have been together, counting both regular season and the postseason, the Heat have taken 434 more free throw shots than their opponents (per Basketball Reference). That's the widest disparity in the NBA. Yes, they flop. 

Vlade Divac's Sacramento Kings

Vlade Divac was such a horrendous flopper that it was a joke among NBA players, and even David Stern got in on the action. The thing is that the joke isn't all that funny. 

He wasn't the only flopper on the team though. Chris Webber, Jason Williams and Doug Christie were all known to "embellish" contact from time to time. 

Their flopping certainly helped them to win a lot of games. During Divac's tenure in Sacramento, the Kings won the third-most games in the NBA and the most by any team that didn't win a title. 

They came close to getting to the finals once, but in arguably the worst-called game in NBA history, they lost a game they could have won that would have sent them there. 

It might have been karma, it might have been the "Boy Who Cried Wolf," or it might have just been a fix in, but a lot of people had trouble finding sympathy for not getting the calls in that game because of all the ones they'd gotten previously.

The Current Version of the Los Angeles Clippers

It says something about how bad the Los Angles Clippers were this year when it comes to flopping that even Chris Webber called them out for flopping too much. When Webber calls you out, you know things are getting bad. 

Next thing you know, Ginobili and Divac are going to do a song about it together. 

The Clippers could form an "All-Flop" lineup if they wanted to with Chris Paul at the point, Mo Williams and Caron Butler at the wings, and Blake Griffin and Reggie Evans in the middle. 

The Clippers have so many floppers that it almost looks like it's a substantial part of their strategy.

In fact, there was one play where Griffin actually got the benefit of a whistle when he fouled himself! It's hard to imagine pulling that move off without some practice. 

The fact that it seemingly is an integral part of team strategy, and not just a couple of players doing it from time to time, makes the Clippers the worse flopping team in the history of the game.