That's proper technique by Holiday, and I'd agree with you about it being a charge. The refs clearly didn't think it was a charge, nor a block (which would be the appropriate other call). It clearly wasn't a flop as it was the proper technique for absorbing contact.
I agree it's proper technique by Holiday and should have been a charge.
But here's what the NBA is saying about these flopping calls:
That’s where the STEM acronym comes in. Initial reactions to contact –
getting bumped backwards by an offensive player in the post or flinching/reacting to a tap in the face – won’t merit a call. But secondary reactions to “sell” the contact to the game officials and the fans might.
“We don’t think there’s going to be a ton of these being called, because of what it is we’re targeting,” said Monty McCutchen, the NBA’s senior vice president, head of referee development and training. “The vast majority of plays that we think are enhancements or embellishments will still be no-calls, the way we do it now. But we want to get rid of the egregious, overt, over-the-top examples.”
Now, if that's not a charge, and it's not a flop because it wasn't an egregious, overt, over the top example, tell me how this one was egregious and deserved a call when the Knick player clearly makes contact with Porzingis and clearly extends his arm the same way, if not more, than what Randle did?
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4DNSmLut0
This subjective enforcement in October is not an issue. Nobody gives too much of a shit right now, but unless they just stop calling it (as they did with the old flopping rule), it's going to become an issue (and head snaps are not a flop per se either):
Now, I personally agree that Porzingis was a flop, and Randle was a charge, but I don't know how you can call one and not call the other a flop, when you don't call the charge.
Again, we'll see how this plays out, I'm just going on record now to say it's going to be fucking terrible.
For those hoping that Curry or Trae will start getting calls against them for that head snap and yell, umm, nope:
Head snapping back in reaction to impact with an opposing player? Nope, McCutchen said head snaps alone will not merit flopping whistles. Yelling as if the guy had stepped barefoot on a Lego in the middle of the night? Nope, that won’t do it either.
“Screaming will not factor into the decisions,” he said. “Do we think it’s going to be part of the theatrical and the exaggerated? Yeah, I do. There’s a visual component to this to our fans. The voices don’t pick up as much. So to try to regulate yelling and screaming, it wouldn’t translate to our fan bases very well, to be perfectly honest.”
In other words, it’s very rare that yelling is isolated from flailing, falling, reeling or rolling – that’s why movement is part of the STEM.
“Contact comes with [screaming] because they are trying to draw attention,” McCutchen said. “But I think we do a pretty good job – we don’t give in to [just] yelling a lot.”
https://www.nba.com/news/how-nba-referees-will-assess-new-flopping-violations
