Cooper Flagg Speaks Out On New Rules As Referees Visit Mavs Practice

NBA officials visited Dallas Mavericks practice Wednesday to go over the league's points of emphasis for the 2026-27 season, including off-arm push-offs by offensive players and flopping.

Mavericks coach Dusty May does not think anyone on his roster relies on the push-off.

"Do I like that they're trying to enforce it? Yeah. Probably because I don't think we have anyone that relies on it, so yes," May said. "If we had anyone that was really creative and advantageous to push off, I don't know if I'd feel the same way."

The visit came after the league released a points of emphasis video on Tuesday. Monty McCutchen, the NBA's senior vice president and head of referee development and training, narrated it.

The push-off rule is not new. The NBA's video rulebook already treats it as an offensive foul when a player extends or uses an arm to push, hook, or displace a defender. Officials are being told to look for it more closely.

Screens are on the list, too. Officials will watch for screeners who do more than legally get into a defender's path, and for off-ball players being denied the space to move around the perimeter and into the paint.

Under the flopping guidance, referees can assess non-ejection technical fouls during games for clear-cut flops. The league can also review plays after games and fine players. Closeouts on jump shots, and the landing space a shooter is owed, are part of this season's material as well.

The league's 2024-25 points of emphasis covered straight-line pathway plays, verticality, closeouts on jump shots, and flopping.

Cooper Flagg thinks some of this season's changes can help the game on both ends of the floor.

"It's interesting. They talked about a lot of small things and what they're going to be looking for. So I'm very interested to see how that plays out and what ends up really being called and what they stick to," Flagg said. "So I'm excited to see, because I think they're changing some really good things in what they're looking for, and it can really help our game and what it looks like on both sides of the ball."

As a rookie, Flagg made 82.7% of his free throws on the way to winning Rookie of the Year.

The same practice produced May's admission that the first and second units remain unsettled, with the staff studying smaller combinations instead. Rookie Morez Johnson Jr. was in every other live session that day as Dallas managed his lower leg soreness.

Through four practices, May said, the tempo had been more frantic than he anticipated, which he called normal for this time of year. Dallas has 20 players in camp.

May is in his first NBA season. He coached Michigan to the 2026 national championship before Dallas hired him.

Dallas gets its first look at the new standard against another team in Macao. The Houston Rockets are the opponent at The Venetian Arena on Oct. 9 and Oct. 11, and the opener is a 7 a.m. CT tip. Macao is 13 hours ahead of Dallas.

May called Houston elite defensively on Wednesday.

"A number of things. I mean, first and foremost, to see where we are against a team like Houston. It's different to play against. It's elite defensively. It has some unique parts," May explained. "Just more lessons that we can refer back to, and also, more than anything else, just continue to learn more about our team."

The first home game of the preseason is Oct. 14 against the New Orleans Pelicans.