Imagine All-NBA teams without Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama and Stephen Curry.
No need to tax your brain. There’s a real possibility that each of those superstars, as well as several others, won’t be eligible for postseason awards this season.
The 65-game rule built into the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement prohibits players who don’t take the court for at least that many regular season games from most postseason honors.
The spirit of the rule, if you will, was to discourage load management and tanking. However, the frequency of injuries across the league could severely impact those awards, which include Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Improved Player, the All-NBA teams and the All-Defensive teams.
Jokic will almost certainly not qualify this season, as he’s currently rehabbing a knee injury that will keep him out a month.
Doncic has already missed seven games. Antetokounmpo and Wembanyama are teetering on the brink, having missed 14 games apiece. Edwards (8) and Curry (10) are also in danger of failing to meet the criteria, considering the season is just approaching the halfway point.
There are some minor exceptions to the rule – for example, a player who falls short of the 65-game minimum can also file an “Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge” in an effort to regain his award eligibility. But it’s likely that if a player doesn’t suit up for 65 games, they’ll be disqualified for those coveted awards.
There are also, of course, some financial implications regarding the awards, such as qualifying for super-max extensions.
The flip side is that the league wants to give its paying customers the best product possible. All too often, fans are paying big bucks, only to see their favorite players sitting in street clothes due to a minor ailment or load management.
That brings us to today’s topic: Do you like the 65-game rule for postseason awards? If not, what would be a fairer system for eligibility – should the rule be tweaked or scrapped altogether?
Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.
I actually think the NBA awards are fraudulent based off not including postseason performances. Harden, Westbrook and Embiid never were the most valuable players in those seasons.
The adults are talking Davey
How about getting rid of it and just shortening the season a little ? Not gonna happen unf
Too many meaningless games. We aren’t there yet, but the final 20 games of the season go on forever. How about fewer regular season games and even more playoffs?
this is an unbelievably dumb rule. i STRONGLY dislike it. jokic missing an all-nba team this year would be the perfect example of why it should be eradicated. scrap it altogether.
This is a dumb rule and it WILL impact salary for the worse. Guys get to be on those max level salary bumps due to these awards. Guys that that are more on the borderline will get on the All Star team and All NBA list then command max even if paid slightly less than max they get the bump.
Just the idea that salaries were tied to awards voted on by media just felt idiotic.
Bigger issue is the bonuses the alternatives will receive bc Big Dawgs are not on list
I’m a Bill Simmons fan but theres no way his vote (or any other media member’s) should effect pay scales at an NBA level
Its why many of them (Ryan Rusiilo I believe is one ) abstain from the process of voting as they see its flaws and don’t want to participate in the process
It’s a great rule, even though it will cost some stars their Nth All-NBA appearance every year.
All-NBA appearances are a zero-sum game. None of those five guys mentioned at the start of the article need yet another All-NBA to cement their legacy. Try to be happy for the Deni Avdijas and other first-time honorees who have tirelessly worked on their craft and finally been recognized too. The regular season awards will start to trend younger, and older stars will prioritize their health to cement their post-season legacy. Nothing wrong with that, all rational actors there and good for the growth of the game to recognize some new guys in their 20s.
The rule is kinda growing on me. If a player only plays 60 out of their team’s 82 games how valuable would you actually be? Why would you deserve All-NBA? On the other hand the writers who vote usually take games played into account when voting so it would have to be an extreme case to get a regular season award without playing a certain amount of games.
The problem I see is that with Jokìc, Giannis, Curry, Luka, Wembanyama and Edwards all already in jeopardy what happens if heaven forbid SGA were to miss a big chunk of the remainder of the season. I really don’t like the idea of these accolades being decided on attrition.
Imagine this extreme case: someone can only play 60 games, but his team is 60-0 with him and 0-22 without him. How couldn’t that player be the MVP?
Anybody have stats on how many guys in recent history, before this rule, got postseason awards despite playing fewer than 65 games? (Did someone do the work so I don’t have to?) I genuinely have no idea … are we fretting about something that didn’t happen much anyway?
A part of the “ extraordinary circumstances challenge “ should take into consideration the average games played per year in the last 10 seasons.
For example, Jokić should be able to play only 55 games this season to be eligible, because he’s appeared in 745 games in the past 10 seasons prior to this season – equal to a 74.5 games played per season. Rounding up to 75 Games per season..
75+55 = 130
130/2 = 65.
Of course this rule shouldn’t be applied against a player. For example; a player who averaged only 60 games per season, wouldn’t need to play 70 to qualify.
Keep the rule. Eliminate the back-to-back games.
Silver hates Philly and has ever since Hinkie started the process. He initiated this rule as a way to exclude Joel from any awards…now it’s hurting other teams/guys so they will probably revert to the old way moving forward.
Players and coaches agreeing in advance to only play these older guys under 20 mins once a week or on the end of a back to back is better than missing the whole game altogether. That way they can both play for the fans who pay them, and also get an easier day than a full shift.
Minutes restrictions + playing more games = qualifying for awards + fans get to see them play. Problem solved.
Definitely a tough one, in an 82 games season if you miss 20 games and end up with about 60 played you’ve missed a quarter of the season, so in that regard you shouldn’t be a candidate for MVP, DPOY or MIP.
But with all nba and all defensive teams it should be scaled back to maybe 55 games which represents 2/3’s of the season. Just because it’s not a single player award it’s a place among the 15 best or 10 best defensively, there should be a little more leeway given there.
Everybody knows Jokic is the best player in the league right now when healthy so if he missed MVP for having missed a quarter of the season then fine but he should still be in the All NBA teams if he plays over 2/3’s of the season. If your playing less than 2/3’s it’s essentially you’ve missed half the season or more and yeah you shouldn’t be awarded a top place in the league
It’s a great rule. Sick of seeing the same guys get it every year because of their name or who they play for, and not the product on the court. LeBron isn’t a top tier player anymore. There are absolutely 20 better players in the west. As a warriors fan, if Curry gets hurt and doesn’t play half or most of the year, it’s embarrassing to see him selected for honors. Part timers aren’t eligible for awards or honors or even benefits everywhere else in the professional world, sports should be no different.
Let’s start at the top. The league generates revenue, paid by us fans, to play basketball games. We pay to see the best players. If the best players are sitting out, we don’t get a discount. So Silver did the right thing and implemented the 65 Game Rule.
I’m fine with the All NBA awards having this minimum.
The rule is irrelevant when is comes to the MVP award.
With or without the rule, Bill Walton (1977-78) is the only player to win the MVP with less than 65 games in a full 82 game season. It’s almost as if voters recognize that durability is an MVP prerequisite.
MIP only has one player, Morant (57 games 2021-22) win in a full 82 game season.
DPOY is the award out of the three listed that will likely be affected the most as three players, Jaren Jackson Jr. (63 games, 2022-23), Rudy Gobert (56 games, 2017-18), and Kawhi Leonard (64 games, 2014-15) have all won the award recently with sub 65 game seasons. It’s hard to see that rule not having an effect on future DPOY voting.
All-NBA teams are where the rule is going to have the biggest impact. There is a long list of sub 65 game All-NBA players.
If you go back to when this was first introduced, you will see people agree that it was always a short sighted decision. How about just bring back shaming people for using their vote on a guy that played 38 games, instead of making a hard stance, when there are variables involved
This is absolutely the right take. If the awards were being swayed by stupid people, either shame the stupid people or change the requirements to be able to vote.
I don’t like the rule either. Effectively the NBA is punishing the masses to stop a few who have abused load management.
Let’s say Joker plays 63 games this year, missing 19 with this injury, and doesn’t take a game off for Load Management. Should he be punished because he had a legitimate injury that kept him out just a few games longer than the 65 games played threshold?
The NBA has a real problem right now with guys taking three weeks off for a hang nail, but eliminating guys from awards who were really injured and couldn’t play isn’t the answer.
Truly amazing that nobody cared about this rule when it was implemented but now that the fake NBA fans goldenboy isn’t going to make All NBA, it needs to be changed IMMEDIATELY.
The players agreed to this rule. If they can’t hold up their end of the deal then truly who gives a sh**.
You know actually NBC isn’t bringing in the viewership that we anticipated so we’re just gonna go back and include Turner on the deal. Same logic.
Make it like MLB does, have awards for separate conferences since the schedule is so long. Also the 65 game rule was bound to encounter these types of issues. With the wear and tear on your body and modern science, not every franchise player will play 75+ games anymore. There should be a MPG rule instead of GP. Not every player averages 40+ MPG anymore, so might use a minutes played rule to determine awards starting next season.
The NBA wants superstars. Superstars play in most of the games.
silly and artificial