With several star players, including Pistons guard Cade Cunningham, at risk of falling short of the 65-game minimum required to qualify for end-of-season awards, the National Basketball Players Association issued a statement on Tuesday calling for the rule to be adjusted or eliminated altogether, as Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press relays (via Twitter).
“Cade Cunningham’s potential ineligibility for postseason awards after a career-defining season is a clear indictment of the 65-game rule and yet another example of why it must be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries,” an NBPA spokesperson said. “Since its implementation, far too many deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota.”
Cunningham appeared in 61 games before being diagnosed last week with a collapsed lung that may sideline him for the rest of the regular season. Prior to that diagnosis, he was a viable candidate for a spot on MVP ballots and the All-NBA first team. However, it appears increasingly unlikely that he’ll be able to play in the 65 games necessary to qualify for those awards.
The 65-game rule requires players to appear in at least 20 minutes for a game to count toward the minimum, with each player allowed to count up to two appearances in which he played between 15 and 20 minutes. Because Cunningham played just five minutes in his final game last Tuesday, it won’t count toward his total for the purposes of the rule, which means he’s still five games away from reaching the threshold.
The rule does include an exception for a player who suffers a season-ending injury, but only if he has already logged 20-plus minutes in at least 62 games (including 85% of his team’s games to that point). Cunningham didn’t quite get there.
The NBA’s decision to implement the 65-game rule was more about discouraging “load management” than it was about preserving the sanctity of its end-of-season awards, since most media voters already took total games played into account when weighing candidates’ cases. While it’s possible that instances of load management have been reduced as a result of the rule, it has had some troubling side effects, including players pushing to come back from injuries sooner than they otherwise might have in order to preserve their award eligibility.
A player who falls short of 65 games and misses out on All-NBA honors as a result could also face significant financial ramifications, since the criteria for “super-max” and “Rose Rule” contracts are based largely on All-NBA berths. Cunningham, for example, could have become eligible for an extension starting at up to 35% of the salary cap (instead of 30%) by making All-NBA teams in 2026 and 2027. If he misses out this season, he’ll need to make an All-NBA team in 2028 or 2029 to qualify for that super-max extension.
Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama are among the other MVP candidates who would be at risk of missing the 65-game cutoff if they suffer a minor injury in the season’s final weeks. Jokic must appear in nine of Denver’s remaining 10 games to qualify, while Wembanyama has to play in at least seven of San Antonio’s final 10 contests.
The NBPA also put out a statement today about the league’s player participation policy and the Bucks’ reported plan to shut down Giannis Antetokounmpo for the rest of the season.
Part time league lol
I think 54 would be a good cutoff that’s 2/3 of the season.
The nba should just go to a 65 game schedule…PERIOD
I’m starting to agree with this. The incredibly fast pace of play combined with the amount of games is unsustainable. Your average fan would gladly sacrifice a blowout game against the Nets on a Tuesday night in exchange for better player health. It’s not like load management where you’d show up to the game you payed $600 to see only for the superstars to decide they wanted a night off 30 minutes before tipoff.
The only problem is the league doesn’t want to lose money (which Silver is doing a horrible job at preventing right now).
i don’t think the pace at which the game is played currently should affect the number of games per season. the minimum requirement for games played to qualify seems kind of silly though.
where was this uproar last year when Dunn got robbed of All Defense team?
And when Embiid was gonna win MVP over Jokic again 😂
Total agreement here. Why do the voters not get blamed for picking stars who don’t play in a sufficient amount of games? If the voters can’t be trusted to do that much what are we doing here? Maybe take a look at reforming them instead of using an arbitrary figure that incentivizes players to put their health at risk.
Or, better yet, deal with the tanking issue so there is less incentive to not play in general, chop down on the playoff field (never gonna happen of course), or include additional contract language for bonuses based on games played.
I’m a fairly liberal guy but this is amount of government overreach is ridiculous (you know what I’m trying to say).
I mean… the NBAPA agreed to this…
Oh, yeah, they’re totally at fault here too. Just think it’s a dumb rule all the way around even though I understand the intention. But these arbitrary patch jobs aren’t going to cut it.
The league has to address the underlying issues, and the biggest one here is guaranteed contracts disincentivize players to play, particularly in a league where it’s almost hard to miss at least making the play-in. With a smaller playoff field most of this would be solved, but that ain’t happening as much as I wish it would.
Granted, missing too many games could effect future earnings if teams would be concerned about a player’s injury history, and maybe properly dealing with the tanking issue will be enough. But if it isn’t, then you need to figure out a way to less arbitrarily incentivize playing despite those guaranteed contracts. Bonuses are the best of both worlds because the players can still get their guaranteed salaries while potentially earning a little something extra.
Note that I’m not suggesting the league should reduce guaranteed salaries for the sake of larger bonuses, which would be a non-starter I imagine. But during the next CBA negotiations, allocate more of the pie to the players in the form of those bonuses while forcing the players to give in on other fronts to maintain a balance.
Not saying it will work or that I have any idea of what I’m talking about (lol), and I know there would be pushback regardless any time you could have players playing through injury for monetary reasons. But a) NBPA did agree to this rule so it’s obviously not a red line for them, b) it wouldn’t be as arbitrary as a random number limit with potentially huge financial implications depending on awards won/lost.
It should be 60 games, 15 minutes played per game so star players on minute restrictions doesn’t hurt them
65 games isn’t even 80% of the season. It’s the equivalent of a traditional 40-hour a week worker getting every Friday off. I don’t think the requirement is unreasonable. And the NBAPA agreed to it.
What they need to do is eliminate all back-to-backs. Start the season a couple of weeks earlier or ditch the NBA Cup that blocks out almost a week of scheduling. Drop the silly play-in tournament that costs almost another week. Make playoff games every other night instead of stretching it out for TV (weekend games get higher ratings). For example, last year the Knicks played their final regular season game on April 13. Because of the play-in and extra off days for TV, their first round series against the Pistons didn’t finish until 18 days later on May 1st.
You can cut injuries and fatigue down by eliminating B2B and additional (meaningless; the Cup and the play-in are meaningless as no 9 or 10 seed is ever going to win anything) games.
Never gonna happen. For one thing, it means a lot less $ for these guys.