I think on top of that we’ll also see a lot of good young players qualify for the Supermax, simply due to how many older players can’t meet games played threshold for all nba. Will make for some weird negotiations if the player isn’t worth the Supermax.

I’d be surprised if the 65 game rule isn’t abolished sometime in the next 3 years. It was a stupid rule to begin with because GP has always been and should be accounted for by voters.

The only player to ever win MVP playing less than 65 games in an 82 game season is Bill Walton in 1978 anyway. I get there are other awards too but again, GP should be weighted at the discretion of the voters.

Only one player in NBA history has won the MVP and played under 65 games or the prorated equivalent. Voters have been able to deal with this for decades and MVP level players have missed out on games played for decades.

That’s a rare coincidence .

Jokic and SGA are still eligible despite it being close for games played.

It’s statistically highly improbable that the top 5 candidates all miss extended time .

65 games is 80% games played . I don’t think there’s ever been a season where all of the superstars missed 20% of their games played

If it means Mitchell gets an MVP, count me in 😎

only 1 player has ever won mvp playing less than 65 games. its not a real issue

Dude had to sneak scottie barnes in

Let’s say Jokic, SGA and Wemby all get a minor ankle sprain and miss out by 1 or 2 games.

All 3 don’t get get an exception.

Congratulations to Julius Randle, you are in the All NBA First team!

The rule does not make any sense.

Shorten the schedule - b2b’s, play in, NBA cup, so much nonsense

Don’t worry, Embiid will be retired by that time and no one will give a shit about games played.

games played has always been a factor in how they determined MVP. It sucks but the most important ability is availability. games played matters. and at this point for cade he could miss about a quarter of the season, which should be considered. i don’t have a problem with the rule

I am beginning to think they need to shorten the schedule and eliminate back to backs. if your saying one year the MVP race will be given to someone who didn’t deserve it because everyone else was injured/missed a quarter of the season, the real problem we need to fix is all the star players being injured and missing so much time.

It’s going to take the NBA version of Shadeur Sanders being a pro bowler

I just don’t think the a player who plays less than 65 games would ever be a serious candidate for the mvp anyways. Even before the rule change there was never an mvp who played less than 80% of their teams games. Being a valuable player includes playing for their team and I don’t think that should change

It also compels players to play when they would otherwise sit out for with minor injuries which is NOT a good thing. A truly atrocious rule that was totally unnecessary (no one was voting for guys who played 20 games for MVP lol) 

Right now, it’s possible for an eligible scoring champ to be ineligible for MVP. I think that scenario’s far more likely at this moment in time.

I’ve always liked the idea of switching it from Games Played to Total Minutes Played. Not all minutes are created equal.

Someone like DeMar DeRozan 💀

This is why the games played rule is stupid and it only exits for teams to avoid giving guys super max deals even though they bring MVP/All-NBA value to the team.

This makes no sense. How valuable are you actually if you don’t contribute at in over 20 percent of the games.

It’s going to be Jaylen Brown this year getting 1st team or some shit

But that’s the whole point and why I’ve been screaming about it and being downvoted. These thresholds only serve to create a bad outcome. Players who don’t play enough won’t be voted for anyway. Unless you don’t trust the judges. Which means we need better judges. Thresholds are just dumb!!!

Will it ever happen though? MVPs always played 65 games

Might not take that long. SGA, Jokic, Wemby, Doncic, and Edwards haven’t reached 60 games yet. Jaylen Brown is at 62. I expect some of these guys to go over the threshold, but if injury chaos reigns the all-NBA teams and award winners could be weird.

I think they lower it to 60 games within the next 2-3 years

If SGA missed 5 more games, prepare for Jaylen Brown MVP

and this is how nonsense like this typically goes

They’ll probably change it again after some situation like that happens

There’s going to be a year at some point in the next 10 years where due to scheer injury luck

as if this rule doesn’t end up changing this offseason.

then the stars should play more. that’s the whole point

The injury thing will have to be a bigger convo. Schedule reduction

It should be.

Same minutes restriction tripped up DiVincenzo for 6th man a couple years ago as he only played 20+ minutes 62 times.

He about to get a letter from the school principal saying he’s not meeting the amount of hours for the school year

MVP, dpoy, and all nba first team.

100%. Everything else is secondary concern.

He gonna be alright, playoffs but won’t keep the 1 seed I don’t think.

Not that any of it matters compared to the west.

They really gaslit themselves into thinking it was injury management (which was an issue, I won’t lie)

If SGA, Wemby, and Luka all don’t qualify for post season awards this year then it’s clear this system has got to

The “problem” is the intensity of the modern game. Defense is difficult because players have to cover the whole court, and offenses are based so heavily on movement. Players are faster than ever and expected to use that, and every player is expected to be highly versatile (you don’t get defensive specialists, small guys who just shoot 3s, or anyone else who’s a one trick pony consistently getting minutes anymore, and young players are training all aspects of their game prior to getting drafted). All of this leads to a much more physically intense game where players legs are under constant strain.

Now that’s not a bad thing necessarily, it can lead to some incredibly entertaining basketball. And it’s kind of an unsolvable problem because I don’t think we’re going to have a league-wide movement to a less intense game like we used to have when to each individual team there is an incentive to play that way (sort of a prisoner’s dilemma problem). The only solution I can think of is to get comfortable with players playing fewer games simply to protect their health

Load management was never a real problem. Guys sit to avoid getting injured. They avoid getting injured, they avoid missing games. The whole point of load management was to increase the total number of games played over a season by strategically missing certain games

Part of it does come down to how the players conduct their training and offseason and lifestyle choices they make. You can’t tell me it’s only genetics why Lebron James qualified for All-NBA every year (except this year but hes old as f) without needing any sort of exception. The man is dedicated to maintaining his body.

I’m sure Cade might a bit since there would be performance clauses on his contract and not reaching the gp threshold means he loses some money.

Considering they’re tied to your contract earnings and HOF viability I would say a lot of people care lol

Players have performance and award clauses in their contracts.

Players become eligible for SuperMax contracts by being All-NBA, MVP, or DPOY. Look at the All NBA teams from last year. How many of them are not making it this year due to games played? How many players will make All NBA that otherwise wouldn’t have?

I like to look at basketball reference all day and I care about awards

I’m sure Cade would care about winning MVP. I’m sure he wouldn’t trade it for a healthy playoff run but these players all care about this stuff and so do fans

If you can trust a voter to properly assess 65 games of a player, he can do the same for 64.

Because of the rule, hes suddenly not allowed to.

I do like Bill Simmons and other’s idea of doing minutes instead of games, but that’s a minor tweak that might not have saved Cade this season anyways.

The rule isn’t actually about awards voting. Silver couldn’t care less whether the MVP went to a guy who played 64 games instead of 65.

What he does care about is stars playing as often as possible because that’s what makes the regular season watchable. So with the prestige and contract escalators that apply to awards, this is a way to disincentivize load management.

Bill Simmons congratulating himself as we speak

Either that or shorten the season. With obviously isn’t gonna fly.

There is no purpose of the threshold. It hasn’t added anything beneficial. Only creates perverse incentives like guys playing while injured. Fucking stupid ass rule.

It more than sucks, it’s genuine financial and career legacy impact to Cade who was definitely about to be all-nba this year.

Ngl it’s kinda important for his legacy.. too much work put in this season to go down the drain like that. Maybe you don’t wanna whine so let us whine for u 😂

It seems harsh, but I do agree. Now hopefully this leads to a reconsideration of the rule, because it does seem harsh, but if you make an exception for this guy because he “only missed by one”, what happens next time when someone misses by one more, then is the rule 60? And so on, till it becomes a mockery of itself.

That would involve a paycut for the players and owners that they arn’t willing to stomach. They want their cake and to eat it too. So we play this game instead.

It is literally defined in the CBA:

A “season-ending injury” is an injury that, in the opinion of a physician jointly selected by the NBA and Players Association, makes it substantially more likely than not that the player would be unable to play through the May 31 following the date of such injury;

If he missed the last month of the season but immediately came back for the playoffs in April he wouldn’t qualify, even if he had played 62 games.

mvp…

all nba are regular season awards. its not that complicated

Nobody’s suggesting Cade should win the MVP this season if he plays 61 games. All-NBA however should still be on the table considering he’d be a lock if he played 4 more games

That’s the problem with the rule. 61 games from Cade could be more valuable than 65 games from someone else but voters can’t make that decision despite doing it before the rule and deciding on everything 65 and up

I think the games played rule should only apply for MVP and DPOY but applying to everything else is what’s the main issue. Cade not making an All NBA team at all this year is crazy. Wemby and SGA are also at risk.

If it’s becoming clear that all of the best players are incapable of meeting this threshold and therefore not getting recognized, they immediately stop losing their meaning. Voters, who are already scrutinized, are going to from filling their ballot with their best picks to just listing as many names as possible.

Ok, and he didn’t qualify for the end of season awards even without the rule (53 games). What is your point? This more proves that the rule makes sense then anything.

It is wild to me. So many people are so upset that players are expected to actually play games for their salaries. 🤦🏽‍♂️

No it’s not. A collapsed lung will mean he can be back in as little as 2-3 weeks based on severity. A blood clot automatically is a multi month hiatus.

It’s basically making players/owners choose between end of year awards or load managing. Kawhi isnt chasing end of year awards so I don’t really think it effects him much.

What does it take then?

I prefer watching the best players play basketball. Availability is a skill too, and I don’t think playing 80% of the games is a big ask. I do think if a player made it to March though they should qualify for the exception.