Jokic, SGA, Wemby, Luka, Ant, Kawhi have all had injuries this season but are still on track to play just over 65 games. People are kidding themselves if they don’t think this extra effort is because of the risk of missing awards. They would all have rested a lot more if not for this limit.

I think it’s good that new players get a chance to make All NBA instead of voters going “well yeah (future Hall of Famer) played 55 games, but come on, it’s (future Hall of Famer) we have to include him”

Maybe but it really screws up awards — Cade won’t make All NBA now because of it, which is preposterous: simple solution make it 65 games OR 2,000 minutes.

Cade and Luka are all over 2,000 minutes. Jokic and SGA are < 200 away from it.

At a 33 min/game clip, that’s 60 games.

The point was to combat load management, this would still achieve that — the same players who sit out for rest aren’t the ones putting in 35+ minutes.

EDIT: after reading through the thread, we’re all debating symptoms and consequences of the actual problem: 82 games in the modern NBA is simply too taxing on players bodies. It ain’t the 90s, where half the game players just stood around. The proliferation of full court pressing with the already insane pace has taken things over the top.

When ballot time comes, and 6 of the top 10 guys are at the fringe of making the cutoff, it’s emblematic of a fundamentally broken product.

Idk man, I feel like you can let voters decide how much GP matters instead of taking away their choice.

Player r/nba likes: 65 game sucks for the league why do we even have this

Player r/nba dislikes: 65 game rule is amazing and keeps the awards healthy

Fuck it, go back to total points, rebounds, etc instead of average. Then see who is available all of a sudden.

It’s supposed to be a subjective vote. It really doesn’t make sense why 64 games of one player has to automatically be worse than everyone who plays 65+.

If you want to start adding restrictions, you might as well just make the whole thing based on numbers. Top-15 in EPM with 65+ games played.

the only time people who get outraged over it is when it affects their star player or players they like

Many of us were saying it was a stupid rule when it was first announced.

Giving awards to less deserving players is dumb.

Nah.

Cade Cunnigham is having a 1st or minimum 2nd team All-NBA season, he’s been the best player on the East 1 Seed and he’s played almost every game for this team. He’s been one of the highlight and standout players in the NBA this year.

Now, at the very end of the season, a freak injury that gave him a collapsed lung is gonna make him miss the last few weeks. Despite the entire rest of the season he’s played and getting his team the 1 seed, now suddenly he’s a bum because he isn’t going to have a (65) next to his name by four games. Sorry bro, your elite season where you were an MVP candidate no longer counts because you missed our arbitrary made-up cutoff by 4 games.

And bums like OP are going to tell me that’s a good rule? It’s one of the most asinine rules they’ve ever implemented. Cade isn’t load managing, his fucking LUNG COLLAPSED.

I’m not even a Pistons fan and It’s downright infuriating watching smug r/nba users gaslight me into thinking this rule is good for the fan experience. I want to see the best players win the awards. Get rid of All-NBA entirely if it’s going to just be full of guys who only get in on technicalities.

Let the voters make the nuanced decision based on games played like they’ve ALWAYS DONE. This has never been a problem and 94% of guys who have ever made all-nba 1st team have played 65+ games.

What’s funny is that the same people on here will say:

• It’s ridiculous that people pay good money to go to games with their families only to have the stars not play

as well as

• We should lower the minimum amount of games played for stars to earn awards - they shouldn’t need to play all the time

The dissonance is fascinating.

You wanna tell me a guy can average 30 pts and a triple double on a top seed and be ineligible if he misses 18 games?

But if it’s just 17 he’s the MVP?

Makes totally sense. All the upvotes are absolutely hilarious. The rule is making the awards less legit.

Guys, if a voter can say that 65 games of X were enough to convince me or not, then the same logically applies to 64 games.

The 65 game rule is horrible. Having an arbitrary cut-off is stupid. Letting voters take care of who should make it is the perfect thing to leave to a voter. Everyone has their own opinion on how much a player should play in order to qualify. Micah Parsons was an All-Pro 1st Team this season despite tearing his ACL in Week 14. If a player has played 64 games and had a substantially better season than someone who played 65, the first player should get the nod.

Additionally having this hard cut-off incentivizes players to rush back, especially when $50M is left up to whether you get these awards or not.

It’s terrible for the league. I’m not even a fan of Cade Cunningham or the Detroit Pistons, but he absolutely deserves All-NBA First Team.

A freak injury like a collapsed lung something completely out of his control shouldn’t erase what he did all season. He carried that team from start to finish and was on pace to miss only about 7–8 games, which is better than most top players in the league.

And that’s what makes this even worse missing games has always been part of the criteria, not some hard cutoff that completely disqualifies you. Look at Joel Embiid in the 2020–2021 season he missed 31 games and still finished second in MVP voting, made All-NBA Second Team, and All-Defensive Second Team. Availability mattered, sure, but it didn’t override actual performance.

And now, because of a last-minute freak injury in the final stretch of the season, he’s not even eligible for an All-NBA team? That’s just wrong. It completely undermines what these awards are supposed to represent.

This is the argument that is constantly being shoved down our throat to like this rule and it won’t work. Cade doesn’t play for my team and I’m not sure if I even “like” him. But one of the big stories of the season is his ascension and the corresponding rise of the Pistons. If he isn’t on an All NBA team how is this season to be remembered. If Wemby isn’t DPOY and isn’t all NBA, is that legitimate then? We just give it to Chet by default?

I get that players should play but penalizing the players with this silly rule isn’t the solution. These 2 things can be true at the same time

Do better, make better rules

Should be 75

I think it should be lowered to 60 or maybe based on minutes played bc of how rigorous back to backs can be and how long the season is, occasional forced rest is good for injury prevention, but I agree you can’t make an MVP level impact if you aren’t playing

Nah, it’s stupid and so is anyone who thinks it was necessary.

Lol Redditors really can’t understand the concept of nuance

No, it’s silly to try to legitimize subjective awards that carry vague standards by putting arbitrary objective parameters on the voting.

If Wilt Michael Wemby comes along and scores 120 points every game leading his team to 64-0, then gets undercut by Lu Dort and misses the final 18 games, is Dort the MVP?

It’s great until your team gets screwed by being forced to pay a guy more and fucking up the cap space cuz he made 3rd all NBA off of technicality. With old CBA, it would be okay. New CBA + these rules are just gonna really fuck over teams that built through the draft, watch

Just a terrible rule all around

It’s highlighting that our voters cannot vote efficiently, and implementing this rule creates an inefficient outcome

For example, you can’t vote Wemby is he plays 64 but you CAN vote if Zubac plays 66 games. Obviously if it came down to either, Wemby is the correct choice

I think it’s stupid as shit considering all the players we’ve seen try to come back too early or play injured because this has a material effect on their contracts. Somebody is going to tear a hamstring or something trying to play 65 when they should have played 62 for this arbitrary bullshit

but I’ve always said that, never changed because suddenly Ant might miss out

65 game rule is one of the two unquestionably good things Silver has ever done. Voters are not to be trusted, they need that privilege ripped away from them viciously.

You are contributing nothing to your team if you aren’t playing.

I feel like the incentives have potential to be a bit muddled. Management might be incentivized to hold players from reaching the game requirements in order to avoid higher wages that they would be entitled to.

That said, idk all the cap and salary rules and if this would actually have an impact.

Are players playing more because of the rule? What star player has this increased their games played per season?

The problem is the awards aren’t going to guys who play 82 games, it’ll go to guys much worse who play 70 games.

No

It feels like correcting for a problem that isnt there. Jokic didnt win in 2023 cause he wasnt trying fir the last couple games cause the had locked up the one seed so voters were already taking games played into account. Having a hard number too it feels like it’ll just cause more problems and ignore the context of some player’s season.

Yup very great. I want Jalen Duren making an All NBA spot over Cade and Maxey so he can get a max extension. Please give him a ²⁴¹⁄₅ contract.

I fuggin love it

All fun and games until Bones Hyland is the defacto MVP

You should be disqualified from MVP, but no reason why you can’t make an all NBA third team just because you played 64 games instead of 65.

Agree. If you miss that much time, you should really qualify. Availability is crucial for most teams. And it’s good for the league. 

This wouldn’t be a problem is the NBA started focusing on totals instead of per game averages. The only league that does this.

NFL, MLB, NHL all measure statistics based on totals - yards, touchdowns, home runs, RBIs, goals, etc. No one cares if you averaged 120 rushing yards per game if you only played in 7 games.

I think it should be a requirement for MVP or first team all NBA. But 60 games of (for example) Jokic is still worthy of a second or third team nod, imo.

the best player is the best player…no matter how many games he plays.

LeBron doesn’t get less good because he played 40 games healthy instead of 65 banged up. Steph doesn’t make less 3s. Jokic doesn’t forget how to get an assist.

you don’t determine the best artist by who has released the most music. Lauryn Hill has been eating off ONE album for 30 years and you’d be hard pressed to name 10 artists better than her.

I agree, but my ideal scenario would be to cut the season down as well. 70 game season with a 54 game requirement would be better. Spread the season out a bit. Missing 3 weeks due to injury shouldn’t result in a dozen missed games

If the awards is a screenshot of the regular season, then it makes a lot of sense. Too many stars are missing too many games in the nba. That’s an issue and that issue should be reflected in this weird award season. I’m curious if the league had a record amount of all stars this year considering how many injury replacements the league had to make. Do something to make the nba superstars play over 75% of the games, dont just allow stars missing >27 games the norm

Nah, voters were taking into account games played anyway. Take it out and let the voters decide im9

Fuck it, go back to total points, rebounds, etc instead of average. Then see who is available all of a sudden.