[Deade] Draymond Green believes Cade Cunningham should get a 65-game exception if Luka Doncic does: “No one expects him to have a collapsed lung and need three more games, and then not be able to play. The rule was never put in place to punish someone like Cade and what he just went through”
Under the rule, players need to play 65 games to be eligible for end-of-season awards. A game can be counted if the player plays for at least 20 minutes. However, some exceptions can be made.
Their eligibility can be retained provided they played 62 games, which should represent at least 85 percent (62-64) of the team’s season and suffered a season-ending injury. They can also file for the “extraordinary circumstances” exception.
Luka, who went down with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, and Cade cannot appeal for the first exception. Both played 64 games but failed to meet the 85-percent requirement. Their saving grace would be the latter.
Doncic missed two games when he went to Slovenia to visit his two daughters amid a tough custody battle, while Cunningham was on pace to meet 65 games until his injury. In Green’s opinion, remarkable seasons like theirs should not go to waste because of the rule’s “unintended consequences.”
“No one expects him to have a collapsed lung and need three more games, and then not be able to play. The rule was never put in place to punish someone like Cade and what he just went through,” he explained on the Draymond Green Show. “But those are the unintended consequences of the rule. That’s where this gets tricky, because now the process starts feeling selective instead of principled.”