New NBA awards requirements could backfire

By Sean Keane | Last updated 4/4/23

The NBA's new CBA requires anyone eligible for major awards to play 65 games. That could seriously backfire on the league.

The league seems increasingly concerned about star players sitting out games to rest or nurse minor injuries. So in an effort to fight "load management," players now can't win MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, or make an All-NBA team if they played fewer than 65 games.

For MVP, this is a dramatic solution for a problem that doesn't actually exist. Only one MVP in history has ever missed more than 17 games - Bill Walton in 1978. All of the MVP candidates this season have played at least 64 games, and Joel Embiid should finish with at least 65, depending on when Philadelphia clinches the three seed.

Besides, there's always been an easy solution when MVP candidates miss too much time. Voters simply don't vote for them. Embiid finished second in the vote in 2021, despite playing for the first-place 76ers, because he only played 51 games.

While the new rule shouldn't have an impact on the MVP race, it could be huge for All-NBA teams. John Hollinger wrote about how the rule would have impacted last year's teams:

"Last season, such a provision would have knocked LeBron James (third team All-NBA, 56 games), Ja Morant (second team, 57 games) Kevin Durant (second team, 55 games) and Stephen Curry (first team, 64 games) off the All-NBA podium."

All-NBA teams are supposed to reflect who were the best players that season; not who met an arbitrary standard for games. Awards are voted on by basketball experts. Why is the league taking this decision out of their hands?

It also punishes players for getting injured, something that's largely out of their hands. Curry had played 64 out of 70 games last season before he got hurt and missed the last 12 games. Should Curry have gone from first-team All-NBA to completely off the team because Marcus Smart dove into his leg?

The implication of this rule is that many NBA injuries aren't real, and players don't want to play. And thus should be punished for their laziness. But load management is primarily driven by teams, not players.

If the rule was in effect this year, Damian Lillard couldn't make All-NBA. Nor could Ja Morant, or James Harden, and possibly not Giannis Antetokounmpo or Luka Doncic either.

It's just an award, but All-NBA teams often determine the value of a player's contract. Missing All-NBA this year could cost Morant $39M. We might start to see injured players limping onto the court for tip-off, immediately fouling and going to the bench, just to meet the 65-game standard. Is that an improvement?

Much like removing positions from All-NBA teams, this smacks of the NBA responding to a vocal minority complaining online, rather than an actual issue fans care about. If they really want players to stop load managing, the real solution would be to reduce the grueling 82-game schedule. Instead, they're making rules that almost no one actually wants.

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