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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - MARCH 27: Cade Cunningham #2 of the Detroit Pistons and Anthony Edwards #5 of the Minnesota Timberwolves look on in the first quarter at Target Center on March 27, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Timberwolves defeated the Pistons 106-91. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images)
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Starting in 2023, the NBA began requiring players to appear in at least 65 games—and play 20-plus minutes in at least 63 of those—to be eligible for certain end-of-season awards such as Most Valuable Player, Defensive Player of the Year or the All-NBA teams.
This year, it's backfiring about as hard as possible.
LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetekounmpo are among the stars who aren't even eligible for those honors this season. Curry and Antetokounmpo have played in fewer than 40 games each, so they likely wouldn't be in contention for awards anyway. But the 65-game requirement is coming down to the wire for a few players.
Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards is the latest to fall victim to it. He missed his 17th game of the season on Thursday and played only three minutes in another, which doesn’t count toward the 65-game minimum. Edwards, who has made the All-NBA second team each of the past two years, is now ineligible for a three-peat.
Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham is in the same boat. Cunningham, who seemed like an All-NBA lock for most of the season, has played in 61 games. He'd have to play in four of the Pistons' final five regular-season games—even though they've effectively clinched the No. 1 seed in the East—to qualify for postseason awards.
The Pistons announced Thursday that Cunningham would reevaluated in a week as he recovers from a collapsed lung. The regular season ends next Sunday. You can do the math from there.
The good news is that Philadelphia 76ers guard Tyrese Maxey recently returned from a finger injury and just played his 64th game, so he should sneak past the 65-game line. The bad news is that Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić might be joining Cunningham and Edwards rather than Maxey in terms of award eligibility.
Will Luka Make It Back In Time?
Dončić seemed like a first-team All-NBA lock until Thursday, when he left the Lakers' blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder with a hamstring injury.
The Lakers are locked into the top six of the West, so they're guaranteed a playoff spot. Dončić has two-plus weeks to recover before the playoffs begin. But Thursday was only Dončić's 64th game of the season. If he misses the rest of the regular season to recover for the playoffs, he will be ineligible for MVP and All-NBA.
Based on how Dončić looked after the injury, it's hard to imagine he's back in less than a week-and-a-half, even if that's the difference between qualifying for postseason awards or not. The Lakers have to be fully focused on getting him healthy for the playoffs.
Edwards, Cunningham and perhaps Dončić all falling short of the 65-game requirement blows open the All-NBA race even further than expected.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson and Kevin Durant have all played in 65-plus games and are virtual All-NBA locks. Nikola Jokić, Kawhi Leonard and Victor Wembanyama, all three of whom have played in 61 games to date, should also earn All-NBA nods if they play four more games each.
Beyond that, Fred Katz of The Athletic had Dončić, Edwards, Tyrese Maxey, Jalen Johnson and Jamal Murray as his other five locks. He floated Deni Avdija, Devin Booker, James Harden, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Duren, Chet Holmgren and Derrick White as candidates for those other two open spots.
Edwards and Dončić might turn two of those into four. And as Dončić perhaps proved Thursday, Jokić, Leonard and Wembanyama are one fluke injury away from opening another All-NBA spot.
Wembanyama is also the runaway favorite for Defensive Player of the Year. He’s actually played in 62 games for awards purposes since the NBA Cup final counts toward his total, so he just needs to play in three of the Spurs' final six games. But if he somehow fell short for the second straight year, the DPOY race would get blown wide open.
Who Stands To Benefit?
As we’ve written a few times, Duren has the most at stake over the next few weeks.
If he makes an All-NBA team, the Detroit Pistons will be allowed to offer him a five-year max contract this summer beginning at 30% of the salary cap. If he doesn't make an All-NBA team, the Pistons can only offer him a five-year max deal beginning no higher than 25% of the salary cap.
Holmgren could have negotiated that designated-player language into the max contract extension he signed this past offseason—after all, his teammate Jalen Williams did. But Holmgren's injury history took away some of his leverage in negotiations, even though he did just help the Thunder win their first championship since they moved to OKC.
Instead, Holmgren’s contract is just a normal 25% max extension with zero chance of moving up to 30%. That takes some of the anticipation out of the All-NBA race this year for the Thunder, particularly since J-Dub is ineligible due to missed games.
Duren did earn his first All-Star nod this season his own accord, but no one in their right mind would argue that he's one of the 15 or even 20 best players in the NBA. (The Ringer currently has him 24th; B/R has him 28th.) If the 65-game minimum didn't exist, his All-NBA chances would likely be far more negligible than they are right now.
Can voters really not be trusted to decide whether 64 games from Dončić are more valuable than 70-plus games from players like Duren? Especially when nearly $50 million is at stake for Duren? Are any voters excited to decide whether he gets that extra payday mostly due to the volume of stars who've been disqualified for awards?
The National Basketball Players Association, which did agree to the 65-game minimum as part of the latest collective bargaining agreement, recently used Cunningham as the impetus to call for change.
"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," a union spokesperson said, per ESPN. "Since its implementation, far too many deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota."
If Dončić also misses the rest of the season and falls one game short of eligibility, expect those calls for reform to become much, much louder.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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This article was originally published on Forbes.com
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