By Charlie Commeret
As the National Basketball Association season comes to a close and the playoffs are near, the race for the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award has heated up as it becomes a nail-biter toward the end of the regular season. However, among NBA fans, controversy has started to pile up as several of the MVP candidates are on the verge of missing out on the award due to the 65-game minimum requirement for postseason awards.
MVP leader Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs has climbed all the way to No. 1 according to NBA.com. But he must play six out of the last eight games to qualify for the MVP, which, barring any injury, should be attainable.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the OKC Thunder (last year’s MVP winner) sits at 62 games with seven games to go for the Thunder, as well as Luka Doncic, who sits at No. 4 in the rankings as of March 27.
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets, slotted at the No. 3 spot, is currently at 60 games played and must play in five more games in order to qualify for the MVP.
The new 65-game rule has sparked some outrage among fans as Cade Cunningham, who has currently played 61 games, suffered a season-ending collapsed lung injury last week and will not be eligible for postseason awards, including MVP, or making an All-NBA team. This season, Cunningham is averaging 24.5 points a game along with 9.9 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game while shooting 46.1 % from the field and 34% from the 3-point line in a career season for the two-time all-star.
The 65-game minimum was put into place because of the issue of load management and teams resting their star players. NBA fans for years have been critical of players sitting out games as precautionary action to get them through the grind of the 82-game regular season with minimal wear and tear on the body.
However, fans want to see the starting players play, and it can be disappointing to see your favorite player sit out in a game you paid your hard-earned money to see live.
The critics of this rule argue that it doesn’t take into account players with legitimate long-term or nagging injuries who are unable to play and are close to the 65-game requirement. Several players like Cade Cunningham, Tyrese Maxey, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Edwards, and many others who are in danger of missing the 65-game minimum, but based on the per-game numbers and total impact this season, deserve All-NBA honors yet could be denied.
Former NBA players like DeMarcus Cousins, Gilbert Arenas, and Kenyon Martin have publicly expressed their displeasure with the requirement and believe all these players deserve their spot in the MVP race or on an All-NBA team.
The question is what should the NBA do to fix this problem. Some people have suggested lowering the minimum games played to 58 or 60 games to include more deserving players in postseason honors. Some have expressed that the NBA should just get rid of the 65 game rule and leave the voters to subjectively factor in everything when discussing these awards.
Overall, it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out and what the league decides to do about it, although NBA commissioner Adam Silver put out a statement saying, “I’m not ready to say it’s not working… There’s always new issues, but I’m not ready to say… that because there may be a sense of unfairness for one player, that means the rule doesn’t work.” Even though the rule has reduced load management throughout the league, the league is still experiencing pushback because some of the league’s top stars will be left out of postseason honors.
