![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/HeatCheck-Graphic-600x450.jpg\")
Ashley La<\/p>\nThere\u2019s a strong possibility Cade Cunningham wins the NBA Most Valuable Player award this season.<\/p>\n
Ashley La<\/p>\n
Cunningham deserves consideration. He leads the league in total assists, ranks fifth in value over replacement player and eighth in win shares on a Detroit Pistons team close to no one expected to be first in the Eastern Conference \u2014 but he is not on the same level as the likes of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Joki\u0107 or Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
However, he has a realistic shot because of a rule, from the 2023 NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement, that limits consideration for end-of-season awards to players who played 20 or more minutes for at least 63 games. Players can only miss 17 games each regular season before being eliminated from contention.<\/p>\n
The rule was originally established to end the load management \u2014 star players sitting out games to get rest \u2014 that has dramatically increased the past decade. Even though players, like Kawhi Leonard, are participating in less load management, the rule is hurting the league more than it helps.<\/p>\n
Joki\u0107 can only miss one more game this season before being removed from consideration, Wembanyama can only miss three and Gilgeous-Alexander can miss six. Each team has about 20 games left in the regular season.<\/p>\n
Notable players who have already passed the 17-game limit are Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and Lebron James.<\/p>\n
This is the first time James will not be on an All-NBA team since his rookie season in 2004.<\/p>\n
One season off an All-NBA team may be trivial to the legacy of a player like James, but these are the accolades that determine a player\u2019s greatness once they retire.<\/p>\n
In the 1996-1997 regular season, Shaquille O\u2019Neal missed 31 games as a result of knee injuries.\u00a0 Still, he averaged 26.2 points per game and 12.5 rebounds per game while ranking sixth in box plus\/minus and eighth in defensive rating.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Neal was deservedly named to the All-NBA Third Team that season, because it\u2019s an honor that should recognize a player\u2019s dominance and value to their team.<\/p>\n
He played no more than 60 games in any year from 1995-96 to 1998-99 and made an All-NBA team each season. O\u2019Neal also missed the mark in the 2005-2006 regular season, but still made the All-NBA First Team.<\/p>\n
These seasons account for four of O\u2019Neal\u2019s 14 All-NBA Team appearances, which help cement his legacy as one of the greatest centers to ever play the game.<\/p>\n
Applying this rule to the MVP award is different.<\/p>\n
There have only been two MVPs who played fewer than 65 games in the regular season, discounting lockout-impacted seasons.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the best example is Bill Walton in the 1977-1978 regular season, who led the Portland Trail Blazers to a 50-10 record before suffering a season-ending injury with 22 games left in the season. The Blazers went 8-14 without him.<\/p>\n
That was the only MVP award Walton won in his career, but his dominance wouldn\u2019t have been recognized under a 65-game rule.<\/p>\n
To bring the argument back to this season, Joki\u0107 and Gilgeous-Alexander share the top two in nearly every category that measures a player\u2019s value: Win shares, player efficiency rating and value over replacement player.<\/p>\n
If Joki\u0107 or Gilgeous-Alexander doesn\u2019t make the mark, that value goes unrecognized. If Cunningham is the healthiest option available at the end of the season, people will look back in 20 years and wonder if health was the only reason he won the award.<\/p>\n
Now, Joki\u0107 and Gilgeous-Alexander must choose between resting for the playoffs or pushing themselves on the court for awards, recognition and contract bonuses.<\/p>\n
In the playoffs, star players need to give maximum effort each game while playing every other day from April to potentially June. Two All-NBA players, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, tore their Achilles tendons in the later rounds of last season\u2019s playoffs: Proof of the wear and tear of the postseason.<\/p>\n
Jokic could play the rest of the regular season and be named MVP, but what if his body breaks down and he suffers a season-ending injury in the playoffs?<\/p>\n
The answer is the 65-game rule is too harsh. Games played should still be considered when selecting the MVP and other awards, but it cannot be the only reason why a player misses out on those accolades.<\/p>\n
Modifying the rule to instead set a minimum minutes played throughout the season would better measure value through volume, as opposed to an exact quantity.<\/p>\n
The NBA needs to understand the dense 82-game regular season schedule, along with the growing athleticism of the game, is causing more injuries to star players.<\/p>\n
The league was right in establishing a rule confronting load management, but the focus must shift to the alarming increase of injuries to its most marketable stars before this rule has the chance to drastically change the history books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a strong possibility Cade Cunningham wins the NBA Most Valuable Player award this season. Ashley La Cunningham…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-502320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}