Is NBA's 65-game rule doing more harm than good?
The Numbers on the Board crew debates if the NBA requiring players to play in at least 65 regular-season games, logging at least minutes in each, to be eligible for major awards is doing more harm than good to the sport.
Video Transcript
I wanna ask y'all, the NBA 65 game rule will do- more harm than good?
It's a good question, 'cause we're getting close to that point, right?
Shay is out for at least another week.
Curry is now officially- Ineligible for anything a person that can't- ineligible for- So is LeBron.
LeBron.
I think Jokic is one game away.
Wemby's, like, three games away.
So a lot of the top dudes that we care about that would normally be All-NBA or even MVP conversations, don't fit the criteria, and some of them might miss about one or two games.
And that If, if one or two games is enough to prevent somebody from winning MVP or runner-up to MVP, then I think we might have a problem.
But it also is the first year since they incorporated this rule that it's mattered this much, so this year might be the anomaly.
I don't know.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I, I, I think since it's so s- early, and them having a 65 game rule, it's, it's way too soon to say whether or not it was detrimental or not.
Just 'cause, like, we don't have a big enough sample size to be able to tell.
I like I like it, I enjoy it.
there is this thing that because it's so early, but you can try to up- uphold some of your, your games missed.
You can, you know, submit or try to- Challenge it, yeah Yeah, challenge it.
So hopefully that could happen, but I, I do think having things in place to make guys play is important.
Guys should play basketball.
This is, this is a conversation that's been happening a while, where guys not being on the floor, and, and availability is one of the best abilities.
So it has created a conversation.
It, it has us talking about it right now, and it could potentially open up the doors.
Some people have kinda mentally prepared for, I guess, guys to not hit the mark, that now they're paying attention to other guys who could be candidates.
And even if they don't end it- end up winning it, I just think it's, it's, dope to have a more complex conversation around MVP.
'Cause if we didn't have it, what y'all would- we would just be up here like, "Oh, it ain't even worth talking about, 'cause Jokic gonna get it or 'cause Shay gonna get it."
But now, you'll, you'll go and read an article like, "Yo, Jaylen Brown!"
I just seen LeBron like, "Man, Jaylen Brown, besides that shit he said about Bronny- he should be..." You know what I'm saying?
Cade Cunningham has got some recent buzz, and I just think that those names are a little bit more amplified because people are kind of predicting or projecting that maybe some of these guys won't be eligible.
But, I, I don't think it should be strict enough to make a guy lose out on MVP 'cause he played 64 games.
Right.
That would be insane.
But, guys do have to be on the floor, man.
Yeah.
I think that when it originally got incorporated, it was because of the load managements of the world and yada.
I feel like all of the major players that we're talking about that are ineligible or close to ineligibility- Got real injuries are really just injured.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like, it ain't, it ain't no, no sitting because you don't wanna play back-to-backs.
No, these guys have had real injury, and I feel like that might be the disconnect between what the original rule was about versus where we got to.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
'Cause how often do we see, like, great players now load manage?
Like, the guys that we would care for an MVP, it just doesn't happen.
Well, LeBron- I guess LeBron is not playing back-to-back, that's kinda it.
It might also not be happening because this rule is in effect.
yeah.
I feel you.
Yeah.
I, I'm saying might too.
Right, right, right.
I'm saying that, like, very lightly, 'cause I don't wanna shoot at the integrity of Like, like, I don't- Shay probably would still play.
Like, I, I You know, Jokic would play.
Yeah, I think Jokic, for sure Jokic would play, and Shay.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think Jokic would play.
Those two have always been, like, Iron Man, so, like, I think- But the thought of load management probably has just been removed because it's like, you know you gotta play 65.
At that If you're gonna play 65, you might as well just hoop at that point.
Like, you know what I'm saying?
Unless you are Kawhi- Joel.
Yeah.
Those two, they probably, they probably do realistically, like, load manage, even though this rule is in effect.
Mm-hmm.
So, like, um- And at this point, Joel damn near has to.
Yeah, he has to.
Kawhi has been playing when he can play.
He's still eligible as of right now.
He don't got that many games left, but he's still eligible as of today.
Zion has played 30-something consecutive games, so I mean- About to see.
Guy- guys are out there.
I mean, and also the teams I mean, Zion came off the bench for a big stretch, so, like, that was also a big part of him coming out.
Lamelo, the Hornets.
Lamelo, oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So, like, teams are also trying to make sure that they keep their guys on the court, but also, like, we're gonna do it in a manageable way to where you're not overtaxed.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm liking it.
Um- It's a tough conversation, too, because every time you look at the injury report, if somebody doesn't have, like, this hardcore Like, Dylan Brooks got a broke hand.
That's like a set-in-stone injury, that you know he gotta have surgery, you put it in a cast, and he'll have, what?
Four- Four to six weeks.
Four to six weeks.
Some of these i- injuries aren't that simple.
This is like Kamari had hit me and Mike up, like, or he was in your chat like, "P, my ankle, like, how would you gauge it?"
And I remember I went to see, like, three doctors, and they said, "If you break it, we just surgically repair it, put it in a cast, four to six weeks."
But when you see all of these hamstrings and all that, there is no ti- The soft tissue stuff.
Yeah.
Yeah, there's no timeline.
So, like, Aaron Gordon, hamstring, have not He's played in 20-something games.
Yeah.
Peyton Watson is out with So it's like, I don't really want my mega stars If Jokic has a hamstring injury, I don't want him to be trying to play through that- Yeah for a 65-game- Yeah requirement.
Now, I'm also not saying that he should be playing in 15 games.
Right.
But there's a- Yeah, I think that could be a dangerous thing, too, if you think about it.
'Cause, like, right now, Jokic has said he's playing through injury right now.
Yeah.
I don't know if it's because of the 65-game thing, or it's because- Team, like, he- just because the team needs him to play in order to, to continue in the playoffs.
Some injuries you're probably also gonna have to play through.
Right, right, right.
I thought- I think he's really trying to go for the 65-game mark, because he literally came back kinda, like, at the last possible moment- That's true, that's true to make the 65 games.
That's very true.
He's only had, like, one normal Jokic type of game, at least that's what it feels like.
And he- And they lost that game, right?
Right.
Um- Yeah.
But I, I, I'm I was getting to the point that, like, because these guys may be rushing themselves back from, like, the true injury to make the 65 games, they're like Not saying that these are correlated, but, like, when Dame came back from an injury, we was like, "Oh, my God, he, he did it in two weeks instead of four!"
Yep.
And now he's out for an entire season.
It just scares me to think that, you know, whether it be Shay or Dub or Jok or, hell, even Giannis, who's not even trying to get 65 games, but is trying to come back to play for the playoffs- They're like- they could potentially be messing themselves up for the future.
And again, at the last week, we're really getting to the dog days of the NBA, and we're- a lot of teams are still fighting for that seeding.
But it's gonna come down to a couple games at the end of the season where you're going against the, the Nets, or you're going against the Wizards, and them dudes not playing no more.
That- I'd probably rather have my star just sit out.
That's a tough conversation to have, though.
Dame coming back was to win.
It was in the playoffs, too.
Yeah.
Giannis coming back would be to make the playoffs and try to compete.
Mm-hmm.
Athletes are always gonna do that.
Yeah.
You're not gonna stop an athlete from playing on or through an injury.
You know, the guy- th- there are some guys that would probably have played through some serious stuff if the medical staff allowed them.
Sure.
But playing to win and because your team needs you, versus playing for all- for All-Defensive Team, to me, is just two different things.
I, I damn sure wouldn't wanna see somebody trying to play through a nagging hamstring injury to make All-NBA First Team.
Mm-hmm.
That's, to me, different than trying to win a championship.
And I do agree, it could open up a can of worms that we don't wanna see.
Because, yeah, if we have a superstar playing through a hamstring injury, that turns into a calf injury, or a calf injur- inju- injury turning into an Achilles injury- to make a se- 65-game minimum, and now we don't have him for the next year, that's, that's- I'm- the, the trade-off ain't even- I'm not even saying it's, it's, it's the same, but do y'all remember Halliburton was dealing with those injuries, and then the second half of the season, he was having games where he played exactly 20 minutes, 'cause that's- Yeah the requirement to get to 65.
He makes All-NBA Third Team, and then they get to the postseason, and he knows he's playing with the risk, and then he eventually ends up hurting himself.
Like, I think that that It's just a, I don't know, it's a scary place to be.
Because Halliburton wanted All-NBA, and he got it, eventually, but it might have costed him an entire season, and, you know, the opportunity to close out a game seven.
So, real interesting question.
We'll see what Adam Silver and company decide to do.
