To qualify as the league’s per-game scoring leader, a player must play in at least 58 games. However, to be eligible for any NBA postseason award — MVP, Rookie of the Year, All-NBA, etc. — there is no minimum number, it’s left up to the individual voter to decide.
That likely will change in the new NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement with the hope of getting star players to play more games, reports Shams Charania at The Athletic.
The two sides are trying to agree on a number, according to the report.
What would a games played minimum change? Not much.
First, as Chris Paul and CJ McCollum pointed out in the negotiations Friday (as Charania reported), the team and their medical staff — driven by analytics and monitoring — often sit players. While fans tend to lay “load management” at the feet of the player (and there are some players with their own medical teams who make that call), more of it is driven by teams than not. The ultimate aim is to keep players healthy, especially for the playoffs, but that has had mixed results.
Second, voters already games played into account. In 2021, Nikola Jokić beat out Joel Embiid for MVP partly because he played in 72 games to Embiid’s 51 (only playing 31 games another season cost Embiid Rookie of the Year). How much different voters weigh games played varies, but it already is a factor and a player who gets on the court for fewer than 60 games has a much tougher time winning any postseason award than someone who plays more than that.
But any step toward getting the NBA’s best players on the court more is a good thing.
