Cade Cunningham’s Agent Blasts NBA Over NBA Honors, NBPA Urges League To Take Action

Cade Cunningham was recently diagnosed with a collapsed lung, and with only 61 games played, Cade is expected to be short of the 65 games played requirement for individual honors.

This puts the league in a tough situation.

On one hand, they have implemented the games played rule so that superstars do not sit out of too many games in a given season or risk being ineligible for awards.

On the other hand, Cunningham was expected to exceed the games played requirement, has a legitimate injury, and had a record-breaking season for the Pistons(even with the abrupt ending).

Does Cade still have a chance at All-NBA?

According to the rules, no. However, Cade’s agent recently made remarks about potentially amending the rules to make an exception for Cade’s very unique circumstances.

Cade Cunningham's agent, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports, to ESPN: "Cade has delivered a first-team All-NBA season. If he falls just short of an arbitrary games-played threshold due to legitimate injury, it should not disqualify him from recognition he has clearly earned over the…
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 24, 2026

Since Cunningham’s representation stated that his injury is legitimate, he did not miss games for load management purposes, and he was barely shy of the requirement anyways, he should still qualify.

Cunningham’s collapsed lung injury is quite concerning for Pistons fans, as there is uncertainty whether he will be available come playoff time, making this situation even more unfortunate.

Cade’s agent also highlighted that the league should be highlighting excellence rather than enforcing the rigid cutoff without taking into account the context of Cade’s situation.

In addition to Cunningham’s agent making a statement, the NBPA has also petitioned the league with a statement of their own.

The NBPA highlighted Cade’s situation as an example of the unfairness of the 65-game rule and called for it to be abolished or reformed. A union spokesperson said,

“Since its implementation, far too many deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end-of-season honors by this arbitrary and overly rigid quota.”

It should be noted that the NBPA did agree to these terms back in 2023 when the CBA was signed. These rules then went into effect in the 2023-24 season.

Since then, this rule has been controversial every award season. With so much scrutiny on a yearly basis, as well as a new NBPA president in Fred Vanvleet, now is a great time to repeal the rule and ratify the CBA.

With multiple sources now calling for reform, one must wonder if the league has taken notice. If they have, Cade might have a small chance to sneak onto the All-NBA first team even though he is not expected to meet the 65-game requirement.

Cade was set to be the first Piston to make the All-NBA first team since Grant Hill in 1996/97, where he could have been just the sixth Piston to ever receive the honors.