Cade Cunningham Hurt by 65 Game Rule

One thing about this award is that a few of these guys are maybe a sprained ankle away from not being eligible for it over these last few weeks.

The NBA's 65 game rule has been spotlighted this week in the aftermath of Cade Cunningham's potentially season-ending injury.

We don't know the, the, the, the depth of this injury when it comes to Cade Cunningham and this lung issue that he's been dealing with, but it has brought to the forefront once again.

That players need to play in 65 games to be eligible for most of the awards, including the all NBA team, which is something Kate Cunningham seemed like a lock for as recently as a week ago.

The union, your people, ET, your guys over there, they put out a scalding statement criticizing the, uh, 65 game rule, saying it needs to be abolished or reformed.

So stuff like this never happens again.

Now, the NBA was quick to respond with A lot of, uh, quotes from players over the years out who had supported the 65 game.

I think I saw your name in one of these quotes that, uh, that the league people sent around.

There was some stuff.

You did a podcast.

No, no, you and you and Andre Iguodala.

It was you and Andre Iguodala talking about it at one point.

I think Iguodala was for it at the time.

Other players have been for it.

Shay's been for it.

Jalen Brown has been for it.

Um, I'd also point out that the union criticizing it is, That's a little tough to stomach given that this is in a This, this 65 game thing, it's collectively bargained.

Like the NBA didn't unilaterally do this.

Like they, they have to collectively bargain an agreement like this, and the union, even if they say the NBA drew their line in the sand and that it had to be done, they agreed to it.

So when you agree to it, you can't really complain about it down the line.

That being said, um, do you think this rule is worthy of staying?

Do you think it should go?

Do you think it should be revised?

Where do you stand on the 65 game rule?

Uh, I, I was a big fan of the rule because there's little things like low management and guys literally not playing and kind of like abusing, you know what I mean?

So I was kinda into that, but up until you try it out, it's like, like I said with like Nikola Jokic, like he was balling.

Something negative happens, he messes up his knee and now, you know what I mean?

3 weeks, 4 weeks of like a bad diagnosis could ruin your whole year and everything you worked hard for, especially when you're dominating.

Like, when we talk about Shay Gildes Alexander, like shoot, after the 37 game run, we just talked about 33 and 4 without Jalen Williams.

If you had to ask me like shit, that's all NBA enough.

He could sit out the rest of the year.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

I think the perception of reality is like, We, we went so far deep in trying to fix the problem where, uh, I guess, you know, we, we, we thought this little broad way would, you know, kind of make up for, uh, you know, not the individual, you know, the individual things that we, we would come about later.

So, we're sitting down talking about, you know, Jokic, Wemby can only miss a couple of games.

Now, it sucks.

It, it really does suck because you know how hard they work.

Even , um, Kay Cunningham, he should be all NBA.

His contract affects it.

And, um, he worked, worked really, really hard.

I want to see the 65 game kind of drop or, or people implement something where it's like, hey, technically, Like an injury, like, you know what I'm saying , like, well, there, there, there's a couple of things.

There's a, there is a major injury exception that is.

An addendum to this rule.

It's not, it's not a great exception because I believe you have to get to 62 games, which Cade is not at now anyway, and it's gotta be a season-ending injury.

So I, I think there's ways that that could be tweaked as well.

I, I, I do think having a threshold is a good thing because I do think it deters teams from load managing players to 50 some odd games because if you know as a player.

That if you have to meet a certain threshold, you're gonna want to play in these games.

You're gonna want that for the financial incentive that comes with being all NBA or being MVP or whatever else you have worked into that contract.

But there should be the threshold should be reduced.

Now I've seen Jalen Brown say 62 games.

I'd be fine with that.

I actually think 58 is the right number.

58 is the Number that you have to get to to be eligible to win a scoring title or a rebounding title or, or an assist title.

Like you got to play 58 games to get to be eligible for that.

Why not make that the threshold for making all NBA or winning MVP?

Like, why, why not keep it consistent?

Look, 58.

Maybe it's a little low to some people, but if you're eligible to win the scoring title at 58 games, it should be fine by MVP.

I'd also add that any player that plays less than 58 games, you're not getting, you're not getting my vote anyway.

If you're under 58 games, to me, that's not enough of a season to have played to be.

Uh, to leapfrog guys that have played in the 60s, 70s in terms of games that may have a little bit lesser numbers.

So I, I think the threshold should stay in place.

I think it should just be reduced down to 58 games.

Yeah, I like that idea actually, especially if it, if it correlates with everything else like the scoring titles and, you know, assists, steal titles and everything.

I'm into that.

What, what do you think about, uh, Steve Kerr saying that we should drop?

The games from 82 to 72 game seasons.

Yeah, well, I am all for that.

Um, I would imagine your player brethren would not be enthused about giving up, what is it?

10%, 15% of their pay to do that.

But, but, but what do you think about it?

Like, you, you, do you think ideally when it comes to those games, you've been playing, uh, you've been around the league for a while, do you think 72 games will be legit?

Yes, I think it's, it's far better for the league to play 72 games.

I think 82 is way too long.

I think the The season is way too long.

I think games are just worse because of the amount of games that are out there.

I think you could make the regular season so much more meaningful if you cut 10 games off of the schedule, but to do that, you're gonna have to renegotiate with the players' union.

You're gonna have to.

Accept that 1% of your salary is going to be removed if you're a player.

You're gonna have to accept if you're an owner that X% of your revenue is gonna disappear because x number of regular season games are gone, TV dates disappear.

You have to accept that there is a financial.

Fallout from this.

And I, I, I've just never believed anyone's willing to accept that, even though I think everybody would agree, top to bottom, players, coaches, executives, owners, that reducing the number of games is better for the league.

Everybody is just so, so stinking greedy that they are not going to, to be willing to give money back.

No , you're absolutely right because I've been in those, uh, I've been in those rooms before and like it doesn't even make it past like three sentences.

Like the second, although we gotta get back money, people are already fuck it.

Like you, you know what I'm saying?

Like let's keep our money.

But you also got, just got, I guess that's where you play with that, that, you know, that minute, that, that, that game restriction.

They give you 65 games for a reason or even if we drop down to 58, it's like that, that's the minimum for a reason and you get your, uh, quote-unquote 72 seasons, you know, 72 games out of there.

Yeah, uh, I, I'd love to see it.

I have no expectation that it's going to happen.

Steve Kerr, that is a hill that he is going to die on.

Um, look, the game is, the game is so much faster.

Whether the NBA admits it or not, I know they have statistical data that says that injuries are not up, but these soft tissue injuries are becoming a bigger and bigger concern.

The speed which these games are played is at an unprecedented pace, reducing the number of games, eliminating back to backs, eliminating 3 games in 4 nights.

Frankly, spacing out games where you're not having like 10 games in a night.

Like I watch a lot of basketball.

Like I can't watch everything.

I can't watch everything every night.

Yeah, you're not lying about that.

It's too many, it's literally too many games.

And then we say soft tissue injuries, like the people are getting hurt.

Our superstars are getting hurt by these young kids getting hurt.

Tatum was 27 with the Achilles, you know what I mean?

Halliburton's young with the Achilles, and it's like.

You're, you're, man, that pace of basketball, that game is just way different.

And also too, during the season, there's no real time to get better.

Do you understand what I'm saying?

Like, in order to get better with so many games and try to take care of your body, you either have to, you know what I mean, one, sit or, you know, be injured to really get like, uh, you know, individual workouts conditioning, but you're just playing nonstop, nonstop, nonstop.

And I feel Sometimes when a lot of teams, especially the bottom ones, need more practice time to get better, more time to figure out their identity, especially, you know, with new teams and before trades and after trades, you know.

Yeah, I, I would love to see it happen.

I just don't believe that it's going to.