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Detroit's Cade Cunningham is out for weeks with a collapsed lung and many MVP candidates won't be eligible for the award
Published Mar 20, 2026 • 4 minute read
Cade Barnes
Team Payton's Scottie Barnes, right, of the Toronto Raptors, controls the ball against Team Barry's Cade Cunningham, of the Detroit Pistons, during a semifinal of the NBA basketball Rising Stars event, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, in Cleveland. Photo by Ron Schwane /AP Photo
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When the Detroit Pistons announced Thursday that superstar point guard Cade Cunningham would be out indefinitely after suffering a collapsed lung, the first thought of many was simple: The NBA needs to change its games played rule for award and All-NBA team candidates.
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Cunningham was in the midst of a spectacular season for the Eastern Conference-leading Pistons, ranking second in assists per game, 13th in points and Top 7 in many advanced metrics like win shares and value over replacement player. He would have been a shoo-in to make at least the All-NBA second team, with the Pistons winning 50 games for the first time since 2008, after making the third team last season .
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But as a reminder, the NBA instituted a 65-game rule in 2023-24 which requires players to suit up for at least 65 regular season games to be eligible for major awards including most valuable player, defensive player of the year and the 15 All-NBA spots.
Players must also play at least 20 minutes in 63 of the 65 games per the policy.
Why was the policy put in place?
The policy was put in place because of criticism that too many star players were skipping games too frequently. It was meant to be a major incentive to get the best of the best on the court more often to give paying fans and broadcast viewers their money’s worth. “Load management,” which the Toronto Raptors helped popularize as trend-setters during Kawhi Leonard’s lone season in Toronto, which culminated with a championship, has many detractors.
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But the speed of the game has increased in recent years and with it the exertion on bodies. That has led to a greater number of significant injuries to top players. MVP contenders Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton, along with seven-time All-NBAer Damian Lillard missed all or most (in Tatum’s case) of this season.
Who might not be eligible?
Injuries are going to have an even more significant impact on the award and All-NBA results this season than in the previous years since the policy was put in. Before we’ve seen former MVP Joel Embiid knocked out of the running for not getting to 65 games, Kawhi has usually been out of the mix for the same reason. All-time greats Giannis Antetokounmpo, Stephen Curry and LeBron James barely qualified last year.
But check out how the policy is wreaking havoc in 2025-26: Cunningham is now no longer going to get MVP or All-NBA votes (it should be noted that I have an official NBA awards vote this season and probably would have had Cunningham fifth in the MVP vote and on the second All-NBA team).
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Minnesota Timberwolves superstar Anthony Edwards, who tied with Cunningham for seventh in the MVP vote last season, can only miss five more games to remain eligible, but might not return in time to reach the threshold. Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey, another fringe MVP candidate who had a case for second-team All-NBA, likely won’t be back in time either.
Giannis (third in MVP voting in 2024-25), Tatum (fourth), James (sixth) and Curry (ninth) all won’t play 65 games so will be out.
MVP favourite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander can only miss five more games, same with Luka Doncic, who just scored 100 points over two games. Denver’s Nikola Jokic, a three-time MVP who faces the Raptors Friday night, can only miss one more game, Victor Wembanyama, the heavy defensive player of the year favourite, has only three games of lee-way, Kawhi two, Devin Booker and Deni Avdija one each.
Who benefits
The unintended consequences of all of the ineligible players is others having excellent seasons, but ones which usually wouldn’t result in a major award or a first or second All-NBA selection, could benefit. Eight of the 15 All-NBA selections last year are either already ineligible, or likely heading that way.
The result is those like Toronto’s franchise player Scottie Barnes, who made his second all-star appearance this year and is a former rookie of the year award winner, but has never made All-NBA or an all-defensive team, let alone been defensive player of the year, will benefit. This year Barnes has a great case as the second or third-place finisher in defensive player of the year voting behind Wembanyama (I’d place him second if the vote happened today, but he’d rise to first if Wembanyama no longer qualified) and has deserved a spot on the All-NBA third team even if everyone else was eligible. But the absences could push him to the second team. That will happen with others as well.
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Nikola Jokic can only miss 1 more game and still be eligible for NBA awards
Wemby can only miss 3 more
Cade and Ant will likely be ineligible due to current injuries
Get rid of the 65-game rule pic.twitter.com/i7q5Ts9Ca0
— Lev Akabas (@LevAkabas) March 19, 2026
What’s the solution?
Some proposals to get deserving players back on ballots include decreasing the games played minimum to 62 or 60 games, getting rid of it altogether, or providing more leeway for significant injuries (instead of things like “did not play, rest/load management”).
There are fans and foes of each of these ideas and no clear pathway to a solution. But if the worst case happens and somehow Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic, Leonard, Wembanyama and Doncic, or two or three of them don’t get to 65 games played, you can bet the NBA will be forced into some kind of alteration.
rwolstat@postmedia.com
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