NBPA Talks Cade Cunningham Injury, Eyes Changes to 65-Game Rule for NBA Awards

The National Basketball Players Association is hoping to revamp the 65-game requirement for postseason awards.

Citing Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham's potential ineligibility due to his most recent injury, the NBPA released a statement on Tuesday saying that this is "yet another example of why it must be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries."

The Pistons announced last week that Cunningham was diagnosed with a collapsed lung and will be re-evaluated in two weeks, ruling him out for at least eight games. He's played in 61 games so far and has been one of the been one of the league's top performers, averaging 24.5 points and ranking second in the NBA with 9.9 assists.

Cunningham has helped lead the Pistons to the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference and their first 50-win season since 2007-08. He likely would've gotten MVP consideration if he remained healthy, but the 65-game requirement could leave him out of the running.

Cunningham's agent, Jeff Schwartz, released a statement to ESPN's Shams Charania saying, "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 course of the season. The league should be rewarding excellence, not enforcing rigid cutoffs that ignore context. An exception needs to be made."

The NBA implemented the 65-game rule for postseason awards as a way to curb load management, but Cunningham is far from the first player to have a stellar season cut short by injuries. Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid was averaging a career-high 34.7 points in 2023-24 before suffering a devastating knee injury that limited him to 39 games, ruling him ineligible for a spot on an All-NBA team despite his dominance when healthy.

It makes sense for players who voluntarily sit out to face the possibility of being ineligible for postseason awards, but players who are injured deserve some sort of exception. If Cunningham misses the rest of the regular season, it would be tough to find players more deserving of an All-NBA spot than him.