The NBA has granted an exception to both Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons and Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers, making them eligible for NBA award consideration despite neither reaching the minimum 65-game threshold. Both Cunningham and Doncic are sure contenders for All-NBA honors, with potential for both to land on the First-Team All-NBA list.
Several players filed for exceptions to the minimum 65-game rule. Doncic appeared in 64 games before being sidelined by a hamstring injury. Cunningham
also appeared in 64 games, but missed 11 games in the season’s final stretch with a collapsed lung.
The exception for Doncic seemed more straightforward and understandable to grant. The star returned home to Slovenia to be there for the birth of his second daughter, forcing him to miss two games for the Lakers. Parental leave plus overseas travel leading to missing games seemed like something the league could grant an exception for.
The exception for Cunningham is a little more puzzling, and I’ll be curious if either the NBA or the Players Association says anything more official about why it was granted. Cunningham missed a handful of games with a hip contusion in November and a couple of games in January with a wrist contusion. He then missed 11 games with a collapsed lung, which is a rare, freak accident type of injury.
If Cunningham receives an exception simply because he had a few legitimate injuries, then couldn’t every player who has ever been injured during the course of an NBA regular season be granted the same exception? What sort of extraordinary circumstances make either one of Cunningham’s minor injuries or the issue with his collapsed lung different from a twisted ankle or a tweaked hamstring?
ESPN’s Shams Charania, who broke the news on Cunningham and Doncic, reported that Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, who played 61 games, also sought an exception but was denied. I guess the rule of “65 games, plus or minus, though, depending on the kind of PR blowback we might receive.”
Look, I’m glad that Cunningham received his exception, because he deserves his rightful place on First-Team All-NBA as the best player on the best team in the Eastern Conference. But he also feels like patient zero for the proof that the 65-game rule is dumb on its face.
Cunningham is averaging 23.9 points and 9.9 assists per game, and Detroit begins the playoffs with the No. 1 seed and is just the third Pistons team in franchise history to win at least 60 games in a season. Doncic is averaging 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 8.3 assists, while playing long stretches of the season as one of the three best players in the NBA. He led a resurgent Lakers team to a surprise 53-29 record this season.
