The NBA’s 65-game rule is ‘garbage’ if a player gets hurt, says Draymond Green. Should it change?

Joel Embiid won the MVP trophy in 2022-23 after playing just 66 of the 76ers’ 82 games, the second-lowest total ever for an MVP winner in a full season. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo finished third after playing just 63 games. But because of an addition to the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2023, the NBA requires players to compete in at least 65 games to be eligible for regular-season honors such as MVP or All-NBA consideration.

The rule is in place because of what the NBA perceived as excessive load management with star players. But Embiid’s knee injury has started a new conversation, led by Warriors forward Draymond Green: Are players forcing themselves to play hurt in order to meet the thresholds?

“I haven’t noticed it,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “I haven’t watched the league and said, ‘For sure, that guy’s playing to get an award or honor.’ The hard part with it is the financial component to it. It’s one thing if guys are giving up on an award, but if you make first-team All-NBA, there’s huge financial ramifications.”

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Players are eligible for supermax contracts if they made an All-NBA team or were named Defensive Player of the Year in the most recent season or in the two preceding seasons, or if they won MVP in any of the last three years. Earning those honors can mean a difference of millions of dollars on a player’s next contract.

“I’m not sure what [Embiid’s] contract situation is,” Green told The Inquirer. “I don’t think he would need to be All-NBA this year to qualify for supermax, but say he does — we all know, I think, that Joel Embiid is an All-NBA performer, but because he unfortunately gets hurt, then he would miss that. You get Joel Embiid on a normal max deal just because he gets hurt. That’s garbage to me.”

It’s extremely rare for a player to win MVP playing fewer than 65 games. Only one player has won it in a traditional 82-game season: Bill Walton, who played 58 games in 1977-78, and four others won the award in shortened seasons.

Golden State’s Stephen Curry, who won back-to-back MVP trophies in 2014-15 and 2015-16, said that part of being the most valuable player in the league is being available. But had he been in a similar position, he said he’d have thought hard about coming back just to hit the 65-game mark.

“There are decisions that are tough when you’re dealing with injuries or rehabbing,” Curry said. “I’m one that always wants to come back as fast as possible and have to kind of be saved from myself a little bit. Granted, when I was in that, there wasn’t a threshold or anything that I had to worry about, but it’s kind of inherent within the definition what MVP is. We’ll see how it shakes out every year when there’s these guys that are on the fringe of whether they should come back or not. Hopefully it won’t be an issue.”

For All-NBA honors, Curry wasn’t so sure. Unlike MVP winners, a number of All-NBA selections play fewer than 65 games. In 2022-23, five of the 15 selections would not have qualified under the current 65-game threshold — including Curry himself, who was named All-NBA second team after playing just 56 games.

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All-NBA and MVP awards are voted on by a panel of 100 reporters and broadcasters from all 28 NBA markets, but the only criteria for the recognition is the games-played marker. Green wants to change that.

“If you’re going to put a limit on that, then let’s also put a criteria on everything,” Green said. “Let’s put a criteria on what All-NBA is and what All-Star is, because there is no criteria. It’s just personal opinion. So if everything else is personal opinion, then let’s make sure it’ll be one way or the other way.”