Rethinking NBA Award Eligibility: A Scaled Proposal

Nikola Jokic's recent injury has reignited the debate surrounding the NBA's 65-game requirement for regular season awards. Many believe some minimum availability is crucial, but it feels unfair for an MVP-caliber player like Jokic to miss the cutoff. As Zach Lowe points out, 64 games from Jokic should still be enough for an All-NBA spot. The core issue lies with the rigid 65-game threshold. It makes players ineligible even if they barely miss it, despite being more deserving than those who just make the cut. Voters can't consider performance below this arbitrary line. A scaled penalty for lack of availability could be a better solution. This approach would still reward players with higher availability. Crucially, it would also allow MVP-level talent to earn All-NBA honors even if they played slightly fewer games. One proposed method involves collecting votes, then adjusting rankings for missed games. For every game below a set threshold, a player's rank would drop by one position. For example, if Jokic played 57 games and was 3rd in votes, an 8-spot penalty would still secure him Third-Team All-NBA. Another option suggests scaling votes by the percentage of games played. If a player played 70 of 82 games, their votes would be rescaled by approximately 0.85. Backtesting this on last year's All-NBA results showed minimal changes, with Cade Cunningham moving ahead of Jalen Brunson for Second-Team. NBA NikolaJokic CadeCunningham JalenBrunson AwardEligibility