Should the NBA have a games component to post season awards

[Moranis]

With Silver coming out and saying the star players weren't playing enough, might we be headed to an actual minimum number of games needed to be eligible for post season awards and accolades (maybe even the all star game as well).  If they were to put a minimum number of games, I'm not sure what the right amount is.  I'd like to say 70, but that may be a touch to many.  Maybe make it 80%, which is 65.6 games, so call it 66 games in a normal 82 game season.  Have a similar requirement on the all star game i.e. you must play in 80% of the team games (by the deadline) to be eligible. 

I'm not sure if that will stop players from sitting out, but there is often a financial component to the accolades so it would be a potential way to get players to play more.

66 games this year would eliminate Lebron, Durant, Doncic, Harden, Morant, Butler, Bam, Gobert, Draymond and guys like Curry, Jaylen, Giannis, Booker, Paul, and Embiid would probably just make it through.  Those are all guys you hear mentioned as possibilities for All NBA teams, MVP, and/or DPOY so a games minimum would have a real impact on who is sitting on those teams.  You also then wouldn't have nearly the inconsistency in voting based on how many games missed.  There is no question a guy like Tatum makes the 1st Team if there is a games minimum, while there is some question right now. 

[Celtics2021]

I don’t think there should be a particular threshold, but maybe an explicit instruction to voters to more strongly consider the number of games played when voting would be helpful.

[celticsclay]

With Silver coming out and saying the star players weren't playing enough, might we be headed to an actual minimum number of games needed to be eligible for post season awards and accolades (maybe even the all star game as well).  If they were to put a minimum number of games, I'm not sure what the right amount is.  I'd like to say 70, but that may be a touch to many.  Maybe make it 80%, which is 65.6 games, so call it 66 games in a normal 82 game season.  Have a similar requirement on the all star game i.e. you must play in 80% of the team games (by the deadline) to be eligible. 

I'm not sure if that will stop players from sitting out, but there is often a financial component to the accolades so it would be a potential way to get players to play more.

66 games this year would eliminate Lebron, Durant, Doncic, Harden, Morant, Butler, Bam, Gobert, Draymond and guys like Curry, Jaylen, Giannis, Booker, Paul, and Embiid would probably just make it through.  Those are all guys you hear mentioned as possibilities for All NBA teams, MVP, and/or DPOY so a games minimum would have a real impact on who is sitting on those teams.  You also then wouldn't have nearly the inconsistency in voting based on how many games missed.  There is no question a guy like Tatum makes the 1st Team if there is a games minimum, while there is some question right now.

I like this idea. A lot of the games the last month of the season are unwatchable and not a good product.

[pokeKingCurtis]

I don’t think there should be a particular threshold, but maybe an explicit instruction to voters to more strongly consider the number of games played when voting would be helpful.

But say if lebeon just plays 60 games, and someone lower tier like Jimmy Butler or Derozan plays 80

Sure the media is told to take games played into consideration, but won't they take stats and really reputation into consideration some more over aroubd 20 additional games played

[moiso]

65 games is fair.  I love the idea.  It makes the awards more fair and it also discourages stars from sitting out so much.

[Celtics2021]

I don’t think there should be a particular threshold, but maybe an explicit instruction to voters to more strongly consider the number of games played when voting would be helpful.

But say if lebeon just plays 60 games, and someone lower tier like Jimmy Butler or Derozan plays 80

Sure the media is told to take games played into consideration, but won't they take stats and really reputation into consideration some more over aroubd 20 additional games played

What if LeBron plays 38 minutes a game and a lesser tier player is out there for 32 minutes a game in this example?

I guess I’d be more in favor of a minutes criteria than a games criteria.

[Roy H.]

At the very least it should be the 58 games required to qualify for the scoring title.

[Moranis]

At the very least it should be the 58 games required to qualify for the scoring title.

That is fair and Walton won a MVP at 58 games (only guy anywhere close to that low to win it). 

I still think 66 games is the right number.  That is misses 1 game in every 5 and if you can't do that you don't deserve accolades for the season.

[Csfan1984]

It's tough because you don't want players rushing back from injury to get an award or playing 3 mins in a game to get game credit. Voters should already be looking at games played, including with the scoring title.

Missing 20 games and winning the scoring title by two points wouldn't make any sense to give that person the title solely. That's a situation where you award most points scored and best scoring avg.

[Who]

I hadn't read the OP yet and had a different thought based on this title but ...

I'd love to see the playoffs have a player of the week / month type of award given for best player of the first round, best player of the second round, best player of the third round / Conference Finals, with the Finals MVP best player of the Finals.

Edit: Call it the Tracy McGrady award for the first round. But seriously, it would be cool to see some of these guys on bad teams get some small bit of recognition for how well they play in the early rounds of the playoffs.

[johnnygreen]

Adam Silver definitely needs to do something about players missing games. How many games on TNT this season has there been, where star players sat out, making the games unwatchable?

1.   Limit the amount of games missed during the season for rest to 5. However, this is limited to non-nationally televised games.
2.   If a player needs rest for a nationally televised game (TNT, ESPN, ABC), then the player is ineligible to play for a week.
3.   For injuries, there should be a disabled list, where they’re ineligible to play for two weeks.

[JohnBoy65]

The easiest answer to all of this is to shorten the season, but the NBA, owners, and players would lose money. Shorten the season to 65-70 games, and start it at Christmas time. Longer offseason means more rest for players, which means more games played.

[Who]

Link pay to games played.

No play, no pay.

[bdm860]

Link pay to games played.

No play, no pay.

Even though you got injured while working for us, we're not going to pay you.  You think that's a good idea and will work?

[Moranis]

I believe one thing they could do which sounds almost counterintuitive is something like this.

Have a rule that a player can sit out 1 game only 2 separate times during the season.  Any other time they sit out a game they must sit out a minimum of 3 games.  That would immediately eliminate all of the random days off because a random day off would cost a player 3 games.  I'd also allow an exception for the last 2 games of the regular season.  But that is it.  If you take a game off, it become 3 after the first 2 times.