NBA Season 2025-26

[Who]

From ESPN - they did a poll on MVP as well as the Rookie of the Year. Here the MVP results.

In a poll of 100 NBA media members conducted Monday through Wednesday, Gilgeous-Alexander leads our ballot with only 10 days left in the regular season.

NBA MVP straw poll 3.0: Full results
Name   TEAM   1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   Total votes Total points

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander   OKC   88   9   3   0   0   100   958

Victor Wembanyama   SA   8   63   19   9   1   100   644
Nikola Jokic   DEN   3   20   52   23   1   99   500
Luka Doncic   LAL   0   6   24   59   8   97   347

Jaylen Brown   BOS   1   2   2   7   68   80   123

Kawhi Leonard   LAC   0   0   0   1   14   15   17
Donovan Mitchell   CLE   0   0   0   1   5   6   8
Jalen Brunson   NY   0   0   0   0   1   1   1
Anthony Edwards   MIN   0   0   0   0   1   1   1
Tyrese Maxey   PHI   0   0   0   0   1   1   1

Voters were told to leave off Cade Cunningham as he was unlikely to qualify due to lack of games played.

It's also important to note that voters were instructed to leave Pistons All-Star guard Cade Cunningham off their ballots after the collapsed lung he suffered last month probably ended his regular season at 61 games played.

The consensus among the 100 media members polled was that Cunningham would've landed anywhere from third to fifth, probably cutting into the vote totals for Jokic and Doncic but not doing much to change the tenor of the race between Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama.

[CptZoogs]

Anthony Edwards is no longer eligible for NBA postseason awards after missing the Minnesota Timberwolves' 113-108 loss to the Detroit Pistons due to illness.

Edwards has played in 59 games, though only 58 count for the league's record of games. The Wolves have six games remaining in the season.

So even if he plays the remaining 6 games, gets to 65 games played, he will still be ineligible because one of those games does not count. Presumably because he did not play enough minutes before leaving injured / ejected.

Yeah, one game he played only 3 minutes. Left with injury. Missed next 4 games. Early in the season. 3rd game of the season.

This is ridiculous. Ruling guys eligible or ineligible over 1 game.

What would you propose instead of a bright-line rule?

Why not start with a points based score for each award slot, then weight the scores based on the proportion of potential minutes played (to account for situations where a player tries to suit up, but leaves early due to injury or ejection).  So there is no arbitrary and binary delimitation, but if a player misses an excessive amount of time, then it will be an uphill challenge to win.

[Atzar]

Torn, tbh.  I'm fine with the 65-game rule conceptually, but I kind of wonder if it may be having the opposite of the intended effect. 

Look how many players are flirting with the line this season.  Kind of feels like the goal has shifted from "play every game, if healthy" to "play 65-70 games for maximal rest over the course of the season while preserving award eligibility".  Then the maintenance plan blows up for a few players when they get hurt down the stretch and can't hit the benchmark anymore.

[Endless Paradise]

There's an exception in place for players who've played 62 games, but fall short of the 65 game mark, so the uproar about that rule is much ado about nothing as those players can appeal to an independent arbiter. That said, it's really Luka's fault that he hasn't played 65 games. Everyone keeps trying to garner sympathy by saying "well, he missed two games for the birth of his child!" and they're ignoring that he was suspended this past Monday against the Pistons because he got a 16th technical... again. Just a week after getting his previous 16th technical rescinded. Had he played against the Pistons, he's sitting on 65 games played, but instead of recognizing the league did him a big solid, he just went and got another tech again.

[Phantom255x]

The number needs to drop from 65 to 60, period. Or in the 58-62 range, I'm fine with that. On average, there's approximately 16 games a month each player plays. I think it's fair to have a "month's grace" (4-5 weeks) in case someone gets hurt for a period of time like Cade, Doncic, etc.

And lets face it, the rule was designed to have stars play often and to avoid tanking too, but how is that actually working out? Not great. Teams are still tanking or resting stars in the 4th, and there's still some load managing happening on B2Bs or "5 games in 7 days" kind of stretches.

Now that it's happening to a Lakers star player, I'm sure something will be done with the rule to adjust it.

[Phantom255x]

There's an exception in place for players who've played 62 games, but fall short of the 65 game mark, so the uproar about that rule is much ado about nothing as those players can appeal to an independent arbiter. That said, it's really Luka's fault that he hasn't played 65 games. Everyone keeps trying to garner sympathy by saying "well, he missed two games for the birth of his child!" and they're ignoring that he was suspended this past Monday against the Pistons because he got a 16th technical... again. Just a week after getting his previous 16th technical rescinded. Had he played against the Pistons, he's sitting on 65 games played, but instead of recognizing the league did him a big solid, he just went and got another tech again.

I feel like there'd be a lot of uproar though and debate if they do let Doncic get his awards for missing by 1 game, especially someone like Cade who will probably miss it by 4 games due to a collapsed lung issue (pretty extreme and rare) while he led his team to the 1 seed. And like you said, Doncic missed a game due to a suspension. That part is on him.

I was thinking though, no other sport has this kind of issue that I can think of. This to me is an indictment on Silver, he's been looking really bad in recent years and his "solutions" aren't working. I'll even argue some of the other stuff like the NBA Cup... what was the point??

[BitterJim]

The number needs to drop from 65 to 60, period. Or in the 58-62 range, I'm fine with that. On average, there's approximately 16 games a month each player plays. I think it's fair to have a "month's grace" (4-5 weeks) in case someone gets hurt for a period of time like Cade, Doncic, etc.

And lets face it, the rule was designed to have stars play often and to avoid tanking too, but how is that actually working out? Not great. Teams are still tanking or resting stars in the 4th, and there's still some load managing happening on B2Bs or "5 games in 7 days" kind of stretches.

Now that it's happening to a Lakers star player, I'm sure something will be done with the rule to adjust it.

If it drops to 60, we'll see the exact same argument about how people shouldn't be punished for playing 59 games instead of 60.

Honestly, I think this entire idea backfired on the NBA. Rather than encouraging players to play every game, it gave them an "acceptable" number of games to miss. I'd be in favor of either a penalty that increases per game missed (hard to implement) or just no limit for awards but more enforcement of rules about sitting while healthy.

Or, ideally, a reduction in games per season that removes some of the reasons that players sit (along with harsher penalties for sitting while healthy). That'll probably never happen, though.

[Phantom255x]

The number needs to drop from 65 to 60, period. Or in the 58-62 range, I'm fine with that. On average, there's approximately 16 games a month each player plays. I think it's fair to have a "month's grace" (4-5 weeks) in case someone gets hurt for a period of time like Cade, Doncic, etc.

And lets face it, the rule was designed to have stars play often and to avoid tanking too, but how is that actually working out? Not great. Teams are still tanking or resting stars in the 4th, and there's still some load managing happening on B2Bs or "5 games in 7 days" kind of stretches.

Now that it's happening to a Lakers star player, I'm sure something will be done with the rule to adjust it.

If it drops to 60, we'll see the exact same argument about how people shouldn't be punished for playing 59 games instead of 60.

Honestly, I think this entire idea backfired on the NBA. Rather than encouraging players to play every game, it gave them an "acceptable" number of games to miss. I'd be in favor of either a penalty that increases per game missed (hard to implement) or just no limit for awards but more enforcement of rules about sitting while healthy.

Or, ideally, a reduction in games per season that removes some of the reasons that players sit (along with harsher penalties for sitting while healthy). That'll probably never happen, though.

Yeah you're right about that too. I made another comment right above this, I don't think any other sport has this kind of issue with awards and games-played, etc.

[Phantom255x]

Ugh 

https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/2040187516754518125?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic is out indefinitely due to a left hamstring injury, sources tell me and @mcten. He will miss the remainder of the regular season and his status is uncertain beyond that.

It is a Grade 2 injury so he will likely miss the first round of the playoffs

[Neurotic Guy]

Ugh 

https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/2040187516754518125?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic is out indefinitely due to a left hamstring injury, sources tell me and @mcten. He will miss the remainder of the regular season and his status is uncertain beyond that.

It is a Grade 2 injury so he will likely miss the first round of the playoffs

I won?t cheer for injury, but I will cheer whenever, and for whatever reason, the Lakers are eliminated.  Soon enough they?ll replace LeBron with a superstar and they?ll have themselves another era of contention.  Glad at least they?ll need to get past Denver, OKC and SA. Still dumbfounded by the Doncic trade. Did that really happen?

[Donoghus]

Gonna be real interesting to see how the league handles these ?Extraordinary Circumstances Challenges?

[Larry for 3]

There's an exception in place for players who've played 62 games, but fall short of the 65 game mark, so the uproar about that rule is much ado about nothing as those players can appeal to an independent arbiter. That said, it's really Luka's fault that he hasn't played 65 games. Everyone keeps trying to garner sympathy by saying "well, he missed two games for the birth of his child!" and they're ignoring that he was suspended this past Monday against the Pistons because he got a 16th technical... again. Just a week after getting his previous 16th technical rescinded. Had he played against the Pistons, he's sitting on 65 games played, but instead of recognizing the league did him a big solid, he just went and got another tech again.

I feel like there'd be a lot of uproar though and debate if they do let Doncic get his awards for missing by 1 game, especially someone like Cade who will probably miss it by 4 games due to a collapsed lung issue (pretty extreme and rare) while he led his team to the 1 seed. And like you said, Doncic missed a game due to a suspension. That part is on him.

I was thinking though, no other sport has this kind of issue that I can think of. This to me is an indictment on Silver, he's been looking really bad in recent years and his "solutions" aren't working. I'll even argue some of the other stuff like the NBA Cup... what was the point??

My counter is no other sport has players taking off multiple games when they are healthy enough to play. The players and teams did this to themselves. Someone had to put the foot down. I am not a fan of Silver at all but he is right on this. He should stick to his guns. And even with this teams are still sitting players out and tanking like crazy. This rule will not go away. And I?m all for it.

[SparzWizard]

Ugh 

https://x.com/ShamsCharania/status/2040187516754518125?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic is out indefinitely due to a left hamstring injury, sources tell me and @mcten. He will miss the remainder of the regular season and his status is uncertain beyond that.

It is a Grade 2 injury so he will likely miss the first round of the playoffs

I won?t cheer for injury, but I will cheer whenever, and for whatever reason, the Lakers are eliminated.  Soon enough they?ll replace LeBron with a superstar and they?ll have themselves another era of contention.  Glad at least they?ll need to get past Denver, OKC and SA. Still dumbfounded by the Doncic trade. Did that really happen?

Sucks for injury but agreed with cheering for LAL losing whatever means possible. Next thing u know LeBron will demand for Steph Curry to LA.

Can't believe Nico made that trade. Gross

[Moranis]

The league tried to fix a problem but didn't actually fix the problem and then created a whole bunch of other problems.  Ive been saying this since they implemented this rule. It was dumb then, is dumb now, and will be dumb until they get rid of it. 

[Larry for 3]

The league tried to fix a problem but didn't actually fix the problem and then created a whole bunch of other problems.  Ive been saying this since they implemented this rule. It was dumb then, is dumb now, and will be dumb until they get rid of it.

Players have no one to blame but themselves. Player empowerment era is long over.