The NBA's new rule of players being ineligible to receive awards if they have not played at least 65 games has been a topic of controversy as of late. Especially with Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid on the cusp of reaching the mark amidst a great season, NBA executive vice president Joe Dumars was in an interview with Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports and talked about the “unintended consequences” of it all.
“You’re always gonna have unintended consequences, that’s the first thing,” Dumars said. “The second thing, you kind of knew that the first couple of guys that were going to get close to that mark, it will become an issue. So it probably was going to become a talking point at some point. It could’ve been a month from now. The number is what the number is. I’m not surprised, [though].”
The face of the 76ers in Embiid has five games left before he will be ineligible to receive post-season awards like MVP even though at the level he has been playing at, he would be the frontrunner. He has averaged 35.3 points, 11.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists, and close to two blocks per game while shooting over 50 percent from the field.
Dumars defends rule as “collectively bargained,” could impact 76ers star
Dumars would defend the new rule from the association since it was “collectively bargained” in the new CBA this past year. He would continue saying that there was a lot of numbers thrown around in terms of the amount of games an individual should play to be eligible.
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“Lest we forget, this was collectively bargained, players' association, signed off by the owners, signed off by the competition committee,” Dumars said. “And we've updated the numbers. We throw a lot of numbers around, and at the end of the day, everybody landed on 65 and said, ‘You know what, that's 20 percent, 20 percent of the season basically. That's fair.' Everybody in the ecosystem signed off on this.”
Besides players being ineligible for awards like the 76ers star in Embiid, the new rule also applies for people looking for new contracts by the end of the season since to get a max or higher contract, there are requirements like being on an All-NBA team. Players like the Miami Heat's Bam Adebayo and especially Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton are among the men looking for new contracts, but are close to not being eligible.
Dumars feels sympathetic towards players that could be ineligible
Haliburton even recently called the new NBA rule “stupid,” which even Dumars mentioned his name as being sympathetic towards. Dumars himself is a former player who was highly successful with the Detroit Pistons as a part of his 14-year career.
“I joke with people and I go, ‘Maybe it's been a while, but I played in this league and I feel for these players. I'm sympathetic to these guys, what they have to go through,'” Dumars said to Yahoo Sports. “If a guy's injured, man, and he has missed these games, and he's getting close to the threshold, I'm gonna feel bad for that guy. Whether it's a guy that's injured a lot, or whether it's Haliburton that it's just a freak accident.”
“I’m gonna go back to my players' hat. I'm gonna feel bad for whatever player that happens to. But I can assure you that whoever steps into that space … it's going to be someone who has had a great year,” Dumars continued. “Every year, these things come out and people say, ‘Who got snubbed?’ But no way can you sit here and say you won’t feel bad if someone misses out. I’ll feel awful.”
Dumars addresses high-scoring output in the NBA
In other NBA topics, the rise in scoring and offense has been noticed around the league, especially from recent performances from players like Philadelphia's Embiid, Luke Doncic, Karl-Anthony Towns, and more who are reaching 60, even 70 points. According to Yahoo Sports, Dumars said there have been meeting regarding that.
“There is no agenda in this office. About what scoring we want to see, there is no number, the true tale of a good game is people the next day say, ‘Did you see that great game last night?’” Dumars said. “You can have some bad 140-point games, that's why I say it would be foolish to say we want ‘that number,’ that doesn't guarantee that you're going to have a great game. It might be a game that people turn off at some point.”
There have been quarries apparently “posed” from Dumas about the balance of offense and defense and if the former is more at the forefront. He would say that “by and large,” having more defense wouldn't hurt.
Dumars questions if the balance of offense and defense is “out of whack”
“The question is posed to each one of those groups,” Dumas said. “Is the balance out of whack? Do we need to balance this more to allow defenses to defend more, to do more on the defensive end of the court? And by and large, people are saying it wouldn't be bad to have a little bit more defense.”
Whether there will be immediate changes is most likely leaning towards a negatory there, since Dumars said that he doesn't want to see an NBA where players hold one another to prevent scoring. However, he can confirm through Yahoo Sports that there are conversations about it.
“You don't want it where the defense can just, you know, grab and hold, and you don't want it when the offense has just this huge advantage, either,” Dumars said. “That’s why the conversation is going on. I can say that much.”