Awards season seems to be on the verge of enduring a major restructure as the NBA and NBPA are “in advanced discussions” regarding a player's eligibility to take home the league's most highly coveted individual honors, per a March 13 report by The Athletic's Zach Harper and Shams Charania.
It was noted in the report that the two sides are inching closer to a requirement of a minimum number of regular season games that must be played by an individual to warrant consideration for some of the top season-long honors, with presumed examples being Most Valuable Player, Most Improved Player, etc.
The specifications at this point in time read as follows:
“According to sources with knowledge of both sides of the discussions, while both sides still need to come to an agreement on the number of games that players would need to play in order to qualify for awards, the two sides do agree on the concept. There’s already one precedent that the parties can point to, where a player must appear in at least 58 games to qualify for the league’s scoring title,” Harper and Charania wrote.
Not only would this proposed rule change impact the NBA's award season, but it could also have a major effect on the ongoing problem that is load management.
These talks come simultaneously with the two parties' continued discussions in an effort to come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement, for which the deadline has been extended twice so far. As of this writing, the league and union will have until March 31 to collectively agree on a new CBA.
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