Cade Cunningham was officially announced as eligible for NBA awards on Thursday after winning an appeal. Cade’s eligibility despite barely missing the standard 65-game cutoff should help push the NBA towards removing the cutoff altogether. After leading the Pistons to an incredibly successful season, Cade could now have a hand in turning the tides on the NBA’s 65-game rule.
Cade Cunningham deserves awards eligibilityÂ
Despite only appearing in 64 games, Cade was 57th in the league overall for total minutes this season. There’s no reason for a player that put in so much work on the court to be punished by an arbitrary cutoff. Consider that Cade played over 700 more minutes than Javonte Green, a Pistons workhorse in his own right who appeared in every game.
And of course Cade faced an exceptionally rare situation that kept him out of games. His collapsed lung was entirely unexpected, but he still fought his way back. In his situation, many other players would have set out the remainder of the regular season.
But Cade instead worked his way back into game shape and started the last 3 regular season games for the Pistons. Despite having the first seed in the East locked up by that point, Cade still chose to play in some technically meaningless games. Those appearances could have made precious memories for many fans in attendance, which is exactly what the NBA wants.
Cade’s approach towards his injury surely gave him more grace in the league’s eyes but it shouldn’t be necessary just for a chance at awards. Considering his production this season, even 64 games of Cade had much more impact than 75 or 80 games of lesser players. Unfortunately, the original 65-game rule didn’t allow for that level of critical thinking or nuance.
The NBA desperately needs a rule change
By opening up the opportunity for Cade to still make All-NBA despite failing to reach the predetermined threshold, the NBA has opened up the floodgates of protests. They were obviously correct to grant Cade’s appeal, but every other non-eligible star player will also have complaints from now on.Â
It’ll be hard to justify and maintain this rule after implicitly acknowledging its flaws in such a high-profile case. I haven’t even mentioned that Luka Doncic’s appeal was also approved at the same time, which is bound to get even more eyeballs on this deviation. Â
Instead of forcing awards voters to cut off player eligibility at a certain limit, the NBA should go back to letting voters decide how much availability matters. Voters have always done a good job of balancing stats and games played for awards; it’s time to let them get back to that. And make sure we get Cade on an All-NBA team in the meantime.
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