Cade Cunningham made his highly anticipated return to the court last night and still has an outside chance of making the All-NBA team because of it.
Cunningham has now appeared in 62 games, so he won’t be able to get to the minimum 65-game mark, but according to ESPN’s Vince Goodwill, he could still have a backdoor:
Sources: Cunningham expected to play vs. Bucks— plus if he plays 64 games, he could apply for “extraordinary circumstances challenge” which means an arbitrator could decide that he qualifies for All-NBA https://t.co/8LOm4owVvk
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) April 8, 2026
The “extraordinary circumstances challenge” has already been kicked around as an idea for Luka Doncic and Victor Wembanyama, who also suffered late-season injuries that could leave them just shy of the minimum mark.
These are three of the best players in the NBA, guys who have carried their teams to top seeds in their respective conferences, so it’s hard to discuss this season without mentioning their impact.
It will be interesting to see if the NBA does the right thing by them or clings to its pedantic rule.
The NBA needs to let voters use their common sense
I’ve already given my opinion on the 65-game rule, and I don’t like it, as I don’t like mandatory minimums that take common sense away from judges and voters.
Those who vote for the All-NBA teams are smart enough to understand the difference between playing 64 games and playing 40, and outside of 1-2 players, it’s never been an issue historically.
The rule was put in place after Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard made All-NBA teams after playing fewer than 60 games, but if voters felt their impact warranted that, then I am ok with it. It's also not something that has come up much overall.
Cade Cunningham was the best player on the best team in the Eastern Conference, and even though his team kept winning without him, his impact on this season is obvious and won’t be any less if he plays 64 games instead of 65.
The only thing these minimums are going to do is water down the All-NBA teams, which could potentially have a knock-on effect on the players who do make the team.
Most players have incentives in their contracts for making an All-NBA team, so if we have second tier guys on the team, they are going to be getting money teams weren’t really counting on paying. I’m happy for players to make as much money as they can, but teams won’t be too happy to pay guys who are on the All-NBA teams by default.
This could end up being an outlier year, as we have three potential All-NBA first teamers right on the cusp, which may not happen again, but it’s an issue that is not going away, so it will be interesting to see how this shakes out for Cade, Luka and Wemby.