Donovan Mitchell‘s injured knee will hold him from taking part in Monday. And from receiving consideration for NBA honors.
Will probably be Mitchell’s 18th missed sport of the season, guaranteeing he will not play 65 video games. That is the brand new threshold within the NBA’s new collective bargaining settlement for qualifying for awards. That features MVP, Rookie of the 12 months, Defensive Participant of the 12 months and the All-NBA groups.
Mitchell probably would have made one of many All-NBA groups based mostly on how nicely he is performed in his 47 video games. He is averaging 28 factors, 6.2 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who’re a half-game out of second place within the Jap Convention.
However the NBA has declared that they are rewarding availability over skill this season.
The identical is true for Joel Embiid, who was the front-runner to repeat as NBA MVP earlier than he suffered an damage to his meniscus final month. The ineligible record contains former all-NBA gamers Jimmy Butler, Kyrie Irving and Draymond Inexperienced, although Inexperienced would not have made it except voters gave quite a lot of weight to podcasting.
The record will probably embody Kristaps Porzingis, who has missed 17 video games and thus cannot miss one other.
For Mitchell and Embiid, the rule will value them awards, however not cash. That is not the case for NBA assists chief Tyrese Haliburton, who has tens of thousands and thousands driving on making the All-NBA workforce. His upcoming five-year contract extension begins at 30% of the wage cap — as lengthy he is All-NBA. If not, the deal begins at 25% of the cap.
That distinction might find yourself being greater than $50M, which is why Haliburton, who has missed 13 video games this yr, must be very cautious.
Awards are one factor. Chilly exhausting money is one other.
