The One Rule Change in the New NBA CBA That Will Be a DISASTER

The NBA and the NBA player’s association came to a new 6-year collective bargaining agreement to avoid a lockdown and keep the league going without any real contention. This is massive news and let’s quickly run through the big rule changes.

Deal includes In-Season Tournament, 65-game minimum for postseason awards, new limitations on highest spending teams and expanded opportunities for trades and free agency for mid and smaller team payrolls, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/B8GJWeF4cq

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 1, 2023

There’s a lot of jargon about little salary cap rule changes like teams can no longer spend over the salary cap and continue to sign players on minimum salaries like the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers who are consistently able to add talent to their already stacked and expensive rosters year after year with no real consequence.

It’s a rule for billionaires who are mad at other billionaires who are more willing to spend their billions. Real loser shit.

Other people will focus on the new in-season tournament which I think is a pretty cool idea. With the way the media constantly degrades players who haven’t won championships, it’s dope that there’s a new prize for these players to compete for.

The people on TV whose job it is to make fans watch games will shit on the tournament because Richard Jefferson and Kendrick Perkins exist exclusively to make jokes for the lowest common denominator at the expanse of the game they spent their entire lives playing.

But the rule change that is going to have a real negative effect on the NBA is requiring players to compete in 65 games to be eligible for awards.

I understand fans being upset about players sitting out and load management and all that but if you listen to any of the players in the league, it’s the organization and their medical staff that determine when players sit out. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George aren’t choosing to sit out back-to-backs. The medical team chooses the games they aren’t playing in weeks, if not months before the game is played.

Load management has never been a player problem. It’s always been the organizations. With this new 65-game rule, the NBA is giving organizations even more power and more opportunities to be penny-pinching losers.

If future contracts are determined by All-NBA selections and it’s a difference between your franchise player earning $180 million or $260 million then these teams can play the system and make sure their guy doesn’t make the 65-game threshold through shenanigans.

Let’s remember these medical staffs work for the teams, not the players. We might start seeing some shady shit where the team doctors tell stars they need to take a couple extra games off to get healthy but in reality, the doctors are told by management to stop a guy from playing 65 games so the team can save millions.

These teams are run by cheap, unethical sociopaths who just passed a rule that penalizes teams from spending over the cap. We don’t have to assume they may do nefarious shit with the 65-game rule. They’re already telling on themselves with the new luxury tax rule.

We saw some nonsense happen in San Antonio when the Spurs doctors told Kawhi Leonard he was healthy enough to play and Kawhi fought tooth and nail to stay out because he knew his body and knew he wasn’t ready to play basketball. It turned the entire team against Kawhi because the front office convinced the players that Kawhi was healthy and lying.

Again, the doctors work for the teams. The best players deserve to win the end-of-season awards. Games played can be a factor in the voting process but there shouldn’t be a minimum number of games required. We are setting these teams up for more chances to screw over the players.

Cannot wait for Mason Plumlee to be voted All-NBA third team when no other big man players more than 64 games one year.

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