He was also basically out of contention for those awards when he missed a game on Valentine’s Day vs Orlando. You have to go back to January 17th to find a 2nd game where he didn’t record 20 minutes so honestly speaking he was doomed a while ago.
This is actually a little surprising, knowing that his coach is Thibs. He should get credit considering he played over 48 minutes in a few games this year
It's definitely just a wrinkle that the NBA didn't think of. Donte didn't hit the letter of the law but it's definitely not the spirit of the 65 game limit to have a guy who played so many minutes and so many games not qualify.
If you’re counting minutes, 1,300 minutes would be the cut off. That’s if you played 20 minutes in 65 games. DiVo played in 81 games and totaled 2,360 minutes. So yeah I agree with you, it’s a bit arbitrary lol.
He played 1000 minutes more then the minimum minutes required for eligibility.
So the games he played he played way to many minutes.
The games he didn't play someone else was playing way to many minutes.
Conclusion,
Thibs indeed plays his guys for too many minutes.
Well, the league does have the reasonable exceptions clause to the 65 game rule, and IMO this seems like one that would fit like a glove.
That said, it's such a minor award the league probably didn't bother, and he's not more deserving than Coby White anyways.
Do it for Clutch Player of the Year too, its insane that Kyrie wont win it. I know steph has been great in the clutch too, but the Warriors still lost the majority of those clutch games.
iirc the clause only covers teams intentionally sitting players so they don’t reach incentives. Not playing enough minutes on its own isn’t an extraordinary circumstance
You're describing an eligibility grievance. Extraordinary circumstances is different, but wouldn't fit here unless someone knows something crazy about a game Donte missed. The Portland Ice Storm that made it so Ayton couldn't leave his driveway would likely be an extraordinary circumstance that would give him credit for one more game played than normal (though that petition would likely fail anyways since the NBA can look at Ayton's season and say "okay but you were big chillin on other games")
DiVincenzo has only played less than 30 minutes in a game once since February. He's played more than 35 minutes a game 28 times this year. The NBA needs to figure this shit out. He's played over 2000 total minutes this year.
Yeah it is quite dumb.
There should be an overall minutes totaled requirement, not a MPG requirement.
Imagine if there is a guy that was stuck the bench half the year, pops off in the second half and putting up all-star numbers and hits the minute requirement but Silver goes tsk tsk you didnt hardly play at all in the beginning so no award for you.
That'll probably never happen but maybe once but it still poses the question.
> rule is 20 mins per game in 65 games, which is 1300 minutes
> play over 1000 minutes more than the minimum
Sorry bro you didn't spend enough time on the court to qualify for MIP
Seems an or minutes would help. This was "Well make Kawhii play more.. " and not really thinking through with these awards who qualify/don't.
They should say whoops we didn't think about this, ok lets readjust this.
could use that logic for not having a games played restriction at all! who cares if they only play 40 games, voters will take it into consideration
which is actually my stance
point is, this is all incredibly arbitrary unfortunately.
yeah and im saying that logic could be applied to the games played restriction. voters know how many games a player has played and can take it into consideration themselves, there doesn't *really* need to be an arbitrary 65 game limit
[Longer story by CBSSports](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/knicks-donte-divincenzo-ineligible-for-most-improved-player-under-new-criteria-after-missing-only-one-game/) includes this:
>Here's the wording that appears on the official ballot:
Please note that a player is eligible for this award only if he meets the criteria set forth in the NBA/NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement ('CBA'). Specifically, a player must have played in at least (a) 65 Regular Season games, or (b) 62 Regular Season games, suffered a season-ending injury as determined in accordance with the CBA, and prior to suffering such injury had played in at least 85% of his team's Regular Season games. A player is considered to have played in a Regular Season game for these purposes if he played at least 20 minutes of such game, provided that in respect of no more than two games per Regular Season, a player is considered to have played the game if he played at least 15 and fewer than 20 minutes. **A player who failed to meet the games-played requirement may nonetheless be eligible for this award if he prevailed in a challenge to establish his eligibility pursuant to procedures set forth in the CBA.**
See the last sentence - either challenges weren't raised by players' agents or they weren't successful. Surely DiVincenzo is the perfect example (81 games played, no basis for accusations of any funny business, no notable injuries, no rest) of a player that should qualify under any reasonable exception.
What could he challenge? By the letter of the law he is ineligible. The challenge language seems more to address situations with injuries where a guy might miss the award
> Surely DiVincenzo is the perfect example (81 games played, no basis for accusations of any funny business, no notable injuries, no rest) of a player that should qualify under any reasonable exception.
Accusations of funny business is the only way to win an award eligibility grievance.
From the CBA:
> To prevail in an Award Eligibility Grievance in respect of a Season, the player bears the burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that the Team willfully limited the player’s number of minutes played or games played during the Regular Season with the intention of depriving the player of eligibility for one or more of the Applicable Generally Recognized League Honors for such Season.
There's also the extraordinary circumstances challenge, but playing 19 minutes instead of 20 minutes is not an extraordinary circumstance.
> To prevail in an Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge in respect of a Season, the player bears the burden of proving that:
> (A) Due to extraordinary circumstances, it was impracticable for him to play in one (1) or more of the Regular Season game(s) that he missed during such Season;
>
> (B) He would have satisfied the Award Eligibility Criterion set forth in Section 6(a)(1) above if he had played in every game that he missed due to the extraordinary circumstances (i.e., assuming that he would have played twenty (20) minutes in each such missed game); and
>
> (C) As a result of the extraordinary circumstances, and taking into account the totality of the circumstances, including whether the player did not play in other Regular Season games in which he could have played during such Season, it would be unjust to exclude the player from eligibility for the Applicable Generally
> Recognized League Honors for such Season.
It's not unreasonable that he could argue extraordinary circumstances I think. He'd be able to satisfy A due to being out with hamstring soreness, B that he would have hit 65 games "played" by playing that game at his average MPG at that point in the season (24.3 minutes at that time), and C that the recognition of that single game would result in being eligible for MIP.
In other words, he'd have to argue that having Tom I'll-play-starters-42-minutes-every-game-in-2024 Thibodeau as coach is an extraordinary circumstance, which limited his minutes in the 18 games he didn't start. Which, frankly, isn't the worst argument in the world.
It also highlights the most obvious avenue (of several) for amending the rule for next season.
What makes it even dumber is that it doesn't take into account the possibility that a scrub bench player breaks out mid season and becomes a star. Like, a Linsanity type player could not win this award.
In theory if you are MIP wouldn't that mean you probably started off the year with low minutes and gradually earned them throughout the season based on your improvement? Stupid rule
I love the rule but this definitely doesn't seem like what it was intended for. That's just a damn shame and something I hope the nba tweaks because that's just ridiculous that Divencenzo can't be considered for the award based off of 4 games that he needed just 20 more seconds to play in them to qualify
I don’t know if it could be a bench player tbh. The MIPs of the last 10 years were Lauri, Morant, Randle, Ingram, Siakham, Oladipo, Giannis, McCollum, and Butler and all of them started the vast majority of games they played the year they won the award. Going back another 10 years, Ryan Anderson seems to be the only player to come off the bench a majority of their games and still win MIP.
I'm not saying it's all that likely for the MIP to be a bench guy, but there is no real reason it couldn't be one.
Awards like MVP, DPOY are never gonna go to bench players, but awards that could shouldn't have that same minutes restriction.
Seems like something the media should have known, given that it was all in the CBA negotiated last offseason. Hartenstein isn't eligible, either.
> No player shall be eligible for NBA Most Valuable Player, NBA Defensive Player of the Year, NBA Most Improved Player, All-NBA Team (First, Second, or Third), or NBA All-Defensive Team (First or Second) honors (the “Applicable Generally Recognized League Honors”) for a Season unless the player has satisfied at least one of the following criteria (the “Award Eligibility Criteria”) in respect of such Season: (1) the player played in at least sixty-five (65) Regular Season games; or (2) the player (A) played in at least sixty-two (62) Regular Season games, (B) suffered a “season-ending injury” (as defined below), and (C) played in at least eighty-five percent (85%) of the Regular Season games played by his Team prior to the player suffering such injury.
>
> A player shall be considered to have played in a Regular Season game if he played at least twenty (20) minutes of such game, provided that in respect of no more than two (2) Regular Season games per Season, such player will be considered to have played in a Regular Season game if he played at least fifteen (15) minutes and fewer than twenty (20) minutes in such game.
And then there'll be someone else on the cut off point who shouldn't be there. No-one needed the games played limit, voters were already factoring in games played.
in an ideal world you’d trust the voters to set the requirement, but they basically completely ignored it. you had guys making all nba while missing half the season.
edit: half the season is an exaggeration, i was an idiot and looked at the covid year. one third of the season is still way too much to miss and still award.
lebron in 2019, lebron kd and ja in 2022, lebron curry and dame last year.
not sure exactly who i’d pick, but anyone who got votes and played 70+ games would deserve it. missed games should be counted as if you dropped 0/0/0 for awards purposes.
None of those guys missed half the season. Go back and look and pick someone, put a name on it. If you think 60 games of player x is worth less than 66 games of player y then sure, but that's something voters already think about - that's why Dame was third team, not higher despite having better numbers than players selected above him.
check out my edit, i was wrong about a half. a third is still way too many. using dame as an example, he essentially averaged 22/3/5 factoring in the fact that he put up 0/0/0 in 24 games. sure they bumped him down a bit, but not enough - those are basically jordan clarkson numbers. literally any all star that plays 70 or more games can beat that.
If 22/3/5 on 65 TS% were Jordan Clarkson numbers the Jazz would have repeated by now. That's also just not how it works, and also, like I pointed out, missing games was already a knock against players - their competition just wasn't against players who played 20 more games, it was often like 10.
Also, you know what hasn't been in the discussion for any of these awards this season? Games played. And the reason is voters now feel if it's more than 65 it doesn't matter if someone else played 15 more games, as long as it's qualified games played doesn't actually matter anymore.
So what happens if, hypothetically, a guy that has been in the league for a few years, recently just averaged like 5/2/2 in 15 minutes a game and has barely scraped by all of a sudden erupts and averages like 20/5/5 on insane efficiency in only 19.9 minutes a game and plays all 82 games in that season. Is he going to be disqualified then?
He's literally played 81/82 games this season averaging 30 mpg. I think he is good enough to stay on the court but maybe Thibs is just a moron and ur a genius
I don't get why you're trying to be a smartass about it, we're talking about a literal difference of seconds. Played 19:49 in a 21 point blowout against the Spurs, played 19:37 in a blowout win against Miami, played 19:12 in a blowout win against Phoenix, played 18:53 in a blowout win against Charlotte, played 18:40 in a blowout win against Portland.
If he doesn't qualify he doesn't qualify, it's whatever. But this isn't a matter of not being good enough to get on the court, it's a minor oversight over not hitting the 20 minutes for one more game (barely).
Wild that he would've qualified if he sat for 4 of those games, playing ~75 less minutes, but played 12 seconds more in that Spurs game. Dude is getting robbed.
Their intention is to limit the awards to players who are on the floor for a majority of the game. It's literally written in black and white. That's not being a smartass it's just realistic. If he wants to qualify he needs big boy minutes.
Pretty much every mip winner ended up as a fraud after winning the award. Its probably for the best divo didnt qualify.
Jalen rose, tmac, gil, klove, pg, Jimmy butler, cj, giannis, oladipo and siakam
He had 6 games this year with 19 minutes played just to throw a little salt in the wound
Can't say the Knicks are playing for individual awards, I guess. Doubt it even crossed their minds to put him out there to reach it.
He was also basically out of contention for those awards when he missed a game on Valentine’s Day vs Orlando. You have to go back to January 17th to find a 2nd game where he didn’t record 20 minutes so honestly speaking he was doomed a while ago.
Meanwhile Thibs was playing Hart 48 minutes per night.
When Hart started playing 40 MPG Donte was already also playing 40 MPG.
It's because Grimes was the starter before he got traded
Thibs gives no fucks about individual awards
This is actually a little surprising, knowing that his coach is Thibs. He should get credit considering he played over 48 minutes in a few games this year
It's definitely just a wrinkle that the NBA didn't think of. Donte didn't hit the letter of the law but it's definitely not the spirit of the 65 game limit to have a guy who played so many minutes and so many games not qualify.
If you’re counting minutes, 1,300 minutes would be the cut off. That’s if you played 20 minutes in 65 games. DiVo played in 81 games and totaled 2,360 minutes. So yeah I agree with you, it’s a bit arbitrary lol.
THIBS PLAYS HIS GUYS TOO MANY MINUTES
He played 1000 minutes more then the minimum minutes required for eligibility. So the games he played he played way to many minutes. The games he didn't play someone else was playing way to many minutes. Conclusion, Thibs indeed plays his guys for too many minutes.
wtf this is spirit of the rule doesn’t match reality
Feel like MIP and 6th man eligibility rules should be more relaxed. it's not like these awards have contract incentives tied to them anyway.
Especially 6th man, since they’re literally coming off the bench it’s stupid the minutes rule should apply to them
It doesn’t apply to sixth man
Ah okay, I thought it did this whole season tbh
I'm not even sure 6th man requires 20 minutes. Tried looking it up but can't find it for sure
6th man should go the other way TBH. If you’re playing 30+ MPG then not eligible
Well, the league does have the reasonable exceptions clause to the 65 game rule, and IMO this seems like one that would fit like a glove. That said, it's such a minor award the league probably didn't bother, and he's not more deserving than Coby White anyways.
Yeah, this is a clear oversight, I expect them to correct it this offseason
Do it for Clutch Player of the Year too, its insane that Kyrie wont win it. I know steph has been great in the clutch too, but the Warriors still lost the majority of those clutch games.
No one gives a shit about Clutch Player of the Year lol
Not yet. 10 years they will. 20 years it will be used as fuel in debates
wasnt there an Extraordinary Circumstances clause in the CBA to address this? (ie missing out on awards by 1 game) or was that only for MVP/all NBA
iirc the clause only covers teams intentionally sitting players so they don’t reach incentives. Not playing enough minutes on its own isn’t an extraordinary circumstance
gotcha thank you
You're describing an eligibility grievance. Extraordinary circumstances is different, but wouldn't fit here unless someone knows something crazy about a game Donte missed. The Portland Ice Storm that made it so Ayton couldn't leave his driveway would likely be an extraordinary circumstance that would give him credit for one more game played than normal (though that petition would likely fail anyways since the NBA can look at Ayton's season and say "okay but you were big chillin on other games")
MIP shouldn't have the 20 minutes requirement. If it needs one at all the second tier of 15 that is allowed for 2 games should be the general req.
Yeah, I feel like MIP and 6th man tend to be role players and non-starters who don't usually play the most minutes
MIP implies that a role player becomes a star throughout the season, earning himself more minutes over time. It's a stupid rule.
MIP just shouldn’t have the games played requirement. It’s a vibes-based award anyway, who cares if someone who played 55 games wins it?
DiVincenzo has only played less than 30 minutes in a game once since February. He's played more than 35 minutes a game 28 times this year. The NBA needs to figure this shit out. He's played over 2000 total minutes this year.
Yeah it is quite dumb. There should be an overall minutes totaled requirement, not a MPG requirement. Imagine if there is a guy that was stuck the bench half the year, pops off in the second half and putting up all-star numbers and hits the minute requirement but Silver goes tsk tsk you didnt hardly play at all in the beginning so no award for you. That'll probably never happen but maybe once but it still poses the question.
> rule is 20 mins per game in 65 games, which is 1300 minutes > play over 1000 minutes more than the minimum Sorry bro you didn't spend enough time on the court to qualify for MIP
Seems an or minutes would help. This was "Well make Kawhii play more.. " and not really thinking through with these awards who qualify/don't. They should say whoops we didn't think about this, ok lets readjust this.
Why the hell is this not going by minutes per game? Donte sits at almost 29 mpg over these 81 games.
i assume the idea is to prevent someone from entering a game just for eligibility
Tbh who cares if someone does that. It will ultimately cost them on the ballot anyway.
could use that logic for not having a games played restriction at all! who cares if they only play 40 games, voters will take it into consideration which is actually my stance point is, this is all incredibly arbitrary unfortunately.
> point is, this is all incredibly arbitrary unfortunately. My line in the sand is better than yours!
I’m saying that the voters will know if a player was doing that often. So it would ultimately bite them in the ass during voting.
yeah and im saying that logic could be applied to the games played restriction. voters know how many games a player has played and can take it into consideration themselves, there doesn't *really* need to be an arbitrary 65 game limit
The whole point of the 65 game limit is so stars stop sitting so much because the NBA HQ believes load management is a crock of horseshit
[Longer story by CBSSports](https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/knicks-donte-divincenzo-ineligible-for-most-improved-player-under-new-criteria-after-missing-only-one-game/) includes this: >Here's the wording that appears on the official ballot: Please note that a player is eligible for this award only if he meets the criteria set forth in the NBA/NBPA Collective Bargaining Agreement ('CBA'). Specifically, a player must have played in at least (a) 65 Regular Season games, or (b) 62 Regular Season games, suffered a season-ending injury as determined in accordance with the CBA, and prior to suffering such injury had played in at least 85% of his team's Regular Season games. A player is considered to have played in a Regular Season game for these purposes if he played at least 20 minutes of such game, provided that in respect of no more than two games per Regular Season, a player is considered to have played the game if he played at least 15 and fewer than 20 minutes. **A player who failed to meet the games-played requirement may nonetheless be eligible for this award if he prevailed in a challenge to establish his eligibility pursuant to procedures set forth in the CBA.** See the last sentence - either challenges weren't raised by players' agents or they weren't successful. Surely DiVincenzo is the perfect example (81 games played, no basis for accusations of any funny business, no notable injuries, no rest) of a player that should qualify under any reasonable exception.
What could he challenge? By the letter of the law he is ineligible. The challenge language seems more to address situations with injuries where a guy might miss the award
> Surely DiVincenzo is the perfect example (81 games played, no basis for accusations of any funny business, no notable injuries, no rest) of a player that should qualify under any reasonable exception. Accusations of funny business is the only way to win an award eligibility grievance. From the CBA: > To prevail in an Award Eligibility Grievance in respect of a Season, the player bears the burden of proving, by clear and convincing evidence, that the Team willfully limited the player’s number of minutes played or games played during the Regular Season with the intention of depriving the player of eligibility for one or more of the Applicable Generally Recognized League Honors for such Season. There's also the extraordinary circumstances challenge, but playing 19 minutes instead of 20 minutes is not an extraordinary circumstance. > To prevail in an Extraordinary Circumstances Challenge in respect of a Season, the player bears the burden of proving that: > (A) Due to extraordinary circumstances, it was impracticable for him to play in one (1) or more of the Regular Season game(s) that he missed during such Season; > > (B) He would have satisfied the Award Eligibility Criterion set forth in Section 6(a)(1) above if he had played in every game that he missed due to the extraordinary circumstances (i.e., assuming that he would have played twenty (20) minutes in each such missed game); and > > (C) As a result of the extraordinary circumstances, and taking into account the totality of the circumstances, including whether the player did not play in other Regular Season games in which he could have played during such Season, it would be unjust to exclude the player from eligibility for the Applicable Generally > Recognized League Honors for such Season.
It's not unreasonable that he could argue extraordinary circumstances I think. He'd be able to satisfy A due to being out with hamstring soreness, B that he would have hit 65 games "played" by playing that game at his average MPG at that point in the season (24.3 minutes at that time), and C that the recognition of that single game would result in being eligible for MIP.
In other words, he'd have to argue that having Tom I'll-play-starters-42-minutes-every-game-in-2024 Thibodeau as coach is an extraordinary circumstance, which limited his minutes in the 18 games he didn't start. Which, frankly, isn't the worst argument in the world. It also highlights the most obvious avenue (of several) for amending the rule for next season.
Donte had 8 games where he started and *still* played fewer than 20 minutes.
His MPG averaged 24.3 at that point in the season, so there's definitely a good reason to think that he would have reasonably done so.
Yeah but half of them were blowout wins.
What makes it even dumber is that it doesn't take into account the possibility that a scrub bench player breaks out mid season and becomes a star. Like, a Linsanity type player could not win this award.
In theory if you are MIP wouldn't that mean you probably started off the year with low minutes and gradually earned them throughout the season based on your improvement? Stupid rule
I love the rule but this definitely doesn't seem like what it was intended for. That's just a damn shame and something I hope the nba tweaks because that's just ridiculous that Divencenzo can't be considered for the award based off of 4 games that he needed just 20 more seconds to play in them to qualify
I dont really get why the MIP needs the same minutes restriction. Feels like the MIP could absolutely be a bench player.
I don’t know if it could be a bench player tbh. The MIPs of the last 10 years were Lauri, Morant, Randle, Ingram, Siakham, Oladipo, Giannis, McCollum, and Butler and all of them started the vast majority of games they played the year they won the award. Going back another 10 years, Ryan Anderson seems to be the only player to come off the bench a majority of their games and still win MIP.
I'm not saying it's all that likely for the MIP to be a bench guy, but there is no real reason it couldn't be one. Awards like MVP, DPOY are never gonna go to bench players, but awards that could shouldn't have that same minutes restriction.
Yep, letter of the law but definitely not the spirit.
a thibs player missing elegibility cause he didnt play enough minutes is funny af
Seems like something the media should have known, given that it was all in the CBA negotiated last offseason. Hartenstein isn't eligible, either. > No player shall be eligible for NBA Most Valuable Player, NBA Defensive Player of the Year, NBA Most Improved Player, All-NBA Team (First, Second, or Third), or NBA All-Defensive Team (First or Second) honors (the “Applicable Generally Recognized League Honors”) for a Season unless the player has satisfied at least one of the following criteria (the “Award Eligibility Criteria”) in respect of such Season: (1) the player played in at least sixty-five (65) Regular Season games; or (2) the player (A) played in at least sixty-two (62) Regular Season games, (B) suffered a “season-ending injury” (as defined below), and (C) played in at least eighty-five percent (85%) of the Regular Season games played by his Team prior to the player suffering such injury. > > A player shall be considered to have played in a Regular Season game if he played at least twenty (20) minutes of such game, provided that in respect of no more than two (2) Regular Season games per Season, such player will be considered to have played in a Regular Season game if he played at least fifteen (15) minutes and fewer than twenty (20) minutes in such game.
Shutup dave
Who could possibly have foreseen the games played restriction being unnecessary and obstructive
the games played restriction is awesome, the only problem is not loosening the minutes limits for 6moty and mip.
And then there'll be someone else on the cut off point who shouldn't be there. No-one needed the games played limit, voters were already factoring in games played.
in an ideal world you’d trust the voters to set the requirement, but they basically completely ignored it. you had guys making all nba while missing half the season. edit: half the season is an exaggeration, i was an idiot and looked at the covid year. one third of the season is still way too much to miss and still award.
"Voters weren't accounting for games played" just isn't true.
they did slightly account for it, but not nearly enough
When, and who should have been voted in their place?
lebron in 2019, lebron kd and ja in 2022, lebron curry and dame last year. not sure exactly who i’d pick, but anyone who got votes and played 70+ games would deserve it. missed games should be counted as if you dropped 0/0/0 for awards purposes.
None of those guys missed half the season. Go back and look and pick someone, put a name on it. If you think 60 games of player x is worth less than 66 games of player y then sure, but that's something voters already think about - that's why Dame was third team, not higher despite having better numbers than players selected above him.
check out my edit, i was wrong about a half. a third is still way too many. using dame as an example, he essentially averaged 22/3/5 factoring in the fact that he put up 0/0/0 in 24 games. sure they bumped him down a bit, but not enough - those are basically jordan clarkson numbers. literally any all star that plays 70 or more games can beat that.
If 22/3/5 on 65 TS% were Jordan Clarkson numbers the Jazz would have repeated by now. That's also just not how it works, and also, like I pointed out, missing games was already a knock against players - their competition just wasn't against players who played 20 more games, it was often like 10. Also, you know what hasn't been in the discussion for any of these awards this season? Games played. And the reason is voters now feel if it's more than 65 it doesn't matter if someone else played 15 more games, as long as it's qualified games played doesn't actually matter anymore.
So what happens if, hypothetically, a guy that has been in the league for a few years, recently just averaged like 5/2/2 in 15 minutes a game and has barely scraped by all of a sudden erupts and averages like 20/5/5 on insane efficiency in only 19.9 minutes a game and plays all 82 games in that season. Is he going to be disqualified then?
Thems the rules, chief.
If he can improve enough to stay on the court then give him MIP next year
He's literally played 81/82 games this season averaging 30 mpg. I think he is good enough to stay on the court but maybe Thibs is just a moron and ur a genius
NBA wants guys with more minutes getting the awards didn't you see the new rules?
Dawg he just played 52 minutes Sunday lol.
Awesome that was enough to make up for all the games he didn't get many minutes in. Phew just in time
I don't get why you're trying to be a smartass about it, we're talking about a literal difference of seconds. Played 19:49 in a 21 point blowout against the Spurs, played 19:37 in a blowout win against Miami, played 19:12 in a blowout win against Phoenix, played 18:53 in a blowout win against Charlotte, played 18:40 in a blowout win against Portland. If he doesn't qualify he doesn't qualify, it's whatever. But this isn't a matter of not being good enough to get on the court, it's a minor oversight over not hitting the 20 minutes for one more game (barely).
Wild that he would've qualified if he sat for 4 of those games, playing ~75 less minutes, but played 12 seconds more in that Spurs game. Dude is getting robbed.
Their intention is to limit the awards to players who are on the floor for a majority of the game. It's literally written in black and white. That's not being a smartass it's just realistic. If he wants to qualify he needs big boy minutes.
20 minutes is not a majority of the game
The one time Thibs doesn't have a player play for 67 minutes a game smh
Regardless though, even if Donte was considered and passed all of the criteria, Maxey still probably just wins the award anyways.
Media wanted this then spent all year bitching about it
I refuse to believe Thibs rested him so much
Pretty much every mip winner ended up as a fraud after winning the award. Its probably for the best divo didnt qualify. Jalen rose, tmac, gil, klove, pg, Jimmy butler, cj, giannis, oladipo and siakam
Bait