The NBA is moving ahead with expansion after the board of governors voted Wednesday to approve an exploration of adding two teams in Seattle and Las Vegas. There are still plenty of steps that need to happen before expansion in those markets officially happens, but this was another big step to get there.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed that news after the announcement and fielded questions on a variety of topics, including tanking and the NBPA’s recent statement asking for the 65-game rule to be changed.
Let’s take a look at everything Silver talked about.
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Fixing tanking remains a priority ahead of next season
Silver noted that while the board of governors meeting was mostly positive, the one negative topic was tanking. How to fix tanking has been a topic of conversation for years, but the league still can’t manage to keep teams from trying to improve their lottery odds by racking up as many losses as possible. It’s probably an unfixable problem, as history has shown that the draft is the best way for teams — especially those in small markets — to land that franchise-altering star.
Still, though, it’s the issue that the commissioner is keen on fixing, and he noted on Wednesday that there could be changes afoot to curb tanking, albeit without presenting any solutions.
“I will say it seemed unanimous in the room that we needed to make a change, and we needed to make a change for next season,” Silver said. “Exactly what that change is, we’re continuing to work on. No votes were taken today. I think there’s also unanimous agreement that we need to make this change in advance of the draft and free agency this year, so all the teams understand the rules of the road going into next year. That means we will most likely have a special board meeting in May, in which, at that point, we will vote on whatever modification we come up with.”
Silver said that decisions made to fix tanking need to come at the ownership level and, while he recognized that there have been some egregious examples this season, he also noted that this year could be an outlier due to the deep draft class this summer.
“We’ve been hard at work on this issue for several months now,” Silver said. “We’ve been talking separately to our general managers. I do think ultimately this is a decision that needs to be made at the ownership level. It has business implications, has basketball implications, has integrity implications for the league. So it’s one that we take very seriously, and we’re going to fix it, full stop.”
NBA looking into Giannis Antetokounmpo being sidelined
The NBPA came out in support of Antetokounmpo earlier this week in response to reports that the Milwaukee Bucks have a desire to shut him down for the remainder of the season. “The player participation policy was designed by the league to hold teams accountable and ensure that when an All-Star like Giannis Antetokounmpo is healthy and ready to play, he is on the court,” the union said in a statement. “We look forward to collaborating with the NBA on meaningful new proposals that will directly address and discourage tanking.”
Silver was asked about the NBPA’s statement and if the league was investigating the matter.
“Prior to that press release from the players association, we were not aware there was an issue,” Silver said. “We knew Giannis was injured. He was within the sort of usual period it was taking to come back from that injury. So I was a bit surprised by that press release. Yes, when our players association announces they see an issue, of course we’ll look into it. So that’s where it currently stands.”
Antetokounmpo has been in and out of the lineup since January. Once he wasn’t traded at the deadline, it made sense for the Bucks to prioritize their draft positioning ahead of a summer where they could once again revisit moving the NBA champion. However, convincing Antetokounmpo to sit out while he’s healthy was always going to be a difficult task, and it’s reached the level of the player’s union now. We’ll see if anything comes of the league looking into this matter, especially as other teams have been fined this season for resting healthy players.
No plans to get rid of 65-game rule
In another statement this week, the NBPA said that Cade Cunningham’s potential ineligibility for end-of-season awards due to a recently announced collapsed lung was an “indictment of the 65-game rule.” The players’ union also called for the rule to be abolished or reformed to create an exception for significant injuries.
Despite the strong stance from the players association, Silver didn’t make it sound like there would be any changes coming to that rule.
“In fairness to the players association, I would never say there’s not something we’re not willing to talk to them about,” Silver said. “Things come up all the time on both sides. I would only say, take a step back. It’s only the third year now that the 65-game rule has been put in effect. And a few years ago, when I was standing in front of all of you, you weren’t asking me about tanking. You were asking me about load management, and you’re saying, ‘What in the world are you guys going to do about the fact that star players aren’t playing enough games?’ And we did a number of things, but one of the things we did in agreement with the players association was to put in place the 65-game rule to ensure that to be eligible, to be an MVP or All NBA or All Defense, that you needed to play those 65 games.”
“We always knew when there’s a line you draw, that somebody’s going to fall on the other side of that line,” Silver said. “It may feel unfair in that particular instance. Let’s see what happens at the end of this year. By the way, to Cade Cunningham, he’s an incredible player, and I’m sorry that he’s injured, and I can’t wait to see him back on the floor. But having said that, we also have to remember that the extent that one player is no longer eligible, some other player will then be All-NBA and will slot into that spot. So I’m not ready to stand here saying ‘I don’t think it’s working.’ I think it’s working. I think if you look at the numbers, the pre-implementation of this rule, numbers were going in the wrong direction.”
In Cunningham’s case, he must play in five more games to remain eligible for awards like MVP and All-NBA. There is an exception to this 65-game rule, but it won’t help Cunningham as he tries to cross that threshold. To qualify for the exception, a player has to have played in at least 62 regular-season games (and at least 85% of his team’s regular-season games) and then suffered a season-ending injury. Cunningham suffered the injury five minutes into his 61st game, and the injury isn’t expected to be season-ending. In other words, he has to play those last five games to remain eligible.
While Silver thinks the rule is working, perhaps Cunningham’s case will convince the league to add another exception this summer to account for situations like his going forward.