Wait, didn’t the 2023 collective bargaining agreement put an end to players sitting out games for spurious reasons?
Apparently not.
Just in the last two weeks, we’ve encountered three different players sitting out games with injury designations that may or may not be just as contrived as Rodney Dangerfield’s “broken arm” in “Caddyshack.” Those three players — the Washington Wizards’ Trae Young, the Memphis Grizzlies’ Ja Morant and the Golden State Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga — are in their own unique situations, but Morant taking a DNP-NotFeelingIt in the NBA’s showcase game Thursday in Berlin underscored the problematic situation for the league.
I’ll get into the specifics of each situation and why the league might have limited enforcement powers, but first, let’s describe what’s happening.
On Dec. 26, after a loss to the Miami Heat and 10 days after he first returned from a sprained MCL suffered in late October, Young told me he was feeling good and hoping to play in the second half of a back-to-back against the New York Knicks. The next night, he did indeed get out there, playing 31 minutes and having the ball in his hands on the last play of the game.
Young hasn’t played since. He sat out his final six games as an Atlanta Hawk with a “quad contusion” allegedly suffered against New York, one that nobody who was at the game seemingly could remember happening, and has been listed as out with MCL and quad injuries ever since he became a Wizard. The team now says those injuries will keep him out through the All-Star break, which would sideline him for his first 16 games as a Wizard. The hilarious possibility exists that he’ll be listed as out with an MCL injury for his return to Atlanta on Feb. 24, more than two months after he returned to the Hawks lineup from the same injury.
In Memphis, Morant has not played in a game since suffering a calf contusion on Jan. 2. He was listed as “questionable” while missing the next four games and then downgraded to “out” for the last two amid rumors that he’s already played his last game for Memphis and while the Grizzlies are openly seeking a trade.
Finally, on Jan. 2, I attended a Warriors-Thunder game in which Kuminga, whose saga in Golden State has been well chronicled, was unexpectedly declared out shortly before tip-off due to lower back soreness, an injury that may or may not have been aggravated by excessive time in a seated position between 7:30 and 10 every evening. (As The Athletic reported Thursday, multiple team sources suspected Kuminga wasn’t actually hurt.) Golden State was resting all three of Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry and Draymond Green that night and presumably could have used Kuminga’s services. Instead, the Warriors lost by 37, and Kuminga has racked up seven more DNP-CDs since; he is also trade-eligible as of Thursday and could have a new employer by 3 p.m. ET on Feb. 5.
So … what is the NBA to do? What does the CBA mandate, and what even makes sense?
(It’s worth noting that Kuminga’s situation is slightly different from the other two, given that he’s largely been available and his coach hasn’t played him in a month. The subtext to this stand-off is that if Warriors ever need him to play — as they did on Jan. 2 — that ol’ lower back just might flare up again.)
Unlike Kuminga, Morant and Young were both All-Stars in the last three seasons (Morant in 2023, Young in 2024) and are younger than 35. Thus, both are subject to the Player Participation Policy of the 2023 CBA. Among other things, that mandates that star players (which both are, per the policy) be available for national TV games if healthy, and that teams in a tank-friendly position like Washington’s3 avoid “shutting down” players with minor or nonexistent injuries, a la the Blazers with Damian Lillard in their glorious 2-21 blitz to the finish line in 2022.
However, “healthy” is doing a lot of work here. The league still gives teams wide latitude to determine who is healthy and who isn’t; the difference is that now the NBA can also investigate if it suspects dubious injury designations.
Take Young’s situation, for instance, which I find relatable since it has some parallels to my experience with the Grizzlies in 2018, when I was vice president of basketball operations. To wit, “healthy enough to play in a game that matters” and “fully healthy” are often not nearly the same thing; if Young isn’t 100 percent, why should the Wizards be forced to risk him in games that don’t matter when they have a $49 million obligation to him next season? That was the exact situation the Grizzlies faced with 33-year-old Marc Gasol in the tail end of that 2017-18 season (although Gasol still played 73 games).
Nonetheless, declaring Young out through the All-Star break pushes this to the absolute limit of credibility. I suspect at some point the league will feel compelled to investigate Young’s situation and could even slap the Wizards with a fine under the “long-term player shutdown” section. (“A star player stops playing [or, in the judgment of the league office, begins to play a materially reduced role] in circumstances affecting the integrity of the game.”)
But let’s be real: In terms of teams tanking for lottery position, the fine is small enough that the return on investment will repay itself 100 times over if it results in an improved draft selection (or just keeping the pick in the first place; Washington owes it to New York if it lands outside the top eight). Additionally, given that the lowly Wizards only have three national TV games the rest of the season, there is only so much pain the league can inflict on them here.
As for the Grizzlies, their situation seems different because it appears player-instigated, though at some point, it will be implausible for Morant to be out so long with a minor injury, especially if he’s in Memphis after the trade deadline. (If traded before then, one presumes both Morant — and Kuminga and his lower back soreness, should it pop up again — will suddenly regain their vigor.)
With both Morant and Kuminga in trade discussions at the moment as well, it doesn’t make sense for their respective teams to go scorched earth just yet, which is a card they could eventually play by withholding salary based on the players’ refusal to provide services. This would only make sense for their respective teams to get this aggressive after the trade deadline, and in the Warriors’ case, would only happen if they were actually trying to play Kuminga in games and he wouldn’t enter them.
But if it came to this, it would cost Morant $430,634 per game and Kuminga $245,633 per game. Here’s the relevant language in the CBA:
In the event the Player (i) is fined and/or suspended by the Team or the NBA (or, as applicable, the NBAGL or an NBAGL team) or (ii) fails or refuses, without proper and reasonable cause or excuse, to render the services required by this Contract or the CBA, the Team shall withhold the amount of the fine or, in the case of a suspension or a failure or refusal to provide services, the amount provided in Article VI of the CBA (or, as Exhibit A A-5 applicable, Article XLI of the CBA) from any Current Base Compensation due or to become due to the Player with respect to the contract year in which the conduct resulting in the fine occurred, the suspension was served, and/or the failure or refusal to play occurred.
That “Article VI of the CBA ” mentioned above takes away 1/91.6th of the player’s salary for each game:
When a player (A) fails or refuses, without proper and reasonable cause or excuse, to render the services required by a Player Contract or this Agreement, or (B) is suspended by his Team or the NBA for failing or refusing, without proper and reasonable cause or excuse, to render the services required by a Player Contract or this Agreement, the Current Base Compensation payable to the player for the year of the Contract during which such failure or refusal and/or suspension occurs shall be reduced by 1/91.6th of the player’s Base Compensation for each missed Exhibition, Regular Season, Play-In, or playoff game.
I’ve mentioned Young, Morant and Kuminga as birds of a feather, but I don’t see a lot of copycat scenarios for the Morant and Kuminga situations. A far greater concern for the league is if Washington’s approach to Young becomes contagious.
It’s easy to imagine the Wizards’ other, um, “rivals” for lottery position seeing what they are doing and shutting down their own star players. Lauri Markkanen, for instance, could be headed for a fourth straight shutdown season on a Utah team that also owes a top-eight protected first-round pick. Or Indiana could decide it’s not worth risking 31-year-old Pascal Siakam (ethically hooping at an All-Star level at 31 for the team that entered Friday with the league’s worst record) for a lost season.
On the other hand, the Morant and Kuminga situations — particularly Morant’s Berlin absence — are annoying for the league but likely of less big-picture concern. Trades and unhappy circumstances happen, and while it’s in everyone’s interests for Ben Simmons-type hostage situations to be rare, it’s naive to think the league can just legislate divorces away.
Each situation I outlined has its own unique twist, but together, they show some of the limitations of the policy the league tried to implement in 2023. The next step is to see how far teams (and players) can push it, and how motivated the league will be to investigate and punish its own teams over potential violations.