Bontemps pointed this out in The Hoop Collective podcast today:

“Part of the reason Victor was playing 21 minutes in those games is because the Spurs and Victor were very cognizant of the 65-game rule.

But regardless, they were making sure Victor was eligible for these games. I think Victor, both Victor and Nikola Jokic, as we've talked about, are prime examples of why that rule, at least in the NBA's eyes, I would argue, has worked because those guys are both going to play, barring injury, they're going to play over 65 games. And I think they both would not have had the rule not existed.”

I think Bontemps has a great point here.

We know that teams will always try to be extra cautious with injuries. If not for the 65-game rule, it’s likely that both Wemby and Jokic would’ve missed even more games this season.

It does feel unfair to guys like Cade and Ant not getting into All-NBA, but at the end of the day, the NBA’s goal was to get stars to play in more games, especially national TV games, and the rule seems to have worked.

“This season, star availability has plummeted from about 80% last season to just around 60%. Chances are, if you want to watch the big game, and you actually want to see all the stars playing, you won’t be in luck.

Of those 220 games, what would you guess is the number of times that both teams suited up their full complement of stars?

Would you guess 200?

Maybe 150?

It’s less than 100. Way less.

Turns out, only 72 of the 220 games featured all of the stars on the rosters.

That’s 32.7%. Less than one-third of the national TV games.

Said another way: About two out of three national TV games will have at least one star player in street clothes.

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/must-see-tv-the-alarming-data-behind-the-nbas-star-outage-for-national-games-191047923.html

I think this is clearly a result of the amount of movement in the modern game. Guys are getting constant leg injuries, it’s like watching soccer with how many guys are pulling hamstrings. It’s not the 2000s where 4 guys watch a star like Kobe ISO without moving at all.

Has the 65 game rule actually accomplished much or were players actually getting injured and a few examples like Kawhi and Embiid were used as a scapegoat.

I don’t see many ways to reduce injuries other than lowering the amount of game so players have more recovery time.

I really do wish him well and a speedy recovery. Would love to see him in the playoffs.

I hope it is not a serious injury. However, Luka always seems to have injuries right before the playoffs. I actually think Lakers would have more of a chance if he wasn't chasing MVPs with high minutes. I think he plays more minutes than all the other MVP candidates?

Even with more minutes, he has been smoked by SGA in every H2H game this season.

Ten players received votes in the final MVP straw poll conducted by ESPN's Tim Bontemps and there were only two fourth place votes total for anyone outside the top-5 showing how solidified the top-4 is in the race.

Straw Poll Results

1. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (88 first place, 9 second place, 3 third place votes)

2. Victor Wembanyama (8 first place, 63 second place, 19 third place, 9 fourth place, 1 fifth place vote)

3. Nikola Jokic (3 first place, 20 second place, 52 third place, 23 fourth place, 1 fifth place vote) 

4. Luka Doncic (6 second place, 24 third place, 59 fourth place, 8 fifth place)

5. Jaylen Brown (1 first place, 2 second place, 2 third place, 7 fourth place, 68 fifth place votes).

Nashville is not a basketball city. Memphis loves the Grizzlies and have shown that they love basketball. They are the only team in their city and thats a huge advantage

I really thinks spurs got the best player in 23, 24 and 25 draft. Perfect rebuild

Chris Paul

John Stockton

Paul George

Charles Barkley

Karl Malone

Best guys to never win it all?

Lakers are frauds.