In a stunning twist to an otherwise tightly contested MVP race this season, Luka Doncic may have just booted himself out of the conversation after he suffered an unfortunate hamstring injury. While there is no official news yet as to how long he will be out, things did not look good for him when it happened, and he can no longer afford to miss even a short time in order to be remain eligible.
How does this affect the 76ers? Well, an MVP candidate like Luka not even being eligible for an All-NBA team berth could very well be the final straw for the highly divisive 65-game rule which has already disqualified the likes of Cade Cunningham and Anthony Edwards. For Philly, this could end up having a positive ripple, as it would reopen an otherwise shut doow for Joel Embiid to collect even more hardware.
Obviously, it would be far too unrealistic to expect Embiid to play more than 65 games per campaign moving forward. The 76ers have implemented a no-nonsense approach with his conditioning, even automatically ruling him out for back-to-backs. And given his track record of injuries (emphasis on the plurality), as well as his age, the team cannot twist their approach just to accommodate that rule.
Luka Doncic injury could be final straw for the 65-game rule, which will help Joel Embiid and the 76ers
Since getting implemented two seasons ago thanks to the new CBA, the 65-game rule has been a topic often raised when any star goes down with an injury, even if only a minor one. After all, it is pretty stringent in that players and teams alike are effectively stripped of any opportunity to manage their loads and slow cook their return from the typical bumps and bruises attendant to an 82-game season.
But seeing how much it twists the history books by disqualifying players who are all-deserving of nods for the major awards, the league has to change it at some point. In fact, the players union has already expressed its derision with the rule. One can only imagine how much louder the clamor will be now that it is an NBA royalty like Doncic who will most likely miss out on any and all hardware this season.
Embiid, for his part, has proven that he is still an elite basketball player. Had it not been for the rule (and if he did not miss as much time as he did), he probably would have been floated around as a serious candidate to make an All-NBA team.
As such, if the rule gets abolished, he will still be able to qualify for those awards without the 76ers needing to tweak their approach with his conditioning and game-to-game management.
Hence, it would be beneficial for everyone if the rule gets struck down or at least gets revised to be less stringent as it currently is. Hopefully, this otherwise unfortunate development could force the league to take immediate action in this regard.