NBA overreactions: Tyrese Maxey dunk of the year, 65-game rule nonsense?

It’s officially NBA time! 

The NFL season is over and the focus has shifted to the home stretch of the NBA regular season. This is the time when teams are starting to assert themselves as the cream of the crop. Stars are making their cases for MVP and All-NBA while trying to make sure they don’t miss too many games to drop below the 65-game mark. 

There have been big games this week and they have meant a lot for postseason prospects. So what better time than to overreact?

Playoff experience is overrated

The San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons faced off on Monday night and they looked every bit like they could be an NBA Finals preview. The Spurs’ double-digit win made them look like the best team in the league. With the win, they have now beaten the team with the conference’s best record five times this season, the most in more than 30 years. The win is also another reminder that the Spurs are legitimate title contenders. The biggest reason there’s doubt about them — and the Pistons — is their inexperience.

The last team to make the Finals without making the playoffs the previous year was the 2021 Phoenix Suns, and that team added Chris Paul in the offseason. We just don’t see teams make that leap in the NBA. In the past 30 years, only six teams have won championships without making the conference finals at all in the previous three years. That speaks to how the path to a championship is usually paved with late-playoff heartbreaks.

So, how can two young teams that have a combined two playoff wins in the past few years hope to make a run?

VERDICT: CAP

Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs look like they might be the best team in the league, but will the lack of playoff experience hurt them?

It’s not impossible, but they will both have to overcome a lack of experience because it is a real thing. Just look at the Pistons. Inexperience was a major factor in their loss to the Knicks in the playoffs last year. In their first playoff game, they took an eight-point lead into the fourth quarter in Madison Square Garden and absolutely fell apart. They couldn’t even get the ball inbounds in time on the very first play. They were outscored by 19 points in the quarter and gave up a 21-0 run. It was ugly, and if the Pistons win that game I think we’re looking at a different series.

This is what happens to young teams. Remember the Thunder’s meltdowns against the Mavs in 2011? The double-digit blown lead in Game 1 when a young Warriors team lost to the Spurs in 2013? It’s just part of the game.

So inexperience is not overrated. With that said, there is plenty of reason to believe that the Spurs especially can overcome it.

They have the scariest player in the league in 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama. He’s played in maybe the biggest basketball game of the decade in the gold medal game in Paris 2024, and (don’t laugh) the Emirates NBA Cup games with the Knicks and Thunder earlier this season. They were definitely playoff-level games.

I’ve been saying all season that Wemby reminds me of the 2007 LeBron James, who was ahead of schedule to get the Cleveland Cavaliers to the Finals. We could see something like that, but it would require the Spurs overcoming roadblocks because of their youth and inexperience.

Tyrese Maxey over Anthony Edwards was Dunk of the Year

Over the weekend, the Philadelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey took the ball on a fast break and dunked all up on the mug of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards. Then there was a full-team staredown of Edwards. Pure face-up dunk magic.

VERDICT: NO CAP

Sure there have been better dunks this year. Sure there have been more creative or more explosive dunks. But I apply the same logic to posterized dunks as I do to the dunk contest itself: I want to see stars. I want to see stars dunking on stars. That’s a credit to Edwards, too, who decided to even jump. 

But this dunk has it all: a smaller guard dunking on a bigger guard, explosiveness, two All-Stars and All-NBA-caliber dudes meeting at the apex, and an absolutely epic stare down at the end. The other thing I love about this? I’m sure Edwards loved this, too. He probably can’t wait to give it back to someone else as soon as he can. 

The 65-game rule is a bad idea

Nikola Jokic (right) is the perfect example of why the 65-game rule doesn’t work.

AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post

I get why the NBA instituted its 65-game eligibility rule that said players must reach that minimum to be considered for end-of-the-year awards. The ruling was originally to curb load management, which has become a major problem in the league and people’s perception of it. However, we’re looking at a scenario this season where the three best players – Wembanyama, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – could miss out on awards because of legitimate injuries that would have them play fewer than 65 games.

And that’s just ridiculous.

VERDICT: NO CAP

There’s really only been one instance in modern basketball when someone has played fewer than 65 games and won MVP. That was Joel Embiid, whose selection over Jokic in 2023 is one of the more controversial MVP picks in recent memory. So, voters aren’t even picking players below the 65-game threshold on a regular basis anyway. There’s just no need to create a rule for something that isn’t happening often.

The NBA just needs to trust voters to make the right call, taking availability into consideration, because a large part of season awards is telling the story of a moment in NBA history. To not have Wemby, SGA or Jokic as part of those stories is an incomplete telling. 

Related Story

NBA overreactions: Abolish the draft, end tanking – AndscapeRead now

Jokic is the perfect example of why the rule is ridiculous. He was out with a legitimate injury and before then was having one of the great NBA seasons. Now, if he catches a cold and misses two games he would go from a top-tier MVP pick to not being in any of the All-NBA selections. Voters should be allowed to make that decision on their own.

Also, the rule is going to wreak havoc on salary caps and roster construction. Players who make All-NBA are eligible for a supermax contract. Players who otherwise wouldn’t crack the team will be able to demand those contracts due to the rule. And that changes the way a roster can get constructed.

There’s just too much at stake for an arbitrary rule to determine. Let the voters decide while emphasizing availability and you get a true look at who actually deserves the league’s most prestigious awards.

David Dennis Jr. is a senior writer at Andscape, and the author of the award-winning book “The Movement Made Us: A Father, a Son, and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride.” David is a graduate of Davidson College.