{"id":117310,"date":"2025-01-15T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T13:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=117310"},"modified":"2025-01-15T12:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T17:59:09","slug":"nba-players-not-reach-65-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/15\/nba-players-not-reach-65-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Notable NBA Players Who Will Not Reach The 65-Game Threshold"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the NBA having a problem with their star players sitting out random games due to rest, the league implemented a new 65-game rule<\/a> for the 2023-24 season. A player must have played in at least 65 games to be eligible for end-of-year awards and honors such as MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Most Improved Player as well as the All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams. Therefore, they can\u2019t miss more than 17 games in a season to be eligible.<\/p>\n

Around the halfway point of the 2024-25 season, there are already plenty of notable players who will not be eligible even if they don\u2019t miss another game as they won\u2019t reach the 65-game threshold<\/a>. Someone such as Franz Wagner<\/a> is likely to join these players soon, as he is out with a torn oblique and has missed 16 games. Jimmy Butler<\/a> is suspended for one more game which will be his 17th missed.<\/p>\n

Players are listed in alphabetical order by last name.<\/p>\n

Notable NBA Players Who Will Not Reach The 65-Game Threshold<\/h2>\n

Paolo Banchero, Magic<\/h3>\n

The first overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, a strained oblique sidelined Paolo Banchero<\/a> for 34 consecutive games from November 1 until January 9. The 22-year-old finally returned January 10 and has played in two games since.<\/p>\n

Named an All-Star last season, Banchero dropped 50 points right before getting injured in a game on October 28 against the Indiana Pacers. He has averaged 28.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in the seven contests he has appeared in.<\/p>\n

Luka Doncic, Mavericks<\/h3>\n

Tuesday was Luka Doncic<\/a>\u2019s 18th game missed of the season. Therefore, he will fall short of the 65-game threshold. The 25-year-old has missed 10 straight contests with a left calf strain.<\/p>\n

The 2023-24 scoring champion, Doncic was certainly putting up ridiculous averages once again. In 22 outings, he has averaged 28.1 points, 8.3 rebounds, 7.8 assists, and 2.0 steals. A streak of five-straight seasons making the All-NBA First Team will come to an end for Doncic.<\/p>\n

Joel Embiid, 76ers<\/h3>\n

The 76ers have been a huge disappointment this season, and a large reason for that has been the unavailability of Joel Embiid<\/a>. Philadelphia has played 37 games, and Embiid has only appeared in 13 of them. The 2022-23 MVP missed the first nine games and has now missed five in a row with a left foot sprain.<\/p>\n

One of the most dominant players in the league, Embiid clearly has not been healthy all year. While his numbers are still good, they aren\u2019t nearly what they were. Thus season, the 7-foot-1 center is averaging 24.4 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.0 blocks.<\/p>\n

Chet Holmgren, Thunder<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s remarkable how the Oklahoma City Thunder have remained the top team in the Western Conference<\/a> without Chet Holmgren<\/a>. The Rookie of the Year runner-up last season, Holmgren hasn\u2019t played since November 10. He suffered a right iliac wing fracture in that game.<\/p>\n

Altogether, the 22-year-old has only appeared in 10 contests this season. In those, Holmgren has posted averages of 16.4 points, 8.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 2.6 blocks.<\/p>\n

Brandon Ingram, Pelicans<\/h3>\n

Since playing 79 games in his rookie season of 2016-17, Brandon Ingram<\/a> hasn\u2019t appeared in more than 64 in any of the ensuing eight. The 27-year-old hasn\u2019t played since December 7 due to a sprained left ankle.<\/p>\n

Thus far, Ingram had played in 18 of the Pelicans first 41 games. In his appearances, he owns averages of 22.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists.<\/p>\n

Kawhi Leonard, Clippers<\/h3>\n

Unfortunately as wonderful a player as Kawhi Leonard<\/a> has been during his career, there will always be the narrative surrounding him on how many games he has missed. It\u2019s more of the same in 2024-25, as the 33-year-old wasn\u2019t in action for each of the Clippers first 34 games because of right knee injury recovery.<\/p>\n

The two-time Finals MVP finally made his return to the court on January 4. Leonard is still ramping<\/a> up the minutes he can play, as he played about 20 in each of his three appearances thus far.<\/p>\n

Kristaps Porzingis, Celtics<\/h3>\n

While Kristaps Porzingis<\/a> fit seamlessly with the Celtics after joining them last season, he also missed 25 regular season and half of Boston\u2019s 14 postseason contests in 2023-24. In 2024-25, the 7-foot-2 center has only appeared 16 times through the Celtics first 39 games. The 29-year-old missed the first 17 games for Boston after undergoing offseason foot surgery.<\/p>\n

In his 16 outings, Porzingis has averages of 18.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.5 blocks.<\/p>\n

Zion Williamson, Pelicans<\/h3>\n

The 2024-25 season has just been another one to see Zion Williamson<\/a> frequently sidelined. The first overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Williamson has only played in nine games this season. A left hamstring strain kept Williamson in street clothes for 27 consecutive outings.<\/p>\n

As always, Williamson has been productive when he\u2019s actually playing. In his nine contests, the 24-year-old has averages of 21.7 points, 7.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.0 blocks.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the NBA having a problem with their star players sitting out random games due to rest, the league implemented a new 65-game rule for the 2023-24 season. A player must have played in at least 65 games to be eligible for end-of-year awards and honors such as MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5060,"featured_media":118095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,5,30,27,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-mavericks","category-clippers","category-nba"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5060"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117310"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117312,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117310\/revisions\/117312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}