NBA players ineligible for 2026 awards: Why Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, more can't win MVP

NBA players ineligible for 2026 awards: Why Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards, LeBron James, more can't win MVP originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . Load management has become an increasing trend in the NBA, and it has affected many players in the hunt for NBA season awards.

While the league recently created a 65-game minimum to qualify for awards, teams have still opted to play the risk and rest their stars during some games. This has been shown to come back and bite them if a player would later miss extended time due to injury. In these 65 or more games, players are required to be on the court for 20 minutes or more.

A player is allowed two "near misses," where the player has played 15-19 minutes, and still be allowed to qualify. Along with this, players who are on the court for 62 credited games can remain eligible if they were to suffer a season-ending injury. Here are the stars who missed out or came close to qualifying for this year's awards.

NBA PLAYOFFS HQ: Live NBA scores | NBA playoff schedule | NBA playoff bracket NBA players ineligible for 2026 awards With the NBA's new rule of the 65-game threshold to qualify for season awards, teams have opted to rest their players fewer times than in previous years. However, some star players still fall short of qualifying due to injury or other factors. For example, many of this year's players with a significant amount of minutes played found themselves outside of award eligibility due to not playing 20 minutes or more.