The Denver Nuggets have a decision to make when it comes to playing Nikola Jokic during Sunday’s regular season finale against the San Antonio Spurs.
Jokic is officially listed as questionable for Sunday’s game after sitting out Friday’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder. That leaves the star center with 64 games played, meaning he has to suit up Sunday to be eligible for end-of-season awards.
Thanks to a near-miss exemption, Jokic only has to play 15 minutes of Sunday’s game for it to count for award purposes. Coach David Adelman indicated that decision would be made on Saturday.
Coach Adelman on if Nikola Jokic will play on Sunday to qualify for end-of-season awards:
— Underdog NBA (@UnderdogNBA) April 11, 2026
"We're gonna have that conversation tomorrow … This rule stares at us right now. We gotta make a proper decision and go in there with a real plan. Either he plays [the minutes necessary]…
The Nuggets can secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference with a win, which is not necessarily a huge incentive. They can still get the 3 seed with a Lakers loss, even if the Nuggets lose to the Spurs.
Teams having to decide on whether to play star players in a meaningless game 82 is probably not what the league envisioned when instituting the 65-game rule. The rule was introduced to try to minimize load management, but has drawn criticism from players for depriving legitimately injured players the opportunity to earn deserved honors. One could also argue it hasn’t done much about the rest issue. Despite that, Adam Silver has publicly stood by the rule.
Jokic remains in the MVP hunt, though it is still more likely to go to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. That said, Jokic has All-NBA honors on the line, and he will undoubtedly want to play. One would expect the Nuggets to find him the minutes he needs.
