The NBA is investigating the Thunder and the Sixers for possible violations of the league’s player participation policy, sources tell Shams Charania of ESPN.
According to Charania, the NBA is looking specifically at the Thunder’s March 7 game vs. Portland, in which the team sat its entire starting five: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (rest), Chet Holmgren (lower leg contusion), Jalen Williams (wrist sprain), Luguentz Dort (patellofemoral soreness), and Isaiah Hartenstein (nasal fracture re-injury). Cason Wallace (right knee contusion) also missed the game, which wasn’t part of a back-to-back set.
While Holmgren sat out Oklahoma City’s March 5 contest too, the other five players who missed the Portland game were available on both March 5 and March 9.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the only Thunder player who meets the “star” criteria as defined by the player participation policy, but there’s a precedent for teams being penalized for sitting several “non-star” starters in the same game — the Nets were hit with a $100K fine last season for making a similar move.
Still, Rylan Stiles of SI.com (Twitter link) and Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link) are among the reporters to question the necessity of investigating the Thunder for their approach to the Portland game, given that they’ve had a strenuous post-All-Star schedule and still won the game by 18 points. Marks suggests that the league should be focused more on lottery-bound teams who may be flaunting the policy in an effort to improve their draft odds.
The Jazz, one such lottery-bound team, were fined $100K two days ago for a player participation policy. The Sixers, who have also seemingly pivoted to prioritizing lottery position in recent weeks, ruled out 11 players for Friday’s game vs. Indiana.
According to Charania, the league is looking at the Sixers due to the recent absences of Paul George (knee/back/finger) and Tyrese Maxey (back/finger). George has missed the past five games, while Maxey has been out for the past six, though head coach Nick Nurse said after Friday’s loss that Maxey should return at some point during Philadelphia’s upcoming six-game road trip (Twitter link via Derek Bodner of PHLY Sports).
The league may determine that the absences of George, Maxey, and the rest of the inactive Sixers players are legitimate, but if the club is determined to have violated the player participation policy, it could face a fine of $250K. That’s the amount for a second violation, and the 76ers already received a $100K fine earlier this season.