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Timberwolves fans need to come to grips with important new NBA rule

By Bret Stuter

Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports /
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Minnesota Timberwolves, Timberwolves news, Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns NBA Rules
Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /

What happens if a team breaks a PPP Rule?

In a short summary, it gets expensive.

Violations can pile up quickly, and will trigger the following financial penalties:

  1. First offense – $100,000 fine
  2. Second offense – $250,000 fine
  3. Third offense – $1,250,000 fine
  4. Fourth and beyond offenses – $1,000,000 plus previous fine

So a four-time offense will pay fines of $100K, $250K, $1.25M, and $2.25M respectively.  As you can see, it will be worthwhile for every NBA team to hire a personnel executive whose sole purpose is to aid the coaching staff in ensuring compliance with the ever-growing complexity of managing their NBA rosters.

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So why now?  Well, the NBA is trying to launch a counter-offensive to a growing perception that NBA players are far softer than players in the past. Also, there is an ever-increasing revenue stream to the NBA coffers from casinos and online gambling.  With more revenue, the game is implementing strategies to ensure that the outcomes of games do not seem to be subjectively impacted by player availability.

The current list of star players will increase. With each new season, names of players who will appear in the NBA All-Star Game will be added to the list in February. Once added, teams will be required to ensure that they are handled in accordance with this policy as well.

Do teams have any relief?  The NBA PPP rules allow for several exceptions that will be granted, including:

  1. 35 years old on opening night or have career workloads of 34,000 regular-season minutes or 1,000 regular-season and playoff games combined (Mike Conley)
  2. Multigame absences for bona fide injury
  3. Personal reasons
  4. Rare and unusual circumstances
  5. Roster management of unavailable star players
  6. End-of-season flexibility

The new rule allows the NBA to investigate injury designations of star players if such injuries create a perception of non-compliance with the new PPP rule.

In short, five NBA teams are not impacted at all. 49 players are named in this new NBA rule, and the Minnesota Timberwolves have four of the 49 named players.  That translates into 8.2 percent of the impact of this rule falls squarely on the shoulders of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Timberwolves fans.

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