Violation of the player participation policy again! The Cavaliers are fined another $250,000: previously fined $100,000 in November.

On December 5th, Beijing time, the NBA officially announced that the Cleveland Cavaliers were fined $250,000 for breaching the league's player participation policy. The policy introduced by the NBA in 2023 aims primarily to reduce teams resting healthy players during the regular season.

The policy mainly targets players identified as “star players,” explicitly stating that without league-approved legitimate reasons (including actual injuries), star players are not allowed to miss NBA Cup games or nationally televised matches.

According to the NBA’s official explanation, the violation occurred because All-Star guard Garland could have played in the nationally televised game against the Toronto Raptors on November 25th, but the Cavaliers had him participate in the non-televised game against the Clippers the day before, causing him to miss the nationally broadcast matchup.

This is not the first time the Cavaliers have been fined this season for this issue. On November 13th, during an away game against the Miami Heat, both Mitchell and Mobley were rested simultaneously, violating the league’s player participation policy, resulting in a $100,000 fine from the NBA.

According to the league’s policy introduced before the 2023-2024 season, both Mitchell and Mobley are classified as “star players.” The policy’s intent is to curb load management and increase player participation during the regular season. At that time, the Cavaliers were in a dense schedule with 6 games in 8 days, and the team listed their absence as “rest,” leading to the league’s penalty.

It is worth noting that Mitchell and Mobley played in the overtime loss against the Heat two days earlier (November 11th), and on November 14th, the day after missing the 13th, both were back in the starting lineup for the Cavaliers’ back-to-back home game.