Cade Cunningham is well on his way to validating last year’s leap to All-NBA status, but he can’t continue to carry the Detroit Pistons’ offense all by himself.
The Pistons are 16th in the league in offensive efficiency and 23rd in effective field-goal percentage, disservices to their No. 3 ranked defense. That’s in spite of Cunningham running particularly hot in November after a slow sstart (by his standards). This month, he’s averaging 28.3 points, 12.0 assists and 4.7 rebounds across three games—all Pistons wins.
Jaden Ivey is supposed to be Cunningham’s main source of playmaking and shooting support, but the belief in his ability to fill that role depends entirely on 30 pre-injury games from last year. He has yet to play this season following knee surgery, a worrisome development after last year’s broken fibula. Due for an extension this summer, Ivey comes with risks and uncertainty across the board.
Let’s see what we can do to boost the Pistons’ ceiling, give Cunningham the help he needs and finally get Lauri Markkanen onto a team good enough to put his obvious talent to use.
