Detroit Pistons’ former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham believes that this Detroit team has what it takes to make some noise this season and ‘turn the corner’ as a franchise. The last time the team made the playoffs was in 2019, but they were eliminated in the very first round, and before that, the team had not made any playoff noise since the early 2000s.
Cunningham is now entering Year 2 with the franchise and is looking to grow individually and as a teammate. Cunningham’s rookie season started slowly due to injury, but as the season went on, Cunningham began to heat up. When the season was over, Cunningham averaged 17.4 points, 5.6 assists, and 5.5 rebounds while only appearing in 64 games total.
During a recent interview with Andscapes Marc Spears, Cunningham reflected on his first year in the NBA, stating:
“It was tough. I wanted to go through training camp. I wanted to go through preseason and get my early feel before the regular season to fill my game out throughout the league and arenas. Sitting there watching helped my game a lot, mentally especially. I feel like there was a lot of things going on in my mind, but it just kept me poised and really helped me learn about myself and how to keep myself steady and be ready for the next day and ready to go.”
Cunningham’s words and stellar play impressed Pistons Coach Dwayne Casey, who said, “He is just mature,” Casey said. “He has what few players, like Kyle Lowry, have in their career. He’s a born leader. Does he make mistakes like other young players? Yes. But he knows it as soon as he does it. He’s a very smart player. He just has ‘it.’ He is not your typical 21-year-old man.”
Since appearing on the cover of SLAM 238, Cunningham has always been outspoken about wanting to build a special culture in Detroit, which the team has tried to showcase with its recent off-season additions. This past summer, the Pistons added veterans Bojan Bogdanovic, Nerlens Noel, and Alec Burks. The Pistons also have other talented young players to keep an eye on Jaden Ivey, Saddiq Bey, Marvin Bagley III, and Isaiah Stewart.
However, Detroit’s new additions of talent and veteran leadership could not come without a price, and that price was trading away the key and very well-liked Jerami Grant to the Portland Trailblazers.
Cunningham touched on this, saying the following,
“He was a big part of our team. Letting him go was something that really changed the locker room but made me have to step up and be ready,”
When Cunningham was asked what the goal was, the Oklahoma State product said that he believed the Pistons “can turn the corner.”
Cunningham seems more than ready to lead the Pistons back to the ‘glory days,’ and even former NBA player Jalen Rose believes the Pistons have an ‘All-Star backcourt’ pairing in Ivey and Cunningham as well.
“We can turn the corner,” Cunningham said. “We’ve got a lot of talent in here, a lot of depth. We’re coming together more and more each day. We’re figuring each other out more. It’s an exciting time for us. But the league is tough. The league ain’t easy. So, we’re just taking it day by day and trying to get better each day. If we do that, then playoffs are our goal. We’re trying to get into playoffs and really just see where we can go.”
One thing is certain: there is, without a doubt, a storm brewing over in the Motor City, and it is no longer a quiet one.
