You think the Pistons are better without Cade Cunningham?The Pistons stunned the heavily favored Thunder on Sunday without their best player, prompting the obvious: do they need Cade?
The woeful Detroit Pistons, without budding star Cade Cunningham, beat one of the best teams in the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder, this past weekend. They did so with a calm and grace that has not been seen at Little Caesar’s Arena this season, staying in control for the entire game. It was a shocking turn of events for a team that was This prompted the natural question on social media: are the Pistons BETTER without Cade Cunningham? No, they are not. End of discussion. This post isn’t over — but we still need you to subscribe to support our work. It’s free 👇 Okay, no — it’s not the end of the discussion. If anything, the discussion will only grow should the Pistons continue to look more effective without Cunningham. So let’s dive into it. First off, Cade is having the best season of his short almost three-year career. He’s averaging 22.8 points and 7.8 assists per game while shooting 44.8% from the floor and 34% from deep, all career-highs. Cade’s offense has noticeably improved from nearly all areas on the floor, demonstrating higher efficiency from the rim, short mid-range, and three-point territory. His assist percentage is a career-high and in the 100th percentile per Cleaning the Glass. He’s managed this despite an extremely flawed roster around him, one that hinders growth and development for any blue-chip prospect. It’s true, the Pistons are not as good with Cade on the floor (as opposed to off) as they have in the past. But the Pistons are also worse this year than they have been in the last two seasons. The team has inexplicably regressed year after year. Cade’s numbers have improved, but the team overall is worse. How?
Enter Monty Williams. The once-highest-paid head coach in the NBA has been… underwhelming so far, and his lineup antics are directly sabotaging the team’s best player. The most-used lineup with Cade in it has a -10.2 point differential per Cleaning the Glass. That fearsome five pairs Cade with Killian Hayes, Ausar Thompson, Isaiah Stewart, and Jalen Duren. For those counting at home — that’s FOUR non-shooters next to Cunningham. That lineup has seen the floor for 213 possessions so far this season. The second most-used lineup swaps Duren out for Marvin Bagley and improves the differential by 10.9 points. Does this mean Bagley is better than Duren? No, but it does mean that having even the slightest semblance of offense improves things greatly. What about the preseason predicted starting lineup of Jaden Ivey, Cade Cunningham, Bojan Bogdanovic, Isaiah Stewart, and Jalen Duren? Ah, that lineup is a +28.0 in just 82 possessions per Cleaning the Glass. Sure, injuries have played a part in the wonky lineups, and Williams is asked to work with the hand he is dealt, but his decision-making, especially with Ivey, has been inexplicably dumb. Remember, this is the guy who said he decided to start Isaiah Livers one day “without even thinking about it”. Yikes. So what happened against the Thunder? The Pistons bench was dynamite and Jalen Duren stifled Chet Holmgren. Cunningham’s replacement in Hayes finished with two points, three rebounds, and three assists in 13 minutes. Ivey operated as the point guard and was able to apply rim pressure and scoring punch, tallying 19 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. Duren had 22 points and 21 rebounds including nine offensive boards. But it was the bench that proved to be the most effective, finishing as a combined +73. They were excellent, led by Alec Burks, Marcus Sasser, and Ausar Thompson. Does this mean the bench is only good when Cunningham is out? No, of course not. That would be ridiculous. So then why jump to conclusions about Cade as being bad for the team after one game? The Pistons need Cunningham, and to say otherwise is obtuse. He is having a very good season despite the front office and coaching staff putting him in a dreadful position, asking him to make lemonade out of plastic oranges. The front office, especially, needs to do a better job of putting good players around him (no, not Zach LaVine) to accentuate his skillset. Cade is a building block and a damn good one at that. Let’s not blame the 22-year-old former first-overall pick for being unable to drag a bad roster to some wins. Instead, ask the front office to do right by him and put other good players on the roster — before he quietly asks to go to a team that will.  We’ll mail you a random Pistons item off eBay……if you refer 25 friends to subscribe to Palace of Pistons. Click this button to share POP with a Pistons fan in your life. The item will be ∼$25 in value. Did someone send this to you?
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