Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham’s 2 biggest weaknesses

The Detroit Pistons are likely to draft Cade Cunningham with the first overall pick, largely because of his strong overall game.

He’s a 6-foot-8 point guard who can score from all over and is a strong defender, but even the most complete prospects have weaknesses.

Cunningham talked about these on a recent appearance on The Old Man and the Three podcast with J.J. Redick.

The host Redick, who is rocking an absolutely glorious mustache, asked Cade what he thought his biggest strengths and weaknesses were.

If you asked a fan or scout, they might say Cunningham’s biggest strengths were his size, passing and ability to score from all three levels, that’s easy.

They might say his biggest weakness was that he doesn’t have “elite” athleticism, which kind of makes me laugh, as most of us making these comments are pudgy dudes who couldn’t graze the bottom of the net telling a 6-foot-8 super human that his athleticism is not “elite.”

They said the same about Luka Doncic (a player Cunningham is often compared to) and that has worked out pretty well, so I am not at all concerned about Cunningham’s athleticism, as he makes up for it with a high basketball I.Q., slick handles, size and the ability to change speeds.

But I did think Cunningham’s answers to the question were really interesting and revealed a lot about how he views himself as a player. Let’s start with what he said was his biggest strength.

Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham’s biggest strength is that he makes his teammates better

I absolutely loved Cunningham’s response to the question “What is your biggest strength?”

His response was that his biggest strength is his ability to “elevate his teammates,” which is exactly what you want to hear from your future franchise point guard and team leader.

He also mentioned the ability to get his teammates good shots, again, something you love to hear from a guy who has the skill to be an elite scorer and passer. Cunningham was more known for his big shots in college, but if you look at the highlights, you’ll also see a guy who consistently collapsed defenses and got his teammates great looks.

They didn’t always knock them down in college, but he had a crazy number of potential assists, many of which will turn into points with a better cast of teammates.

I really love that Cunningham took a team first approach to this answer instead of just talking about his 3-point shooting or post game. This is a guy who wants to win and knows that the only way to do it is to make everyone around him better.

But what did Cade Cunningham say were his biggest weaknesses? He named two.