Detroit Pistons: 3 keys to Cade Cunningham winning Rookie of the Year

Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham needs to avoid hitting the rookie wall

The rookie wall is a vague term. It can mean anything from a rookie falling into a shooting slump to just general fatigue from the long season.

Rookies are for the first time playing in an 82 game season. In college, they did not face the long grind of an NBA season as usually even the top teams played no more than 35-38 games. Back-to-backs on the road, or playing in three games in four nights are not trials that rookies had to face during their collegiate careers.

As a result, some rookies fall to fatigue and begin to struggle around the midpoint of the NBA season, when a normal colelge season would end. The rookie wall can affect each player differently, and sometimes it does not affect players at all.

More than anything, the rookie wall refers to any slump that occurs midseason for first-year players having a good season. The slump can be a handful of games, or the rest of the season. Typically, rookies hit this wall before the All-Star break.

In 2017-18 Jayson Tatum went through a 16-game stretch before the All-Star break in which he hit a shooting slump. On the season, Tatum was a 43.4 percent shooter from three-point range. During this particular16 games before the All-Star break, Tatum’s three-point shooting percentage tanked to just 33.3 percent.

Post-All-Star break, Tatum’s shooting rebounded up to 45.3 percent from beyond the arc in the final 21 games of the season.

For Cunningham, avoiding the rookie wall would involve continued efficiency from long range. While playmaking and defense could also find slight decreases as fatigue begins to set in, shooting efficiency is most likely to find itself in freefall, if Cunningham hits the rookie wall.

If the 19-year-old can avoid the rookie wall, continue shooting the ball efficiently and continue being a stout defender and creative playmaker, Cunningham could run away with the Rookie of the Year award. While his peers begin to hit a midseason slump, Cunningham would just need to play with consistency.

If Cunningham hits the wall along with his fellow rookies, the race for Rookie of the Year would be much tighter.

Whether he hits the wall or not, Cunningham is going to have to outplay the other rookies from his draft class, particularly in single-game matchups.