The Detroit Pistons are 5-25 and have the worst record in the NBA, so it might seem like things couldn’t get much worse.
But as the Pistons have proven over the years, things can always get worse!
That’s exactly what happened yesterday when it was announced that number one pick Cade Cunningham is out after testing positive for COVID:
Detroit Pistons rookie Cade Cunningham has entered health and safety protocols, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 22, 2021
This is on top of Jerami Grant being out with torn thumb ligaments, so the Detroit Pistons are missing their best two players and the focal points of their entire offense, which is bad even with them.
So an ugly season is about to get even uglier, as a quick look at the stats shows just how important these two players are for the Pistons.
With Cade Cunningham and Jerami Grant out, who is going to score for the Detroit Pistons?
You won’t find too many players who do more for their team than Cade Cunningham and Jerami Grant do for the Pistons.
Even though they aren’t winning games anyway, this is barely an NBA team without these two and their teammates are going to have some pretty big numbers to account for.
Here is what will be missing from their rotation:
- 35.3 points per game which is 35.2% of their total scoring
- 52.8% of their usage. One of these two have the ball over half the time
- 8.1 free throw attempts (the Pistons only consistent way of scoring)
- 12.1 three-point attempts per game
- 18.7 two-point attempts per game
- 11 rebounds
- 7.8 assists
- 2.5 steals per game
As you can see, a huge chunk of the Pistons’ offense and defense is going to be missing, and they don’t have any replacements, hell, they don’t have enough good players when Jerami Grant and Cade Cunningham are in the lineup.
There is a subsection of the fanbase that thinks any victory is an affront to the “Plan” or the “Tank” (when this is totally not true given how lottery odds work), so they should be happy, as there is next to zero chance the Detroit Pistons are going to win a game without Cade and Jerami.
The Detroit Pistons are barely an NBA team with their two best players and without them they are just a bunch of guys getting some cardio.