Detroit Pistons show they can win without Cade Cunningham
The Detroit Pistons had won just one game all season that Cade Cunningham did not play in. The victory over the Orlando Magic showed other players can step up when called upon. This is important for the future.
The days of the ‘Ironman’, a player who plays every game in the NBA season is long gone. Wilt Chamberlain was so valuable to the Warriors, he actually averaged over 48 minutes a game for the season, as he played almost the entire game plus any overtimes. Of course, that was back in 1962.
Nowadays, ‘sports science’ decrees that all players who play major minutes need ‘rest days’ to recuperate from the grind of the NBA season. When a rash of big-name stars sitting, although healthy, in nationally televised games developed, the NBA office actually passed a rule discouraging it.
But the bottom line is, no one should expect a key player to be in all 82 games in a season. Teams, to be successful, need to learn to play without their top players.
The Pistons had not done well when No. 1 overall draft pick Cade Cunningham was absent from the lineup. Like really, really bad.
Going into the game at Orlando, Detroit had played 16 games without Cunningham. They had lost all of them excerpt one (an overtime win over San Antonio when most of the lineup was wiped out due to health protocols).
So the 134-120 win over the Magic is really the first time the regular Pistons players have won a game without Cade.
Since no one, even if healthy, plays all 82, they need to learn they can win without Cunningham in the lineup. And, in the future, hopefully, when wins are important for playoff seeding, the team needs to have the confidence they can emerge victorious without him.
Yes, they were beating a team with an ever worse record than them and, as the NBA-TV analysts pointed out, Orlando was not exactly engaged on defense. But a win is a win, and when you have just 19 of them, all are valuable.
4 reasons Detroit Pistons won without Cade Cunningham?
Turnovers not a problem for once):
Detroit has had a tendency all season to chuck the ball many times to players with different uniforms. This game, the Pistons only turned the ball over seven times (to 13 for the Magic). When your offensive options get limited, making sure you take advantage of every shot is important.
Do not forget that Detroit was missing more than Cunningham. Jerami Grant, Hamidou Diallo, Frank Jackson and, after early in the second half, Killian Hayes, were all unavailable as well.
Good teams find a way to win no matter who is playing. This is a valuable lesson for the future the Pistons learned.