The Detroit Pistons only won 23 games this season, so it’s not likely that any of their players will win NBA awards.
Cade Cunningham will be the closest, as he was named as a finalist for Rookie of the Year, an award most people expect Evan Mobley of the Cleveland Cavaliers or Scottie Barnes of the Toronto Raptors to win.
You can argue about it all you want (I’m done) but Cade probably isn’t going to win and he’s the only Piston up for an award this season, unlike last year when Jerami Grant was one of the frontrunners for Most Improved Player.
Instead we’ll hand out our team awards to see who the MVP, Rookie of the Year (tough one), 6th Man, Defensive Player of the Year and Most Improved Player were for the Detroit Pistons.
Detroit Pistons team awards: Cade Cunningham wins RoY and MVP
I’m going to start with the two that were easiest to pick because they are the same guy. Cade Cunningham was not only the best rookie on the Pistons (by far) but one of the top-3 in the entire NBA, so that award is no-brainer.
Cunningham was also the Pistons’ MVP, leading them or in the top-5 in every category, taking over as the vocal leader of the team and finishing the season on a tear.
The Pistons only won three games without Cade in the lineup, showing the effect he has on winning. He makes everyone around him better, but knows when to take over a game, which is how he led all rookies in clutch-time points.
He was given the responsibility of being his team’s top scorer and playmaker for most of the season, usually while being double teamed and also defending one of the other team’s best players and he was up to the task.
Hmm, now that I think of it, maybe he should win….. ah never mind.