Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham and Killian Hayes on notorious list

The Detroit Pistons are hoping for big leaps from Cade Cunningham and Killian Hayes next season.

Cade was outstanding in the latter part of his rookie season, ending with numbers that put him in an exclusive group of active players.

He is the guy the Pistons are building around, and is already getting some recognition as one of the best point guards in the NBA even though he is only 20-years-old.

Killian Hayes has been a different story in his young career. He has battled through injuries in two seasons and has yet to figure things out on the offensive end, though he too is still very young.

Detroit has to make a decision on Hayes in October and it is not a given that they pick up his team option, though I think they probably will, as it is way too early to give up on the young point guard.

Cade Cunningham represents the future of the Detroit Pistons, while we are really just hoping Killian Hayes has a future in the Motor City.

The two are very different players, but one thing they do have in common is that they were both incredibly inefficient last season and found themselves on a list they would like to get off of as soon as possible.

Detroit Pistons: Cade Cunningham, Killian Hayes and the NBA’s most efficient players

NBA University recently put together a list of the league’s most inefficient players by looking at points per shot. It’s certainly not the only way to measure efficiency, but these results don’t look great for Detroit:

Using this measure, Hayes was the least efficient scorer in the NBA, numbers that merely confirm the eye test if you’ve ever seen him play, as he does miss a ton of shots.

Cade Cunningham came in 10th, which is more a result of his early 3-point shooting woes and the fact that he carried a huge burden on both ends as a rookie. He was also getting double teamed a lot and often facing the other team’s best defender, things that were not true for Killian.

Cade took more than twice as many field goal attempts per game and still had much better shooting numbers than Killian, though they both need to improve.

I have little doubt that Cunningham will get there next season, as some early shooting woes when he was injured really brought down his overall numbers for the season. His efficiency ticked up after the All-Star break, hopefully a sign of things to come.

Hayes can get there too if he can just find a go-to shot, whether it is the corner 3-pointer or hitting more of the wide-open runners and floaters he’s able to get off ball screens.

Most of the list (other than Reggie Jackson, yikes!) are young guards who are still figuring it out, which you would expect, but hopefully Cade and Killian can shoot their way off this list very soon.