Pistons: Is Cade Cunningham lobbying for more minutes with Jalen Duren?
Cade Cunningham and Isaiah Stewart in the pick and roll
For this one you don’t need a bunch of fancy stats, as the eye test tells us everything we need to know.
Cade and Stewart have struggled mightily in PnR and dribble hand-off situations and it is causing big problems for the offense.
Stewart is absolutely no threat on the roll, so Cade’s man never even looks at him, and instead, everyone just packs into the lane, which causes all types of spacing problems.
Stewart has hit just 18 percent of his 3-point shots so far, and although he will almost certainly improve, for now, teams are not respecting his shooting at all and are just leaving him open, once again packing the lane and making it impossible for Cade to get to his spots.
light. Related Story. Would the Pistons do this trade for a former player?
The biggest problem may be that Stewart simply whiffs on the screens far too often, as the two have had some nice moments together when Stewart actually engages on the screen and sets a hard one.
But most of the time he just hints at a screen and starts rolling before he’s actually done anything, which just takes more defenders into the paint.
Our friend Bryce at Motor City Hoops broke this down brilliantly (he’s a must-follow for Pistons’ fans) and showed the difference between a good screen and a bad one and how it affects the offense.
Cade Cunningham can thrive with a big man who actually sets a hard screen and is a threat when he rolls to the rim. It’s something he knows, which makes me wonder if he is lobbying his coach to get more run with Duren.