Surprising statistics for the Detroit Pistons without Cade Cunningham

Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons has missed the last seven games and in that time his team has gone just 1-6, with their lone win coming last night on the road in Denver.

Losing Cunningham for an extended period is pretty much the nightmare scenario for Detroit, as he is their best player, and more importantly, we were all hoping to watch him grow and improve with his young teammates this season.

The Pistons were already struggling and staring down one of the league’s worst records, so losing Cade Cunningham was a big blow to their already-low chance of being competitive this season.

But the Detroit Pistons have actually shown some signs of life since their leader went down, closing their scoring margin to just -5.5, way down from the -10 it was for most of the season.

They are still losing, but the games have been closer and there have been a number of surprising stats for the Detroit Pistons without Cade Cunningham.

Detroit Pistons: Surprising statistics without Cade Cunningham

Sifting through the numbers for the last seven games, there were some statistics that stood out for the Detroit Pistons.

Points per game

Detroit has been scoring more points without Cunningham so far, scoring 111.7 points per game compared to 108.1 they averaged with him. They have averaged 120 over their last three games and have improved to 24th in the NBA in points per game after being at the bottom of the league for much of the season.

Points per game allowed

The defense has been slightly better, but not by much, as the Pistons have allowed 117.4 points per game without Cade and 118.3 with him. This is obviously an area where the Pistons have to improve soon if they want to turn the corner as a franchise.

Shooting

One of the reasons the Pistons have been scoring more points of late is that they are shooting better, improving to 45.9 percent from the field overall in the last seven games without Cade. They shot 42.9 percent with him.

The 3-point percentage has improved by a fraction with attempts staying about the same, so there hasn’t been any measurable difference from behind the arc.

Detroit is attempting more free throws, again by a small number, but this is important, as they are currently leading the NBA in free-throw attempts per game.

Turnovers and assists

Turnovers have stayed about the same with or without Cade Cunningham and assists per game have actually gone up in his absence by more than an assist per game.

Obviously, the sample size is small here, as the Pistons haven’t even played 20 games yet, but it’s promising that they haven’t completely collapsed without their best player even though they’ve won just one game.

The bench has played better of late, which is part of it, as getting Alec Burks back really gave that group the boost they needed. Rookies Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren have stepped up in Cade’s absence, which you love to see, giving fans some hope that this team is not as far away as their record might indicate if they can ever get to full strength.

Let’s hope it just takes rest and that Cunningham doesn’t have to miss the whole season, as it would be nice to see what this team really has with their full roster.