Will the Detroit Pistons really be in the running for Victor Wembanyama?
Detroit Pistons: Life without Cade Cunningham
Cade Cunningham has now missed 15 games and the Detroit Pistons have gone 4-11 without him, but there are signs that they are learning to win without their best player.
The Pistons are 4-6 over their last 10 games and have beaten some good teams, with wins over Denver, Utah, Dallas and Miami in that stretch. They barely lost last night to the red-hot Pelicans even though they were on the second game of a back-to-back on the road.
Related Story. 9 players who may need to go before next season. light
Detroit is shooting 47.9 percent as a team over the last 10 games, a marked improvement from the rest of the season when they were the worst in the NBA. They are shooting 38.8 percent from long range, a HUGE improvement that has them up to 18th in the league overall after being at or near the bottom for most of the season.
The Pistons are now 24th overall in scoring, which is still terrible, but much better than where they were. The hot shooting of Bojan Bogdanovic, coupled with the return of Alec Burks and Marvin Bagley III and the improvement from Killian Hayes has helped, and Detroit’s offense suddenly looks incredibly average after being god-awful for most of the season.
The idea that the Pistons would just fold without Cade Cunningham has passed and these guys are starting to play better even though he is in street clothes. If they keep this up, it is very unlikely that they finish in the bottom 3-4 teams and could even overtake the Lakers or Bulls at some point.