Detroit Pistons: Is Cade Cunningham 100 percent healthy?

For the Detroit Pistons to be competitive next year, they will need a full, healthy season from Cade Cunningham.

Cunningham played just 12 games this past season and eventually had surgery to repair a shin that had been hampering him since high school. It’s exciting to think that Cade was that good on one healthy leg, and fans of the Pistons can’t wait to see what comes next.

The Detroit Pistons said all along that Cade Cunningham would be healthy and ready to go for a full offseason, but so far there’s been a lot of radio silence about what he is actually doing.

We’ve seen occasional videos or proclamations like this from trainer Ashton:

https://twitter.com/Pistons__Talk/status/1659293811963490335

But so far I’ve not actually seen Cade Cunningham playing basketball, and the team has been tight lipped about how he is progressing.

Detroit Pistons: Is Cade Cunningham 100 percent healthy?

This is nothing to be particularly alarmed about, as players often spend the first part of their offseason with personal trainers, or putting in work in the gym. It’s not unusual to not see or hear from a player for the first few weeks of the offseason.

But beat writer James Edwards III recently asked about Cade’s ability to go five-on-five and he didn’t get a very satisfying answer:

"“I checked in over the last week if Cade can go a full five-on-five. There were a lot of crickets. I think, with the way they operate, I don’t see it as a concern. I think he’s probably good to go or close to good to go. I’ve seen videos of him boxing lately. Seeing him in person, he’s put on a significant amount of muscle. He looks completely different physically. I’ve seen him do shooting stuff after practices.”"

Based on this it sounds like Cunningham is close but not quite there yet when it comes to going all out in practice. Several reports have claimed that he has put on a lot of muscle and been working on his jump shot, so hopefully he’ll be good to go soon when it comes to playing five-on-five and starting to build that chemistry with his teammates.

But the Detroit Pistons do not have the best track record when it comes to being transparent about injuries, so even though it sounds as if Cade is progressing on schedule (or close to it), I’ll have to withhold my optimism until I see him playing basketball at full speed.