After making 1st team All-NBA last season, it’s safe to say that Cade Cunningham has made the leap to stardom, but that doesn’t mean he’s a finished product.
If you had to name areas where Cade needs improvement, it would likely start with taking better care of the ball and reducing the turnovers. I tend not to worry about this one much, as many of his turnover issues were a byproduct of poor spacing and a heavy workload.
The Pistons have hopefully addressed the first issue with better shooters but will still need to find ways to get Cunningham off the ball more and spread the responsibility more evenly.
The other big area of potential improvement for Cunningham is his 3-point shooting, which has been mediocre for most of his career. He shot just 34 percent on 5.7attempts per game last season, both down from the year before.
But Cunningham showed in the playoffs that the 3-ball canbe a weapon for him, and it starts with more playmaking from Ausar Thompson.
Cade Cunningham needs more catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts
Cunningham attempted nearly a shot more per game in catch-and-shoot 3-point situations in the playoffs than he did in the regular season, not a huge uptick, but enough to matter in close games.
The eye-popping number is that he made 50 percent of them and looked more fluid and confident doing so, things that will hopefully carry into this season.
Cunningham hit just 32 percent of these shots last year in the regular season, so you could say his playoffs were a small sample size anomaly and not sustainable.
That’s somewhat true, but it’s also a shot the Pistons need to tap into more often this season, as Cunningham has shown he can be effective off the ball as a shooter, and it will reduce his workload.
But someone has to create and be able to collapse a defense for Cade to be open for catch-and-shoot 3-pointers, which is where Ausar Thompson’s leap as a playmaker is vitally important.
If Thompson can consistently collapse defenses as a playmaker and force them to react, it will leave more kick-out opportunities for Cunningham to cash in.
Thompson being able to hit a mid-range jumper and more aggressively attacking the rim will allow Cunningham to get the ball off passes with the defense already moving, which gives him an advantage as an attacker and as a shooter.
The Pistons can help reduce Cade’s turnovers and workload by allowing Thompson to be the playmaker more often, which will also set Cunningham up for his next obvious evolution, which is to increase his volume and accuracy from the 3-point line.
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