This has been a breakout year for Cade Cunningham, highlighted by his recent Eastern Conference Player of the Week victory. He’s been on fire, and the Detroit Pistons are the best team in the Eastern Conference. But with how well he’s been playing, pressure and expectations will inevitably follow. That’s a reality that Cunningham and the Pistons will have to learn to deal with.
Detroit’s red-hot play lately has been led by Cunningham, who is one of the best players at this point. Through the Pistons’ first 10 games of the season, Cunningham averaged 25.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 9.8 assists while shooting 46.5% from the field and 30.6% from beyond the three-point arc.
But now that the Pistons are one of the top teams in the East, will they be able to live up to the hype?
Will pressure build up for Cade Cunningham’s Pistons?
At one point or another, every young team faces the inevitable reality of having to make the leap from ‘fun, hungry squad’ to ‘legitimate playoff and championship contender.’
If they fail to make that jump, they get stuck in a slog of mid-tier seasons and short-lived playoff runs. At first, they get to chalk it up to being a young team, but eventually, that won’t fly anymore.
It doesn’t feel like the Pistons are quite there. Cunningham is still very young, and they have plenty of time to build around him. But his emergence this season could speed up the expectations surrounding them.
The Boston Celtics aren’t the same threat they were last year. Neither are the Indiana Pacers. The Eastern Conference has never felt more wide-open, and right now, the Pistons are leading the charge at the top of the standings.
If Cunningham continues to play as well as he has, the Pistons will almost be expected to make a deep playoff run. They got bounced in the first round last year, but Cunningham has taken another leap. A second-straight first-round exit would be a tough pill to swallow, especially considering how hot they’ve started the season.
There is plenty of basketball left to be played, but every young squad reaches the point where the regular season simply doesn’t matter as much anymore. They need to make it happen in the postseason.
With how well Cunningham and the Pistons have started the 2025-26 campaign, that point could be coming for them sooner than expected—and that’s a lot of pressure to deal with.