Cade Cunningham has shown many of the things we wanted to see from him so far in the early season.
He’s averaging 24 points, seven assists and 5.7 rebounds on outstanding shooting splits of 49 percent from the field and 39.5 percent from long range. He’s taking and making the most 3-point shots of his career with over six attempts per game.
He also showed last night how he can affect a game without a huge scoring output. Cunningham still ended with 19 points, but the Nets were throwing everything at him, so Cade got his teammates involved early and it paid off, as six Pistons players finished the game with at least 13 points.
Cunningham picked his spots and hit big shots when the Pistons needed them but let his teammates carry the load while the Nets sold out to keep him in check.
It’s been mostly positive for Cade in seven games, but there is one area he still has to clean up if the Pistons are going to consistently win games.
Cade Cunningham stats: Turnovers
The Detroit Pistons are dead last in the NBA in turnovers per game, committing 18.3 per contest, which they did again last night against the Nets.
They were able to beat Brooklyn with solid team defense and timely shooting, but on most nights, 18 turnovers is not going to get it done, especially against good teams.
Cade Cunnigham has been a big part of this, adding seven more to his total last night, which offset some of the good things he did.
Cunningham is currently tied for 3rd in the NBA with 5.1 turnovers per game, same as Trae Young and just ahead of Ja Morant.
The two ahead of Cunningham are James Harden (6.2) and LaMelo Ball (5.5), so you might see a theme here. These are all high usage guy who are handling the ball upwards of 30 percent of the time for their respective teams.
High usage guards are going to commit some number of turnovers, so having a high TO count isn’t necessarily a knock against a player’s greatness. Perennial MVP candidate Luka Doncic is always near the top of the league in turnovers, though this season, he’s only averaging 2.6 per game, by far the best of his career.
Cunningham has already shown he can take care of the ball, as he did a much better job of it in the second half of last season, and part of this is adjusting to new teammates, but Cade still commits a couple a game that he has to cut out.
Enough of the jump pass
The jump pass has become a standard in the NBA and it can be effective, including for Cade Cunningham.
But Cade has a couple of plays every game where he jumps before he knows what he wants to do with the ball, leading to him having to make a quick decision on the way down and a pass that doesn’t have much on it.
The unforced error
Cunningham has a bad tendency to offer up a lazy pass and hand the other team a turnover for no reason.
You can accept some turnovers as part of the cost of doing business, especially with passes in traffic or when teams trap effectively, but Cade has to cut out the ones that are unforced.
These often come in transition with Cunningham throwing a loopy pass to a player who is well covered or not looking for the ball.
The Pistons’ margin for error is razor thin, so cutting out these turnovers that come from simple lack of focus could be the difference in many games.