The Detroit Pistons have their franchise star in Cade Cunningham, but where he ranks among franchise players in the NBA is a matter of opinion.
Bleacher Report recently put together their tiers of franchise guys, and the list wasn’t surprising. It was headlined by the foursome of Victor Wembanyama, Giannis, SGA and Nikola Jokic, three MVPs and a guy who has a chance to win one in the near future.
Below them are Luka Doncic, Anthony Edwards and Jayson Tatum, three perennial All-Stars who have won titles or at least made deep runs in the playoffs.
Cunningham is in the third tier with Evan Mobley, Tyrese Haliburton, Donovan Mitchell, Jalen Brunson and Paolo Banchero.
B/R was asking the question, “which player would you want to start an NBA franchise with,” so age was a factor. I think this is a completely fair spot for Cade Cunningham to be, but with the right season, he can make the experts re-think this question next offseason.
Cade Cunningham moving up the MVP ladder for the Pistons
Jayson Tatum will likely miss all of next season with an injury, so Cunningham could bypass him on this list through no fault of Tatum’s. But if the Celtics miss the playoffs (I would bet against that) and the Pistons finish in the top four, we’ll have to start re-evaluating where Tatum stands in the MVP tiers compared to Cade Cunningham.
Cunningham has a way to go to catch Tatum, but remember, this isn’t about who is the better player but which player you’d like to start a team with. Given their respective ages, Cade may move ahead of Tatum just by staying healthy.
This may sound crazy to say, but Cade could also leapfrog Luka depending on where the Lakers finish next season.
Everyone thought the Mavs were fools when they traded Luka, buy they did raise legit concerns about his health, physical fitness and terrible defense. That will always be a bad trade, as the Mavs could have gotten more by shopping Luka to the entire league and not just LA, but I think they raised some fair points about him being your franchise cornerstone.
Cunningham is only off his first full healthy season himself, so has similar concerns, but if Luka has another season where his team disappoints or even misses the playoffs, the comparison will be more favorable for Cade as a franchise guy. We are not there yet, but could there soon be a day when Cade bypasses Luka?
Cunningham has a ton yet to prove, as he needs to show he can put up MVP-like numbers on a winning team consistently before he’ll move up the ranks, but the power is starting to shift in the NBA and Cade’s generation is on the rise.