Cade Cunningham made his second All-Star appearance this season, and for the first time in his career, he had an All-Star teammate, but the Pistons still have the same need they had five years ago, which is to find Cunningham a number two.
While Duren may have given Cunningham his first All-Star teammate, he’s not a true number two option, which he has shown in the last two playoffs. Duren is still young, and will improve, so who knows, he might get there at some point in his career, but that point is clearly not now.
Cunningham just completed his 5th NBA season and has cemented himself as a superstar and one of the top players in the game, but the Pistons are still failing him in the same ways.
The Pistons can’t take Cade Cunningham for granted
I’ve been at the head of the “be patient” parade, but at some point, you have to take a shot when you have a superstar player. Cunningham will be entering year six, which seems crazy, as I started covering the Pistons full time a year before he entered the league, which both seems like a minute and a century ago.
And after half a decade, Bojan Bogdanovic is still the best scorer Cade has played with, and he was 34 years old and on his way out of the league. Detroit thought they might have had their guy with Jaden Ivey, but little did they know that he too was headed for unemployment. The Pistons have to do better.
Cunningham isn’t going to play forever, and for all we know, he’s already halfway or close to halfway through his career, and the Pistons still haven’t found a number two, which you can’t say about any of the other MVP candidates.
The Pistons are still a relatively young team, but the way the CBA is structured, keeping teams together long term is nearly impossible, and when you see what OKC and the Spurs are doing right now with even younger teams, why wait?
Cunningham isn’t going to be in Detroit forever, and the Pistons can’t be too careful during his prime years, or they will blink, and he’ll be 32. Trust me, it happens.
Where is the Pistons next star going to come from?
The Pistons don’t necessarily need another superstar player, as they have some in-house options that may blossom. I can’t rule out Ausar Thompson eventually being a guy who scores 18 points per game and morphs into that role, but again, do the Pistons want to keep waiting for that to happen?
Duren could find another level on both ends, show he can play in the playoffs and be that second guy, but is that a bet the Pistons can make with Cunningham heading into year six?
It appears as though the second scoring option will have to come from the outside, and there are a bevy of possibilities from the older veterans (Kawhi, Kyrie), to up and coming wings hitting their primes (TMIII), to cast offs from tax teams (Cason Wallace Isaiah Joe), to possibly finding him in the draft.
Tyrese Maxey was taken with the 21st pick, so you never know.
What we do know is that Cunningham can’t do this forever, and if the Pistons want to progress, they need a second star. It's now on Trajan Langdon to figure out how to get one or to bet on his own guys to get there.
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