It’s no secret that it’s been a shaky summer for the Detroit Pistons. The Jalen Duren situation has marred the entire offseason; they lost Tobias Harris to the San Antonio Spurs, and their biggest offseason additions were John Collins and Isaiah Joe. After finishing as the No. 1 seed in the East last year, the Pistons didn’t make the big-swing move a lot of people expected them to make. Now, the rest of the conference may have taken a step ahead of them.
But a big-time leap from Cade Cunningham could help erase those question marks. Cunningham is one of the best players in the world already, and if he can take yet another leap, helping the Pistons improve on both ends of the court, it would perhaps offset the lack of additions they made as a team this summer.
Detroit needs more offense. But what if Cunningham takes a big enough offensive leap to make up for that? That’s how the Pistons can maintain their progression.
Another Cade Cunningham leap could offset quiet Pistons offseason
The biggest knock on the Pistons after the way they ended last season (losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round) was their lack of offensive production behind Cunningham.
Duren struggled in the playoffs, even getting benched for Paul Reed at times. Harris was the Pistons’ second-best player, and guys like Caris LeVert and Daniss Jenkins were the team’s best bet to step up in the scoring column.
Needless to say, there was a lot of pressure on Cunningham to perform on the offensive end, because if he didn’t, the Pistons were going to be in a pretty tough place on that end of the court.
But what if Cunningham took another leap? What if he stepped up his game even more on offense, becoming an even more reliable shooter? An even more reliable playmaker? An even more reliable driver?
That’s not necessarily fair to expect from him. Cunningham is already one of the best players in the world. He was an All-NBA First Team member this past year. If anything, the players around him should improve, or the Pistons should look to get him more help.
But based on this offseason’s moves, they didn’t really do that. At least not to the degree that should help them make a real push for an NBA Championship next season.
So, maybe Cunningham can help offset the Pistons’ relatively disappointing summer by making another massive leap himself.
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