The Detroit Pistons have won 8-straight games for the first time since 2007-8 and Cade Cunningham has been at the center of it.
There are many factors in the Pistons’ renaissance this season, from the coaching of JB Bickerstaff to the veteran additions of Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr, to the defensive surge of Ausar Thompson to the improvement of Jalen Duren to the rim protection of Isaiah Stewart to the hustle of Ron Holland II.
It’s been a team effort from the front office down, but no factor has been bigger than the emergence of Cade Cunningham as a legit superstar in this league.
He’s already made the All-Star team, has a shot at All-NBA, and even the national media, which hasn’t paid attention to the Pistons in over a decade, has started to notice.
Cade Cunningham is a superstar
The word “superstar” has no defined meaning in the NBA, but in my totally made up tier, it’s a guy who is in the top-10 of the league and can lead a team to the playoffs.
In that regard, you can argue if Cade is there yet, which is what happened on a recent episode of The Ringer NBA, in which the hosts debated this very topic.
Cunningham is arguably a top-10 player right now depending on who you ask, and he’s been on the rise, averaging 27.4 points 10.5 assists and 5.8 rebounds in the month of February.
And he’s not just doing it on offense.
Last night against the Celtics, Cunningham capably defended Kristaps Porzingis in the post, and also spent time on Jayson Tatum and Derrick White.
His size and defensive improvement, to go along with his passing and scoring, may make Cunningham the most complete point guard in the NBA. What other point guard is defending Porzingis in the post?
He has not led his team to the playoffs (yet), so if you want to use that as a hurdle for being considered a “superstar,” that’s probably fair, but if Cunningham leads this team to the playoffs after winning just 14 games last season, it’s a wrap on this discussion.
I’m Homer #1, but to me, he’s there already and others agree, as Bill Simmons recently had Cunningham on his 2nd-team All-NBA, putting him squarely in that top-10 in the league discussion.
Regardless of monickers or nicknames, Cunningham has emerged as one of the best point guards in the league this season however you want to measure it and it’s only a matter of time before the league at large starts to refer to him as a superstar.