Cade Cunningham has a long way to go to reach Oscar Robertson’s career, but he’s well on his way and has already joined him in an exclusive NBA club.
Cunningham and Robertson are the only two players to average 25 points, six rebounds and nine assists in a season before turning 24.
The wild thing about Robertson is that he not only did it in his rookie season at age 22, but averaged more than that for his career, finishing with a 25.7/7.5/9.5 stat line that earned him 12-straight All-Star selections.
Robertson also led the league in assists seven times in his career and led the league in scoring in the 1967-68 season in which he somehow finished just 5th in the MVP voting.
Cunningham finished a surprising 7th in the MVP voting this season and was 4th in the league in assists per game, reached his first All-Star game and All-NBA team, so he’s starting to rack up similar individual accolades.
Robertson is known as one of the greatest all-around players in NBA history. Could Cade Cunningham have a similar career? It’s futile to compare players from different eras (there wasn’t a 3-point line in Robertson’s day, and the league didn’t even keep track of blocks and steals) but there are aspects of Robertson’s career Cade needs to emulate.
Cade Cunningham needs to stay healthy and be more efficient
Oscar Robertson played 64 or more games in all of his 14 seasons in the NBA, showing that part of any legendary career is being on the court.
Cunningham had his best year in that regard, playing 70 games last season, a number that needs to be the baseline for him moving forward.
Cunningham has put on strength in each offseason so far, and surgery to correct a long-time shin problem seems to have helped, so let’s hope Cade’s good health is sustainable.
Robertson was an efficient scorer who averaged 48 percent from the floor for his career, getting most of his buckets from the mid-range and near the rim. This is another area Cunningham needs to improve, especially around the rim.
Cade was very good in the mid-range, shooting 48 percent, but hit just over half of his shots under five feet, missing a ton of bunnies around the rim. To put it in perspective, MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit 68 percent of his shots under five feet last season, though Cunningham did take more attempts per game in that area.
Oscar Robertson was a master at getting to the free-throw line, averaging an incredible 8.8 free-throw attempts per game for his career, more than double what Cunningham has averaged.
Cade does not get a great whistle, something that will hopefully change next season after he made All-NBA and was featured in the playoffs. There are already signs of it happening, as Cunningham averaged seven free-throw attempts per game in the playoffs.
Cunningham and Robertson are different players from different eras but do have undeniable similarities in their all-around games.