Cade Cunningham's postgame comments should worry Pistons fans

The excitement for last night’s NBA Cup game wore off quickly, as it was clear early that the Detroit Pistons didn’t have it against the Milwaukee Bucks. 

It’s not surprising, as the Bucks have absolutely owned the Pistons for the last decade, and Detroit has only beaten them once in the last five seasons. They are 1-16 against Milwaukee in that stretch, a stark reminder of just how bad Detroit has been and how far they are away from the good teams in the Eastern Conference. 

What looked like a fringe play-in team, now looks more like a team that will be selling at the trade deadline, packing away their second-round picks and kicking the can down the road once again. 

I hope not, as I have to wonder how long Cade Cunningham is going to hold out if this continues. 

The Pistons are better this season, but last night’s game showed just how far away they are from being relevant, as they were simply overmatched by a better team with more talent. The Detroit Pistons may be better, but they’re still not good, and not much closer to the playoffs than they were last year. 

Right now, Cade Cunningham is saying all of the right things, but that won’t last forever. 

Cade Cunningham’s postgame comments 

Cunningham always says the right thing, as he’s a smart dude and knows how to perform in front of the media. He’s the team leader and takes that seriously, which is one of the things I like about the young man. He doesn’t run from it. 

But it was sad to hear him talk about last night’s drubbing as his first “meaningful game,” as it was still just a regular season game in early December, only made more important by having “NBA Cup” slapped on the side of it. This is also his 4th year in the league and plenty of the guys from his draft class are on good teams that have real playoff and title aspirations. They aren't talking about a regular season game like it's game 7 of the Finals.

Cunningham liked the atmosphere of a “meaningful game” and wants to play more of them, as he talked about after the game. 

Unfortunately for Cade Cunningham, the Detroit Pistons don’t look to be much closer to giving him the playoff experience he desperately wants. 

The Pistons are right on the edge of the play-in right now, so It's possible they will give Cunningham what he wants, but given their brutal upcoming schedule, it’s more likely they are checking lottery odds at the trade deadline. 

I hope not, and if the Pistons can survive this month, they will still have a fighting chance to play a meaningful game or two this season, as the Eastern Conference is bad outside of the top-six teams. 

But what if they don’t? 

The Pistons will once again be heading into the offseason with the same questions about their young core (though Cade and Ivey have put some of those to rest), the same problems (not enough shooting or size, not enough playmaking on the wing) and few ways to solve them. 

They will have some cap space for a free-agent class whose top guy is the oft-injured Brandon Ingram. There might be some trades out there, but it’s hard to see how this team gets meaningfully better between now and the start of next season, which will be Cade’s 5th in the league. 

Cunningham has always said the right things about being in Detroit, but how long is that going to last? Players have a shelf life and they know it, so how long is it going to be before Cunningham gets sick of losing? 

I think Cunningham genuinely wants it to happen in Detroit, and I hope it does, but if the Pistons are right back here again next year, both he and the team are going to have to ask some hard questions, namely, would they be better off without each other. 

I didn’t see Cade’s comments as an ultimatum of any kind, I think the guy just wants to win, but eventually there will be one and the Pistons are going to have to step up or we are eventually going to hear the sentence we’ve been waiting for since Cade was drafted #1,” Cunningham has requested....” ack, you know the rest.