Cade Cunningham has been dominant scoring the ball throughout the preseason, but he showed the full range of his abilities against the Wizards. In the Pistons' preseason finale, Cade decided to dominate the game not with his scoring but rather with his passing. Cade was a maestro and dished out 12 assists in just 24 minutes to cap off his preseason campaign.
Cade Cunningham is one of the best playmakers in the league
Cunningham did his best Magic Johnson impression as he dished out dime after dime to his teammates. The biggest beneficiary was Jalen Duren, who was on the receiving end of 7 assists from Cunningham. The two have always had great chemistry together, but Duren's new scoring arsenal - which now includes a soft touch from floater range and spin moves in the post - will elevate their connection to even greater levels.
Cade also found several other teammates for assists and frequently pushed the ball in transition. He spent the first two games of the preseason proving how deadly he could be scoring the ball himself in transition, and now he took a step back to allow others the same opportunities. The Pistons fastbreak was on full display and Cade was the orchestrator.
Even with his large playmaking focus in this game, Cade still found the time to have an efficient scoring night. He finished the game with 16 points on 6/10 shooting from the field and a very nice 3/4 from three-point range. His long-range shooting certainly looks a lot more comfortable than last season, both off the dribble and off the catch. Adding a 3-point shot that defenses fear in any situation can open up the game even more for Cade.
With this performance, Cade showed that his excellence on the court extends to multiple areas of the game. Being able to dominate either by scoring or by finding open teammates makes him a nightmare to guard or gameplan against. It also gives his teammates more freedom to play their own games rather than try to fill in for any of their star's weaknesses, since he really doesn't have any.
Cade's excellence even extended to defense, where he had a block on a fastbreak layup attempt and also added two steals. The block showed that he's getting more comfortable using his athleticism to dominate opponents, another recurring theme of the preseason. He followed up on that with another up-and-under layup that's sure to make the highlight reels, this time off his own drive to the rim.
It's difficult to dominate the NBA game while being a jack of all trades and master of none. But Cade Cunningham is now proving that he's actually a master of all. His drastically different but equally dominant preseason games have shown us there is no weakness in his skillset.