The Detroit Pistons are on an absolute tear, winners of their last 10 games in a row and holding the top seed in the Eastern Conference. It's the kind of scenario that could have only been seen as a fantasy a mere two years ago. And at the center of it all is Cade Cunningham, who's making a case that he's the third best point guard in the association.
It was only two seasons ago that Detroit endured such a terrible losing streak that fans of other teams were in hysterical laughter and fans wondered if this group would ever be able to truly put it all together. I don't need to remind this fanbase that from the end of October until the end of December in 2023, the Pistons didn't win a single game.
After three seasons that included a lot of losing, it would have been really easy for Cade Cunningham to throw in the towel and ask for a trade. But he simply put his head down, kept working, trusted in his front office and his teammates, and look at how it's paid off for him.
Cade Cunningham is everything Pistons fans could have hoped for
The 2024-25 season was truly a turnaround for the ages. No one could have envisioned the Pistons upping their win total by 30 games from one season to the next, mostly because that kind of win improvement has seldom been made over the course of NBA history. But they did it, and Cunningham was the catalyst.
Cade has proven to be far more valuable and skilled than many have tried to make him out to be in the past. He is an unbelievable shot-maker, with the ability to make the most challenging plays look easy. One possession, he'll hit you with a quick cross into a spin move and a shot off the glass. The next, he'll spot up for a long-distance three with ease. It's these qualities that make it easy to understand how he's currently ranked second in the NBA in fourth quarter scoring average.
With his improving performances and with how he's elevating his team, Cunningham has made an argument that he's easily among the top five point guards in the NBA as of right now. In fact, it's hard to see more than two players that are clearly above him. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic have definitive cases to be ranked above Cade, but no one has an obviously clear claim beyond them.
It's not hard to see why Detroit is positively exhilarated over what Cade Cunningham has done for this city and this team. He's re-defining himself as the kind of game-changing star that shifts the direction of a franchise, as well as a top-three player at his position. The Pistons haven't had a guy of that caliber in around two decades, and the last time they did, they finished the season holding the Larry O'Brien trophy.