The Detroit Pistons have something that few teams have in the playoffs, which is a superstar who plays equally hard on both ends in Cade Cunningham.
We often talk about “unicorns” in the NBA, generally in terms of tall guys who can move, but the real unicorn may be the two-way superstar who actually digs in on defense.
Often times, a team’s best scorer is someone they have to hide on defense, just ask the Knicks, who are able to enjoy Jalen Brunson’s offensive excellence even though he’s a liability on defense.
It forced the Knicks to go out and get defenders that could cover him, something the Pistons will never have to do with Cade Cunningham as he can defend just about anyone on the court without giving up much.
It changes the vibe of the game when your superstar is locked in on the defensive end, and we’ve seen it plenty of times in these playoffs already.
Cade Cunningham’s defense inspires his teammates
Not only is Cunningham carrying the entire offensive burden on his back, but he’s dialed in on defense immediately after they score.
We saw this in game one when Cunningham was picking up James Harden nearly full court and making his life difficult, swiping a couple of steals in the process.
JB Bickerstaff came up with a great game plan to force the Cavaliers to take longer to get into their half-court sets by pressuring them full court at times, and Cunningham spearheaded that strategy on Harden.
When the role players look up and see their superstar teammate giving everything on defense, they can’t help but follow and that seemed to happen every time Cade got into Harden in game one.
It gives the Pistons a huge advantage, as players like Harden and Mitchell may be great offensively, but are not great defenders, and they can be targeted.
The Pistons don’t have to worry about Cunningham being targeted, in fact, he’s perfectly capable of switching from the point guard to power forward and has the speed and strength to defend both.
It almost seems like a cheat code to have your best offensive player not be a liability on defense, but when you look around the league, there aren’t many of them.
They are many two-way players in the NBA, but few of them are the stars of their team and the guy who carries the entire load on offense. We've gotten to the point where we almost expect the great scorers to be hit or miss on defense or to just give effort as needed.
That isn’t the case with Cade Cunningham, who deserves credit for being a true two-way star and providing a cheat code for the Pistons on defense that they don’t have to hide.
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