Regardless of the topic, social media rewards the extremes, which has been the case with the Detroit Pistons all season.
We saw it recently with the scuffle against Minnesota, which you would have thought had casualties the likes of the Battle of Stalingrad the way some people were talking about it.
The same has happened with Cade Cunningham and his injury, as fans on social media are running to the extremes when the truth is probably somewhere in the meaty gray area in the middle.
The Pistons aren’t being truthful and Cade Cunningham’s injury is worse than they are saying!
This is probably the most common extreme take I am seeing about Cade Cunningham’s injury status.
You can’t completely blame Pistons fans for going this direction, as the team has been less than transparent about injuries in the past, including injuries to Cade himself, so there is some precedent here.
I’ve seen some go as far as to say Cade has a serious issue (I’m not even going to say it) even though there is zero proof of that, which has never stopped people from speculating online. Who needs objective truth when it can just be whatever you want to believe!
Why they are wrong
I’ve been watching Cade Cunningham closely as he cheers on his team from the bench and he does not strike me as a player who is going to miss the rest of the season or has been given a secret, devastating diagnosis.
If things were serious, he likely wouldn’t be traveling with the team and certainly wouldn’t be jumping up and down on the bench.
You also have to consider that the Pistons don’t have much at stake here. They are one game away from clinching a playoff spot and there really isn’t much difference between any of their three likely opponents, as all of them give the Pistons problems.
It’s likely the Pistons are just being overly cautious with Cade Cunningham so that he’ll be 100 percent for the playoffs.
The Pistons are just resting Cade Cunningham! There’s no need to worry at all!
If you don’t have any concern at all, then congrats, but this extreme of the issue reeks of someone desperate to be hopeful.
Why they are wrong
While I don’t think Cunningham’s injury is any more serious than they are letting on, there is no way they’d hold him out just for rest, as he’s had plenty of time off at this point and they need to win these games.
The Pistons aren’t overly concerned about which seed they get (though holding onto the 5th would allow them to potentially avoid the hottest team in the Eastern Conference in the second round) but there would be no need to “rest” a player for this long.
JB Bickerstaff already said that if Cade could play, he would, so that should be slightly concerning, especially considering there are only six games left in the season for him to get back into a rhythm.
So, we’ve got one part of the fanbase spouting brainless conspiracy theories (the hallmark of X) and the other pretending they are not worried at all, while most of us realize that any injury at this time of year is worth being concerned about even if you aren’t convinced it’s the worst-case scenario.