The Detroit Pistons are 44-14, sitting comfortably at No. 1 in the Eastern Conference, and on pace for a 62-win season. They've already matched their win total from the 2024-25 campaign and have a legitimate MVP candidate in superstar guard Cade Cunningham.
Unfortunately, Cunningham's brilliance has been perceived as a double-edged sword that could ultimately prove as valuable as it is detrimental to the Pistons' championship ambitions.
According to Tim Bontemps and Brian Windhorst of ESPN, a Western Conference executive praised the Pistons, but acknowledged the difficulties of catching up to being ahead of schedule.
"I think they're really good," a West executive said of the Pistons. "I think they're ahead of schedule and trying to react to that."
Later in the article, a Western Conference assistant coach supplied a quote that contextualizes the difficulty with being ahead of schedule: Typically, it means one player is taking you there.
"I don't trust them at all," a West assistant coach said. "They have no one besides Cade to attack. You can make any of their other guys try to beat you, and they will have a hard time."
For as strange as that may sound, the Pistons are almost too successful for their own good in regard to the balance they're attempting to strike between talent and expectations.
Are the Pistons too far ahead of schedule to catch up to themselves?
Cunningham is currently averaging 25.4 points, 9.8 assists, 5.8 rebounds, 1.5 steals, 1.0 block, and 2.0 three-point field goals made per game. It's been a season for the ages from the Pistons' franchise player, who ranks No. 1 on the team in points and assists, No. 2 in blocks and steals, and No. 3 in rebounds.
The hurdle that many foresee for the Pistons in the playoffs, however, is that the process of creating offense for one's self and others is typically a one-player job.
Jalen Duren is second on the Pistons in scoring at 18.5 points per game, but he's also an interior-based center who needs the ball fed to him down low. Tobias Harris and Duncan Robinson are Detroit's next-leading scorers at 13.0 and 12.3 points per game, respectively, and both have a history of inconsistency in the playoffs.
Ausar Thompson is the next-leading perimeter scorer at 10.3 points per game, but there are well-documented concerns over how his 28.3 percent shooting from beyond the arc could lead teams to forcing the Pistons to effectively play 4-on-5 on offense.
Pistons' lack of shot creators may overburden Cade Cunningham
To make matters worse, Cunningham is the only player on the Pistons who's averaging more than 3.0 assists per game. That may be the most accurate representation of all of how the Pistons' offense tends to run through one player in regard to creating something from nothing.
It certainly doesn't ease those concerns that Cunningham and Duren are the only players on the roster averaging at least 1.00 point per isolation possession.
Clearly, Cunningham and Duren deserve their All-Star status after leading the Pistons to such resounding success. The absence of ideal offensive depth along the perimeter, however, is almost impossible to overlook.
Cunningham and Duren have helped the Pistons arrive ahead of schedule, but the question posed is simple and daunting: Will the rest of the roster be arriving at the same time come the playoffs?