You won’t find the Detroit Pistons on anyone’s lists of best teams in the NBA, nor will you find many of their players in talks of who is best at their position or who will make All-NBA.
That’s what happens when you have a five-year run of futility, when you are coming off a historically bad season that included a record losing streak and only 14 wins.
So, it wasn’t surprising to not see many Pistons represented on ESPN’s recent top-100 rankings of NBA players, but it was surprising to see just how little ESPN thinks of Cade Cunningham, who was ranked just 67th.
Look, these lists are dumb and we all know it. ESPN throws a few clearly fraudulent rankings in the mix to rile up fanbases and increase engagement. It’s content creation 101 and it’s smart, as here I am falling for the trap.
But the rankings do bring up some interesting questions about how you judge a good player who has missed a lot of games and whose teams have always been terrible. I do think team success has to be considered, but some of the players ranked ahead of Cade Cunningham are just ridiculous.
I counted at least nine and that is just in the first half of the list. And Cunningham wasn’t the only one who was slighted, as they had first-team All-Defensive player Herb Jones ranked 97th (more on that as we go), lower than Andrew “freaking” Wiggins (90th), who the Warriors couldn’t give away.
There were many such occurrences, and my guess would be that ESPN researched which fans are angriest and ranked their players lower to get more engagement, but that’s just my conspiracy theory.
You win, ESPN, here are the nine players who have no business being ahead of Cade Cunningham.
#65: Malik Monk
I’m going to say this a lot but I’d love to know what measure ESPN used for these rankings, as there is no quantifiable way to justify Monk over Cunningham.
Monk is a very good bench player, but for his career he has averaged about half as many points as Cade Cunningham, who also averages more assists, rebounds and steals while shooting higher percentages from the floor as well as the 3-point line.
Monk is a “shooter” who shot 44 percent from the floor last year and 35 percent from the 3-point line, both lower than Cunningham, who took six more shots per game.
Please explain this ESPN, as there is not a person on planet Earth who thinks Monk is better than Cunningham (not even Monk) and there is literally no numeric quantification for it.
#64: Immanuel Quickley
Pretty much all the same things can be said about Quickley that we said about Monk, though Quickley has an even lower shooting percentage.
He does have a higher 3-point average than Cunningham, but other than that, Cunningham bests him at everything else, including defense.
It’s hilarious to me that Quickley was considered to have a “breakout” season last year with worse stats than Cunningham across the board and also playing for a bad team.
How can this be justified other than you are punishing Cunningham for being on an even worse team?
#63: Khris Middleton
This was probably true at one point but not anymore, as Middleton has been hurt a lot, has lost a step defensively and averaged 15 points per game last season, eight fewer than Cunningham, though Middleton was more efficient.
If 100 percent healthy, I’d say Middleton is one of the only guys on this list that has an argument, as he is a quality two-way player, but will we ever see that Middleton again? He is 32, and already having ankle problems in the preseason.
#62: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope
This was the point where I knew ESPN was trolling a bit, as there is no earthly way they believe KCP is better than Cade Cunningham.
Is he a better defender? Yes.
Is he a better 3-point shooter? Eh, yes, though it helps to have the best player and passer in the NBA sucking in all the defense and giving you wide open shots.
Is KCP a player ANY team in the history of basketball would try to build around? Absolutely not. If you would have switched out him and Cade last season, the Pistons might not have won a game and the Nuggets would have been markedly better.
I love KCP, but this is just absurd.
#61: Josh Hart
Just copy and paste the KCP paragraph. These are two of my favorite players in the NBA, but they are role players, not featured guys.
I get that there are many aspects to the game other than offense, but Hart didn’t even average double figures for the Knicks, shot 43 percent from the floor and 31 percent from 3-point range.
Obviously, both were on far better teams than Cade Cunningham was last season, but do you think that would have changed if Josh Hart or KCP were in Detroit instead of Cade? This is nonsense.
#59: Alex Caruso
Wow, just wow. First off, if Herb Jones is ranked 97th, how in the world is Caruso ranked nearly 40 spots higher? Both guys are known for defense, only Jones is better, more versatile and also scored more points and shot the ball better from 3-point range and the floor last season.
I don’t know how you can justify this, especially when Caruso was on a garbage team last season and Jones wasn’t.
If you think Alex Caruso is better at basketball than Cade Cunningham, you need to have your head checked.
#58: Coby White
Did Jerry Reinsdorf write this list himself? Another guy who is older than Cade and had his “breakout” season last year, finishing second in the Most Improved Player award, but he did it with worse stats across the board than Cunningham.
White is a better high-volume 3-point shooter. Whoopee! He’s worse at everything else, including defense and that is saying something. White was the second option on a bad team and benefitted from having a real scoring threat around him, something Cunningham has never had.
#56: Derek Lively II
This might be the most egregious overrating on the list, as Lively, a center, barely averaged more rebounds than Cade Cunningham did last season.
He’s a one-dimensional player who I wouldn’t even rank above Jalen Duren, much less Cunningham. Lively II is only 20, and he’s a good young player, but he profiles at best as a role player, and benefitted greatly in his 55 games played last season (THIS IS BASED ON 55 CAREER GAMES!) from being on a good team with a perennial MVP candidate running the show.
I’d say at least half the GMs in the NBA would take Duren over Lively II and Duren isn’t even going to appear on the top-100 list. This is just dumb and not rooted in reality.
#53: RJ Barrett
You can probably make an argument for Barrett based on his time with the Raptors last season, but if we are just going by career numbers, he comes up short.
Has Barrett ever averaged 23 points a game? Nope. Cade did it last season. Six rebounds? Four assists? Nope and nope. Cunnigham averages more points, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks but comes up just short on shooting numbers, largely because he took more shots.
Barrett has looked great in preseason (so has Cade, mostly) so this could finally be his big breakout year, but I still wouldn’t take him over Cunningham.
I am Homer #1, but live in reality, which means I know Cunningham has plenty to prove before we can declare him a star, but so do all of these guys, and in some cases, it’s just ridiculous.