Cade Cunningham is putting up All-Star numbers this season, but more importantly, the Detroit Pistons are winning.
Cunningham has never received serious consideration for an All-Star berth because he was either injured or on horrible teams, so even though he had the numbers last season, he wasn’t rewarded because his team was historically bad, which is fair.
That’s not the case this season, so Cunningham has some buzz even though he was just 7th in the most recent All-Star fan voting.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokić lead their respective conferences in the third fan returns of #NBAAllStar Voting presented by AT&T.
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) January 16, 2025
Fans account for 50% of the vote to decide All-Star starters. Players and a media panel account for 25% each. pic.twitter.com/FBGGd00GB2
The fan vote only represents half of the vote for All-Star starters, with players and media making up the other half, so Cade has a case to get in anyway, but he’ll have some stiff competition in the Eastern Conference.
Out of the top vote getters, I’d say Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard and Jalen Brunson are locks, as they are having strong seasons for title contenders and also have plenty of name recognition.
Trae Young will also be a strong contender given that the Hawks have a winning record and he is leading the NBA in assists by a mile.
That leaves one, possibly two guard spots left in the East. Can Cade Cunningham claim one of them? Here are three guys who could steal his spot.
LaMelo Ball
If you just looked at LaMelo’s stats, he has a strong argument to be there, as he is averaging just under 30 points per game with 7.5 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game.
But he is doing it inefficiently, taking four more shots per game than Cunningham, and shooting a whopping 12.9 shots from long range per game and only hitting 33 percent of them.
He’s also doing it on an awful team that has only won 10 games so far this season and LaMelo has played 10 fewer games than Cade.
A player putting up big, but inefficient numbers on a horrible team? Sounds familiar.
These are the exact reasons Cunningham was never talked about as an All-Star, so it will be interesting to see if the remaining voters penalize LaMelo. Given his lead in the fan vote, it might not matter.
Tyrese Maxey
This season we’ve gotten to see Maxey as the number one option and he is scoring plenty of points but doing it with the worst shooting numbers of his career.
His team is also 15-24, the 11th seed in the East, a game and a half behind the Bulls for the final play-in spot.
That’s not Maxey’s fault of course, as his two running mates are never on the court, but he’s another player who is putting up big inefficient numbers on a bad team.
Tyler Herro
Herro has made a leap and is getting a big All-Star push at the moment as his team tries to find its way without Jimmy Butler.
Cunningham has slightly better numbers than Herro, though Herro is doing it more efficiently. The Pistons are currently a half game ahead of the Heat in the standings, but Herro has some buzz and will challenge Cade Cunningham for a spot.
I wouldn’t be mad...
If Darius Garland made it.
He’s putting up nice numbers as the second option on the best team in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs should probably be rewarded with multiple All-Stars given their sheer domination this season, so I wouldn’t be mad if Garland made it over Cade.
Cunningham should be in there over LaMelo, Maxey or Herro, so let’s hope the remaining voters do the right thing.