5 Questions the Pistons need to answer before the trade deadline

The first thing fans wondered when Trajan Langdon took over as president of the Detroit Pistons was which young players he was going to trade away. 

So far, the answer is none, as Langdon chose to augment his young core with veterans who can shoot and stay healthy instead of a huge roster shake up.

He’ll use the first half of next season to evaluate what he has and go from there, as this a new regime and Langdon doesn’t seem to feel pressure to immediately build a winner just to placate justifiably impatient fans. 

We should know a lot more by next season’s trade deadline, and by that time, certain questions will need to be answered or at least well on their way to being answered. 

#1: Is Cade Cunningham the man or not? 

The Detroit Pistons just gave Cade Cunningham a max contract extension, so they are desperately hoping the answer to this is yes, but if we are being honest, the jury is still out. 

I don’t think there is any doubt that Cunningham is a good player, but can he carry a winning team, or at least a decent team? No one expects the Pistons to win 50 games next season, but with a better cast around him, it’s time for Cunningham to show he can contribute to winning basketball, as he hasn’t thus far. 

What does that look like?  

The Pistons need to win more games next season, push closer to 30 total victories, which still isn’t great but would be a move in the right direction. 

Cade needs to be more efficient, step up his defense and show he can do more than just put up empty stats on a bad team. 

He has a better roster around him, it’s still not great, so I don’t expect miracles here, but if the Pistons post another season of around 20 wins with a healthy Cade Cunningham, we have to start asking questions. 

This will be his 4th season and great players find ways to win games and uplift mediocre rosters, which is what he needs to do next season. But this isn't all on Cade.