The seeds of this Pistons' failure go back four years

Cade Cuningham is in his 5th season, and we are still asking the same question, which is who is his number two? 

The Pistons have failed their superstar by not getting another scorer and creator to share the load, something they thought they might have had when they drafted Jaden Ivey with the 5th pick in 2022. 

But for various reasons, Ivey never worked out and had to be traded for a guy who can’t get off the bench in the playoffs, so the void of second creator remained. 

The Pistons have failed to find that guy since, though Ausar Thompson is special, and Jalen Duren could be a competent number three even after this disastrous playoff performance. 

The playoffs have exposed what fans have feared all season long, which is that the Pistons wouldn’t have enough offense when teams started throwing everything at Cade Cunningham in the playoffs. 

Cunningham has had his share of bad turnovers, but he’s also being hounded and forced to create everything himself. If he gets a shot, he created it, and most of the shots his teammates get come off his gravity. It’s a heavy burden, which is why we see Cade with no legs at the end of the game and making boneheaded passes he doesn’t normally make. 

These aren’t excuses, they are just facts that anyone can see, and it mostly stems from the Pistons having no true second option to go to. 

The Pistons have a big hole where Jaden Ivey should be 

It’s always easy to look back at drafts and say who your team should have taken after you have plenty of data, but it’s now pretty clear the Pistons whiffed, as Ivey isn’t even in the league, and they had to dump him for a guy who can’t get off the bench. 

The next three players taken after Ivey (Mathurin, Sharpe, Daniels) all would have helped the Pistons more than Ivey did. Jalen Williams was sitting there, which obviously seems like the biggest miss in hindsight, as he’s exactly what the Pistons need. 

The Pistons took non-shooters who were offensive projects in the next two drafts to compound their problems, so a lot was invested in Ivey becoming the second scorer they still need. 

This was spread over two front offices, which may account for the disconnect in vision. Trajan Langdon didn’t draft Ivey, so it’s not on him, but the same problem still remains. 

The Pistons have a chance to get back into this series, and momentum could swing quickly, but they’ve shown no indication that is going to happen. If they do come up short, the seeds for their failure were sewn over the last four seasons when they failed to get Cade Cunningham a number two. 

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