The 2024-25 NBA season was a coming-out party for Cade Cunningham on the Detroit Pistons.
Cunningham finished 7th in MVP voting while leading the Pistons to their first playoff win in 17 years. Though the first few seasons of his NBA career weren’t anything to scoff at, this year the 23-year-old proved his place as one of the best players in the league.
“He’s got great pace, he’s got great feet, he’s got a great middy,” C.J. McCollum said about Cunningham on The Young Man and the Three podcast. “I think the poise that he has in pick and rolls, the ability to back down smaller guys in transition like that, I think those things have gotten better.”
Cunningham averaged 26.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 9.1 assists on 46.9% shooting while leading Detroit to its first winning season in nearly a decade.
Cunningham Praised By NBA Veterans
Speaking on The Young Man and the Three podcast, McCollum, Cam Johnson, Georges Niang, and Cunningham’s newest teammate, Duncan Robinson, all gave words of encouragement to the All-Star.
“The jumper has gotten better. I think he’s a menace in pick-and-rolls,” McCollum added. “He’s a menace in isolation, he’s got a mid-post game.”
“Feel and control is what it is. His game is scalable,” Johnson, on the Denver Nuggets, said of Cunningham. “When he came into the league, he had a skillset that you could see where the progression would lead to. That’s what made him the No. 1 pick. That’s what made him pretty much the consensus No. 1 pick throughout the [pre-draft process].”
“Obviously, Cade and his ability, he took a big step last year,” Robinson said about his new teammate in Detroit. “So I’m excited to be a part of that and watch him continue to grow and improve.”
Cunningham finished seventh in NBA MVP voting this past season, ahead of players like Anthony Edwards, Stephen Curry, and Jalen Brunson. He ended the season fourth in assists per game and seventh in points per game in the entire league.
Detroit Is Ready For Another Step
Before talking about Cunningham, Robinson discussed what interested him about joining a team like the Pistons after leaving the Miami Heat this summer.
“There’s a lot to be excited about,” Robinson said. “A majority of those guys are in their low-mid 20s. I think right from the jump, their energy and youthful exuberance they have, seeing the way that they interact, they treat each other. It reminds me of a college group, which is hard to find in an NBA setting.”
In a previous interview, Robinson also said that after agreeing to a contract termination with Miami, he saw a lot of similarities between himself and the city of Detroit.
The Pistons saw some players leave and some come in over the offseason in hopes of giving Cunningham the best chance possible to compete in the Eastern Conference next season. Notably, they added Caris LeVert and Robinson, but lost Tim Hardaway and Dennis Schroder. They are also without Malik Beasley, who left in free agency and is under a gambling investigation.
With a roster featuring just three players over 30 years old, the Pistons, led by Cunningham, have a lot of room to grow into a consistent title threat in the East.
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