Tag: Deserves

Roughly an hour before each Detroit Pistons game, Cade Cunningham emerges from the locker room for his pregame routine. Before a single shot gets taken and sometimes before Cunningham laces up his player-edition Nike G.T. Cuts, he connects with Pistons assistant coach Jarrett Jack at half court.

Jack, a former 13-year NBA veteran, is the coach closest to Cunningham and the one who works with him. To warm up, one tosses a basketball ball near the arena’s scoreboard, almost like a football, while the other waits for it to fall. They switch and the same thing occurs for a few minutes.

This might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of Cunningham’s career season. They are just tossing up a ball in the air. This act personifies Jack and Cunningham’s relationship — a bond that has contributed to Cunningham’s successful season.

“I don’t really know where it started from,” Cunningham told The Athletic recently. “I don’t know what made us start doing that. The throwing thing, it’s just for me to touch up, try to get as much rotation on the ball as I’m throwing it like a football. It’s fun. … It’s like our little (pregame) test.”

The Pistons (23-24) have improved this season with Cunningham elevating his play. But his offseason work, leadership and the resolve he developed from an arduous 2023-24 season have molded him into a formidable 2025 NBA All-Star candidate.

When Jack was hired in 2023, it didn’t take long for the two to connect.

“It wasn’t too long after that,” Cunningham said. “It was my first time having a veteran, NBA, long-time point guard that I was able to connect with that I knew of. I watched him play as a kid. So, it was easy for me to connect with him, ask him about pick-and-rolls or anything.”

The NBA All-Star reserves will be revealed Thursday, and Cunningham should be the first Pistons player to be selected since Blake Griffin earned the honor in 2019. He’d also be the first Detroit guard to earn an All-Star bid since Hall of Famer Allen Iverson in 2009. So what makes Cunningham an All-Star?

“First, just letting him know how lethal he is (in the post),” Jack said. “I thought he would venture down there occasionally, rather than being a little bit more deliberate in the spots he wants to operate from. I’m like, ‘Look man, the post is kind of an easy command center for you.’

“If they play you one-on-one, we’ll take that matchup every night, especially if we can run them into a pick-and-roll with a small or someone who doesn’t want to switch. And then if they double, you’re a willing passer, which allows rhythm shots for your role players and forces defenses to be in rotation.

“If they mess up, you can pick them apart three to five feet from the basket.”

In this video, 6-foot-9 Jaden McDaniels of the Minnesota Timberwolves is one of the league’s best perimeter defenders, but Cunningham takes him to the post and scores, just as Jack mentioned. Cunningham shoots his highest percentage (53.6) from less than five feet, which makes sense given his 6-foot-6 frame.

The more isolated looks he gets in the post, regardless of who’s guarding him, the better.

When Cunningham has a smaller defender on him in the post, he’s likely going to draw another defender, which causes the defense to be out of position.

In this play, Cunningham has a height advantage of five inches over Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard. Cunningham backs him down, forcing Luke Kornet to rotate over as a help defender.

Kornet leaves Ron Holland II open for a 3-pointer, and Cunningham skips it across the court for the easy triple by Holland. Consistently this season, Cunningham makes plays out of double-teams to create easy shots for his teammates.

And finally, watch how Cunningham creates offense for himself. He seeks out a mismatch with Darius Garland, who was initially guarding Tim Hardaway Jr. Cunningham gets Garland into a screen-and-roll situation, knowing Garland would switch to him.

Cunningham takes Garland into the post, is patient as Jarrett Allen rotates over to help, steps back and sinks a jumper over the outstretched arms of both Garland and Allen.

The Jack-inspired conversations that help lead to these actions are important to Cunningham.

“I already had a skill set down there (in the post),” Cunningham said. “It was something he said I could draw a lot more attention doing by getting comfortable down there throughout the game. First couple of games, I got straight to it and I felt like I was converting for us every possession early on.

“Then it kind of just stuck, I kind of just stuck with it and it became more and more a part of our offense.”

And it just isn’t the on-court improvements, Jack also is excited about Cunningham’s maturity.

“He’s a joy to be around,” Jack said with a smile. “There’s some guys in that position to maybe use their status to maybe not be so cool, or maybe not be so inclusive with the group. But he’s very much a part of the guys, part of this thing and I think it shows true to what he and what we went through last year.

“To meet that head-on, take it on the chin and now come back and take on a new challenge — and he’s got us potentially fighting for a playoff spot.”

Cunningham’s leadership has teammates having career seasons or the best seasons they’ve had in years.

Before Jaden Ivey broke his left fibula, he was on pace for career bests in points, field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage, rebounds and steals.

Malik Beasley is working on his second-highest scoring season and is on pace to shatter his previous high for made 3s in a season.

Cunningham will find out Thursday if he’s an All-Star for the first time.

The NBA announced its All-Star starters on Jan. 23 with Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson earning the nod for the Eastern Conference backcourt. Cunningham is averaging more points, rebounds and assists than Mitchell with a better field-goal percentage. He also is posting more rebounds and assists than Brunson, while averaging one fewer point.

Factor in Cunningham’s impact on Detroit winning nine more games this season than it did the entire 2023-24 season, and he has a legitimate All-Star case. Entering Wednesday, the combo guard is averaging 24.8 points on 45.2 percent shooting (36.3 percent on 3-pointers), 9.4 assists and 6.4 rebounds. All are career highs.

He also has 20 double-doubles this season and his seven triple-doubles only trail Domantas Sabonis (eight) with LeBron James (nine) and Nikola Jokić (21). Both James and Jokić were selected as All-Star starters last week.

And Cunningham believes he should be in San Francisco playing with the best of the best on Feb. 16.

“Whenever I’m on the court every night, I feel like I’m the best player,” Cunningham said. “I try to do whatever it takes to help my team win, and my teammates have made me look great this year. I’m just trying to help my team win, and we’ll see what happens with it.”

(Top photo of Cunningham: Chris Schwegler / NBAE via Getty Images)