25-under-25: Cade Cunningham is revving up

A player who averages 20.0 points, 6.5 assists and 5.0 rebounds in his career before he turns 23 should be unanimously viewed as a rising star, right? Especially if he averaged 22.7 points and 7.5 assists per game in his third season, right? And signed an extension worth over $220 million, right? Right?

That sounds right! So why are there still questions about Cade Cunningham's ability to be a leading man?

Well, a 32-106 career record doesn't help. Shooting inefficiencies don't help, either (Cunningham has a 52.3 true shooting percentage in his first three seasons.) Being part of a Detroit Pistons franchise that has butchered essentially every decision outside of drafting him for a decade-plus really doesn't help. Yet we still might be overthinking it with Cade, who has been great in stretches and good most other times while being asked to strap some woeful rosters on his back and carry them to relevance. He hasn't been able to do that because no one would be able to do that in his position. It's like when Idris Elba was in Cats. He's still a top-tier actor, but he was never gonna save Cats, ya know?

The consensus around Cunningham during the 2021 NBA Draft cycle was that he would join a franchise and immediately alter its trajectory, solving all problems overnight. He was the surefire top pick in that draft before he even arrived at Oklahoma State, where he spent one moderately successful year. So when the Pistons won the top pick in the 2021 Draft Lottery, they were sure their 13-year streak without a playoff win would soon be shattered.

Apparently, Detroit was so high on Cunningham that the franchise was fine with assembling some of the worst NBA rosters ever seen then telling Cade, in broad terms, "deal with it."

Here's the thing; Cade might not be the generational, superstar-tier player he was viewed as leading up to the draft. He lacks "elite" skills in areas that will hinder him from reaching the Doncic, Curry, SGA tier of ball-dominant, all-around creators who operate as the hubs of high-level offenses. Cade probably is, however, a multi-time All-Star who's capable of being a cornerstone player in Detroit for a decade.

If you don't think he's played well enough to warrant that optimism, then you mustn't be paying attention to the circus Cunningham has been surrounded by in his three professional seasons. If you find it hard to believe that a team that has won 31 games in two years combined has a player of that caliber on its roster, just watch him play. Simply put; the fact we're still not sure exactly what Cade is capable of ... isn't his fault. At all.

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Cade Cunningham is developing into a high-level player even in a terrible situation

Here's what we know for sure about Cunningham; last year, he was 11th in the NBA in assists per game despite being surrounded by zero high-level shooters (Detroit was bottom-five in threes attempted, made and 3-point percentage). In fact, as soon as Cade did have a shooter flanking him — Detroit traded for Simone Fontecchio at the deadline — Cade looked even more comfortable as a distributor. Crazy how that works.

He was also 21st in scoring (22.7 points per game) and Tyrese Maxey and Anthony Edwards were the only players 23 or younger to average more points than him. He was a league-average 3-point shooter (35.5 percent) despite defenses game-planning around him only, and his mid-range game improved, too — he shot much better from 10 to 16 feet in year three than he did in years one and two.

It's not always pretty for Cunningham; his efficiency, no matter how you slice it, has been poor in his first three seasons. His true shooting got better in 2023-24 at 54.6 percent, but that's still below the league-average mark of 58.0. But again, many of those inefficiencies can be blamed on the dearth of talent around him; when you can't count on anyone else scoring consistently, you're forced to chuck shots often. And when defenses aren't scared of anyone else on the court, they focus more attention on the one player who's always a threat to score. For Detroit, that threat was Cunningham.

During his best stretches, Cade simply looked like an All-Star. In December, he scored at least 30 points six times, including two 40-pieces. In the same month, he recorded 10-plus assists five times. In March, he played 11 games and scored 30-plus in five of them. The promise of elite scoring is on display often; the big question is whether it can be on display every night when Cade has a good team around him.

Cade needs to live at the free-throw line if he wants to evolve

The biggest missing component from Cade's game is an ability to live at the free-throw line. Cade was 33rd in the NBA in free throw attempts last year (4.4) despite being fifth in drives per game. That disparity is concerning; Cade doesn't seek contact when he drives, and sometimes it looks like he avoids it.

He doesn't need to be Giannis or Joel Embiid, players who rely on defenses being forced to foul them because of how dominant they are around the basket. But if Cunningham can draw one more shooting foul per game on average, he would be in the company (free-throw wise anyway) of Booker, Edwards and Tatum, and so many of the efficiency problems he's had would effectively be solved.

The great, ball-dominant scorers in the NBA can produce for their teams even when shots aren't falling. Cade's lack of free-throw attempts has kept him from doing that; most of the time, if his shot isn't going in, he's not scoring at all.

What's next for Cade and the Pistons?

Miraculously, probably some wins! The Pistons spent a lot of money on veteran players this offseason, headlined by Tobias Harris, who they inked to a two-year, $52 million contract and Malik Beasley, who's on a one-year deal. Detroit didn't add any All-Stars and got clowned by the public for the Harris signing, but this team literally just needed NBA-level players who can produce every night, and that's what they got.

This isn't a playoff team, but it's the first team Cade Cunningham has been surrounded by that looks, on paper, like it was built by a front office not interested in shamelessly tanking for 82 games. We'll learn more about Cade this season than in any of his previous three seasons, and we believe a lot of that learning will be positive.

If you see Cade Cunningham spending more time in the 14-foot range and at the free-throw line next year, you'll also probably see him spending some time in an All-Star jersey.

Cade Cunningham ranked No. 10 on FanSided's 2024-25 25-under-25, ranking the best young players in the NBA. Check out the rest of the list here.