Former NBA player Danny Green has lofty expectations for Cade Cunningham
After playing in the NBA for what amounted to a 15-year career spent with six teams, Danny Green is firing off takes in the podcast realm, and he is predicting big things from Detroit star guard Cade Cunningham this season.
In a recent episode of Inside the Green Room, the topic of who will perform as the most clutch player in the coming season rose to the forefront, and Green singled out All-NBA third-team selection Cunningham as his favorite to earn the honor.
“Cade Cunningham, he was an MVP-conversation caliber player,” Green said. “So next year, if he keeps going the way he’s going and the way he’s trending, Cade Cunningham is my pick.”
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So far, Cunningham has been lighting up the preseason with back-to-back 20-point outings, scoring 46 points in just 38 minutes on the court, and it looks like he’s poised for another standout year running the show in Detroit.
“He’s SGA in the East to me,” Green said. “He just has to learn to get to the free throw line more, but he plays at his own pace, athletic, a little more athletic than Shai, like he’ll dunk you, and he learned how to play as a point guard. He was getting tough assists in the playoffs, doing his thing as a point guard, setting the table for guys.”
As Green alluded to, Cunningham helped push the Pistons back into the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. Detroit completed a huge franchise-shifting turnaround with a 30-win improvement in one year, and Cunningham was the focal point behind that switch even if the Pistons didn’t last as long in the postseason as they’d have liked to.
“There were some moments that I think he didn’t capitalize on,” Green said. “Like, I think he missed a couple clutch shots. I picked him because when we thought clutch, I thought of who had opportunities as a young player that didn’t capitalize on it and is going to go back to the drawing board and learn from it. To me, that is Cade.”
Ultimately, Cunningham and the Pistons were bounced out of the postseason in the first round by the New York Knicks, but Detroit’s do-it-all All-Star guard is entering the 2025-26 campaign energized and eager to cement his team’s position among the top of the Eastern Conference.
“I have him as my clutch player of the year 2025-26 season,” Green declared.
The Detroit Pistons will continue the preseason with an exhibition game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7 pm.
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