The Detroit Pistons closed their season immediately after finding out where Cade Cunningham finished in the 2025-26 MVP voting
Just before the Detroit Pistons took the court for the final time during game seven against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night, the NBA announced the results for the 2025-26 Most Valuable Player award. For the second consecutive year, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ran away with the prestigious honor, but Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham finished just a few positions behind in fifth place, which was the best news Detroit would receive all night considering the 125-94 loss that followed.
While Cunningham missed the podium for the MVP award, the results added an element of closure to the All-Star point guard’s collapsed lung from the tail end of the regular season. After Cunningham was sidelined for multiple weeks, it became clear that the fifth-year guard would fall just short of the league’s 65-game requirement for individual awards.
Cunningham was not alone in that predicament considering Luka Doncic finished just shy of that games requirement as well, but both players were ultimately granted successful appeals for extenuating circumstances (Cunningham with pneumothorax and Doncic with the birth of his child). In terms of the award results, Doncic finished in fourth place with 250 points according to the NBA’s five-slot scale. Cunningham, on the other hand, earned 117 points with a pair of first place votes, but his position appears fair considering the Motown floor general received more fifth place votes than any other player with 42.
During the regular season, Cunningham posted 23.9 points, 9.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game, but those numbers actually dropped towards the end of the season since Detroit comfortably cruised to the top seed in the East. During the playoffs, Cunningham’s 28.1 points per game total more accurately reflected his regular season production more often than not.
However, Cade struggled in the postseason with 5.6 turnovers per game. In retrospect, the All-Star starter needed one of his teammates to step up during crunch time, and that simply did not happen during the second round. Tobias Harris had a resurgent string of 20-point games against the Magic in the first round, but the veteran power forward cooled off against the Cavs in round two. Jalen Duren, the player most expected to provide the secondary scoring necessary to challenge for the crown in the East, was the most notable absentee starter for the Pistons, but Detroit’s impromptu postseason flameout should not cloud what was a monumental season for Cunningham and his team alike.
Cunningham helped lift the Pistons to their third 60-win season in franchise history, and the club stood atop the East from the beginning of November all the way through the end of the regular season. Cunningham and Duren both were victors in the All-Star Game with head coach J.B. Bickerstaff lifting the trophy beside them, and that trio helped reestablish a concrete identity and brand of hard-nosed basketball in the Motor City that had been lacking in previous seasons. With these important steps forward, Cunningham will take the offseason to grow from the hardships of a second round playoff exit, and perhaps he’ll finish even further up the MVP award ladder this time next year.
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