Detroit Pistons All-Star point guard Cade Cunningham was recognized as the Ally Relentless Player of the Year on Thursday
During his fifth season as a pro, Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham had a regular season to remember. From leading his team on a 13-game winning streak in November to starting in the All-Star Game for the first time in his career, Cunningham received a lot of plaudits– and for good reason– throughout his All-NBA First Team campaign.
But along the way, Cunningham and the Pistons received a huge blow just before the playoffs began. During a regular season game against the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, March 17, Cunningham dove for a loose ball in the first quarter and received an errant knee in the back from one of his opponents during the play. At first, Cunningham was pulled out of the game with a back contusion. The next day, his prognosis shifted to a back strain before it was finally revealed on Thursday that the All-Star had a collapsed lung.
Cunningham was sidelined for three weeks with the injury as he worked to recover and rehab while his teammates were busy locking up the top seed in the Eastern Conference entering the postseason. By that point, Cunningham had amassed an average of 23.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per game, and the team clearly needed the leader back heading into the playoffs.
During the first and second rounds, Cunningham was forced to fight through a collapsed paint as both the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavs looked to disrupt Detroit’s offensive gameplan of dominating the paint. As a result, Cunningham did all he could to put the team on his shoulders, which included a 45-point performance in round one before a series-clinching 30-point performance to move onto the Eastern Conference Semifinals, but ultimately the Pistons fell short against the Cavs in another seven-game battle.
But for all of those trials and tribulations, Cunningham showed his spirit as one of the more determined players in the NBA given the expedited timeline for his collapsed lung recovery. So, it should not come as a major surprise that Cunningham was singled out as the Ally Relentless Player of the Year for the work he put on tape during the 2025-26 season.
This season, Cunningham finished 5th in MVP voting, so the league is beginning to take notice of the work that Motown’s floor general is putting in. The Pistons function on a defensive-based mentality that relies on their turnover-creation to spark easy transition buckets on offense, and that symbiotic relationship is similar to how Cunningham has operated as a leader. Cade knows that for Detroit to be successful, every player must carry out their role since winning a championship requires everyone to be on the same page. Even when times get tough, Cunningham showed the resilient nature needed to fight through adversity, and that’s why Ally is going to make a donation to Detroit’s Eastern Market on Cunningham’s behalf.
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