Pistons star Cade Cunningham receives more accolades

After a dominant season from Cade Cunningham last year helped propel the Detroit Pistons into the playoff picture, the star point guard has been picking up the accolades over the offseason. That praise has continued into the NBA preseason, and Cunningham was just ranked as one of the top 10 players in the league by Sports Illustrated NBA writer Chris Mannix. 

“The 2024–25 season was the one where Cunningham put it all together with career highs in scoring (26.1), assists (9.1), field goal percentage (46.9%), three-point percentage (35.6%) and free throw attempts (5.3). Most importantly, Cunningham crossed the 70 games played threshold for the first time in his career. The ex-No. 1 pick earned All-NBA honors for the first time, cementing his status as a franchise player.”

Based on Mannix’s analysis, Cunningham “put it all together,” which is true in the sense that he posted career-high numbers across the board, many surrounding the Pistons believe that Cunningham still has a couple levels to reach.

Each year, Cunningham has added different pieces to his game, and we’ve seen that with a steady increase in points, assists and rebounds per game over each of the last four seasons. During the offseason, Cunningham mentioned that he’s been focusing on cleaning up his game and making some better decisions with the basketball, so becoming a more efficient player is one area in which Detroit’s star point guard is looking to refine his game. 

Based on the early reports from one preseason game, Cunningham is looking sharp as advertised. In the Pistons’ 128-112 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday, Cunningham only played in the first half, but he put up a game-high 20 points on 8/11 shooting and showed off a varied mixture of shots in the process. Before his night was over, Cunningham connected on a three-pointer, hit a couple mid-range shots, nailed a floater and also finished a lob pass from Tobias Harris with an acrobatic up-and-under lay-up at the rim.

Now, Cunningham did get into a little bit of first half foul trouble on Monday, but since it’s a preseason game it seems as if Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was allowing Detroit to play a bit more freely in the exhibition contest. 

Apart from his scoring output, Cunningham chipped in with four assists, three rebounds and two steals in the preseason opener. At one juncture, Cunningham collected a loose ball on defense and whipped an overhead outlet pass down the court for a quick transition bucket for the Pistons. Though it was a shorter outing for the All-NBA third-team selection, Cunningham looked composed and locked in during the Pistons’ initial taste of preseason basketball for the 2025-26 season.

The Pistons will take on the Milwaukee Bucks tonight for preseason game No. 1 at 8 pm. 

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