Cade Cunningham is brutally honest on current state of Pistons: ‘We’re bad’
The start of the Detroit Pistons’ season looked promising. It nearly completed a monster fourth-quarter comeback against the reigning Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat on the road on opening night, ultimately losing by one point. It subsequently won two straight against the Charlotte Hornets and Chicago Bulls by 11 and 16 points, respectively.
The tide looked to have been turning for the franchise, winners of only 80 combined games over the last four seasons. It hired head coach Monty Williams to one of the richest contracts in NBA History in the offseason and had a healthy Cade Cunningham, who missed all but 12 games last season to a shin injury. They also had a litany of young, athletic pieces–such as Ausar Thompson and Jalen Duren–who also impressed very early on to start the 2023-24 campaign.
Those thoughts were short-lived. Detroit has lost 11 straight and is on pace to win 12 games in 2023-24. Cunningham was recently candid about the current state of the franchise, which has a minus-10.6 NET Rating over its last 11 games, the third-worst mark in the NBA.
“We got to be realistic about the situation,” Cunningham said, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. “It’s hard to just be like, ‘We’re good, we’re good,’ you know what I’m saying? Because we’re bad. We have to address that. We have to address what we’re not good at. Address it with not only our words but on the court, in the huddles.”
Cunningham’s not wrong. But Detroit’s leader, did, however, shine light on how the team’s been competing, despite beginning an NBA-worst 2-12.
“We’re the youngest team in the league, scrapping and clawing for everything,” Cunningham said. “That should be the last thing that needs to be asked of us or talked about; how hard we’re competing. That should be a given. When we wake up in the morning, we should be like, ‘We got to get to the court.’ (Monty Williams) shouldn’t have to ask (about our competitive level). That’s something me and (Isaiah Stewart) are also trying to stay vocal about. Everyone has to come with it.”
Among the bright spots of the season has been the rookie Thompson, whose scrappiness and competitive juices are a 12 on a scale of 1-10. Duren looked like one of the league’s best bigs before he got hurt, averaging 12.6 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.1 blocks in 28.9 minutes on 63.7 percent true shooting. The Pistons are still waiting for the return of Bojan Bogdanovic, who has yet to suit up this season, as well as Joe Harris, Killian Hayes and Monte Morris.
Cade Cunningham’s operated in a telephone booth of space as a lead creator, averaging 21.0 points, 3.8 boards and 7.1 assists on 40.4/31.4/84.3 shooting splits so far. The Pistons have the seventh-worst NET Rating leaguewide–the fifth-worst offense (109.3 ORTG) and seventh-worst defense (115.7 DRTG)–with six of their next nine against teams with a top-10 NET Rating.
Detroit will need players outside of Cunningham, Thompson and Stewart to step up if it wants any chance to compete for a play-in spot … before it’s too late.
***
Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch
Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube
Check out the Vendetta Shop
Click here for more NBA content
