FOLLOWING A SIX-POINT loss to the Brooklyn Nets, the Detroit Pistons had just set the all-time mark for consecutive losses in a single season in NBA history, dropping 27 in a row. It was Dec. 26, 2023. Inside the locker room, the mood was somber and quiet — apathy a constant threat to seep into a season well on pace to becoming the worst in NBA history. Cade Cunningham, the team’s 22-year-old cornerstone, spoke first.
“Don’t jump off the boat,” he said. ” Right now is the easiest time to stand off and be on your own, but we need to continue to lean on each other and continue to push each other and hold each other accountable more than ever now.”
There’s perhaps no player in the league who would know better. After being selected No. 1 in the 2021 NBA draft, he had endured a miserable 23-win rookie campaign and an injury-marred 17 wins the following year, and he was now in the middle of a season that was breaking all the wrong records.
And after enduring the worst record in franchise history last season, at 14-68, Cunningham carries those low moments with him as he leads a miraculous Pistons turnaround this year, quieting what might remain of any bust talk as a heavy favorite to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
“There was a time where I didn’t give them much else to think,” Cunningham told ESPN, when asked about the early bust talk. “But I felt support since day one being here, though, and more than anything I wanted to hold up my end of the bargain.”
Detroit is 42-32 this season entering Wednesday’s showdown with the West-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN), making the Pistons the first team in NBA history to triple their win total from the previous season, excluding the two lockout seasons in 1998-99 and 2011-12, per ESPN Research.
Cunningham is averaging career highs in points per game (25.7), assists per game (9.2) and field goal percentage (46.2%). He has a chance to become the first Pistons player to average 25 points per game in a season since Jerry Stackhouse in 2000-01, when he set the franchise record with 29.8 PPG.
“I don’t think people are giving him his full respect,” New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson, another former No. 1 pick, told ESPN. “In my opinion, he’s an All-NBA player this year. He’s been doing his thing, but from watching Cade from afar and my few interactions with him, he’s somebody that’s gonna let his work speak for him.”
That work could make Cunningham the third player in Pistons history to average nine or more assists per game in a season, joining Isiah Thomas (six times) and Kevin Porter (13.4 in 1978-79), and the first to have a 25-9 season.
His goals are much higher, however.
“I think I can be the best basketball player in the world. I think I’m on my way,” Cunningham said. “I want people to understand that and that’s what I’m working to show people every time I play.”
WITH FIVE SECONDS remaining in regulation, Detroit Lions All-Pro receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown pulled out his phone, hoping to capture the scene from his courtside seat in Miami. It was March 19. The Pistons and Heat were tied 113-113.
As he pressed record, he told his girlfriend, Brooklyn Adams, and Lions teammate Craig Reynolds, how he had never witnessed the Pistons win in person..
Pistons veteran Tim Hardaway Jr. inbounded the ball to Cunningham in the waning seconds, and as Cunningham broke free, he launched a 25-foot 3 that banked in to give the Pistons the improbable win at the buzzer.
Cunningham raised his No. 2 Pistons jersey in front of the Kaseya Center crowd in jubilation.
He had finished with a triple-double, with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in the victory.
Former Pistons two-time All-Star Andre Drummond, now with the Philadelphia 76ers, posted the viral image of Cunningham.
Drummond still roots for Detroit. He was part of the most recent Pistons team to reach the playoffs in 2018-19, and he has said he wants to someday retire in Detroit.
“This is amazing to see Detroit win. People actually look at me crazy for posting or liking stuff in Detroit, but it’s, like, Detroit’s my home,” Drummond told ESPN. “To see the success of the city of what’s going with the team, I almost feel like I’m a part of it even though I don’t play for the team.”
St. Brown, a fourth-round selection in the 2021 NFL draft, also relates to Cunningham’s rise. The Lions have ascended from a 3-13-1 season in 2021 to a record-setting 15-win season in 2024.
“Obviously, it’s different sports but we’ve kind of had the same journey, in terms of just team success. I feel like I know exactly how it feels,” St. Brown said.
“I’m glad to watch it and to be able to sit back and to see them come from really nothing to being a solid team right now. I see myself and the Lions in them a lot.”
It didn’t take long for Cunningham to win over the long-frustrated Detroit fan base. On draft night, he broke out a pair of Cartier sunglasses, known around town as “Buffs,” which is an iconic fashion piece in the city.
He learned about the city’s culture through popular rappers like 42 Dugg, Sada Baby and Babyface Ray, as well as the underground movie scene and through the Tubi TV show McGraw Ave. When the league announced that Cunningham was named to his first NBA All-Star game in January, 42 Dugg was one of the first to share the news.
“I feel like Cade fits more into the culture with all of us being young and up and coming,” 42 Dugg said. “He fits more into us. We’ve seen Cade out a few times. He gives us more of something to root for. We’re all behind Cade.”
Cunningham has nine triple-doubles this season, third-most in Pistons history behind NBA legend Grant Hill, who posted 13 in 1996-97 and 10 in 1995-96.
No other player in Pistons history has ever had five in a season.
Cunningham’s style has often been compared to Hill’s before injuries robbed him of peak.
Hill, the managing director of the USA men’s national team, doesn’t mind hearing his name attached to a rising star such as Cunningham, who he sees as a strong candidate for the FIBA World Cup and Olympics during the next cycle.
“I think there’s some similarities in terms of trying to just control the game and trying to have an impact on the game in a number of different ways,” Hill told ESPN.
“He thinks the game at a very high level, and he’s got just this incredible feel and incredible basketball instincts, and I do feel like those were some of the similarities that we brought to the game.”
ASK THOSE AROUND Cunningham for an underrated quality of his game, and the response is nearly universal. It’s the leadership he provided when the losses mounted, and now, too, when the wins are doing the same.
“Very rarely do you find a guy who can grow and develop and not leave people behind,” said Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff ahead of Detroit’s 123-103 win over Washington on March 11. “Cade has the uncanny ability to not only take care of himself and do what’s best for his development and growth, but he makes sure that his teammates are always right alongside, and giving them the same opportunities that he’s getting.”
Consider: Cunningham has the third-most points created this season on drives (1,162), behind MVP front-runner Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, according to Second Spectrum.
And he has assisted on 75 3-pointers to teammate Malik Beasley and 84 dunks to Pistons center Jalen Duren, both the most in the NBA respectively by any passer-shooter combo, per Second Spectrum.
That potential is why Pistons owner Tom Gores agreed to sign Cunningham to a five-year, $224 million maximum rookie extension last offseason, a deal that was met with questions across the league.
“What I saw in Cade is not something you just see on the court. He embraced the adversity; he didn’t put it on anybody else. He took his own accountability,” Gores told ESPN. “Part of the reason I didn’t blink is he didn’t blink. He didn’t start like, ‘Oh, geez, Detroit.’ He was all in.
“And we knew we had to change some things and sometimes you learn the most in the tough times … you go through some war with each other and you see how somebody acts, and I thought he handled it so well in so many ways. So I didn’t blink, honestly.”
Through four seasons, Cunningham has already played for three different head coaches: Dwane Casey, Monty Williams and now Bickerstaff.
He missed most of his second season with a stress fracture in his left leg and has yet to experience the NBA playoffs, but he says he’s having the most fun of his career at the helm of Detroit’s resurgence.
“Winning. I think that’s the main difference for real,” Cunningham said. “It’s a lot of fun winning games. It’s not fun losing at all, so playing in meaningful games and constantly putting ourselves in a position to win has been a lot of fun this year.”
Duren said: “He’s only gonna continue to get better. This is probably the worst version of him we will see.”