Is Cade Cunningham’s Breakout Year Enough for All-NBA?

Breaking down the case for the face of the franchise.

The Detroit Pistons are a good basketball team.

When it comes to discussing Cade Cunningham’s fourth year as a pro, this context is important to keep in mind. The Detroit Pistons are a good basketball team, which not many fans would have expected, coming off a season where they could be best described as “not good”. Boasting the 11^th best net rating in the league (per CleaningTheGlass), Detroit currently sits at the 5 seed in the East, far ahead of schedule for a team that won 14 games last season. This turnaround has been spurred by the ascension of Cade Cunningham.

Cade has blossomed into the player who the Pistons drafted first overall in 2021, averaging career highs in points, assists, and true shooting. Crucially, though, Cade has already played 66 games and counting, the most of any season in his young career. Does his play in his best season yet earn him a spot on an All-NBA Team?

Spoiler alert: the answer is yes. A better question is which team he’ll find himself on once the dust settles and the votes are counted.

Now that All-NBA teams are positionless, we can see where he stacks up among the top 15 performers this season. So, who is he contending with for one of these spots? Let’s take a look at Cade’s competition this year.

With last season’s introduction of the 65-game threshold for end of season awards, we can eliminate some players who otherwise would be seriously discussed. Names who are already eliminated include Kawhi Leonard, Zion Williamson, Paolo Banchero, Luka Doncic, Ja Morant, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, De’Aaron Fox, Lamelo Ball, Victor Wembanyama, Damian Lillard, and Kyrie Irving. Jalen Brunson and Kevin Durant are still technically eligible, but will cut it close depending on their current injuries, so I have disregarded them for the purposes of this exercise.

In the top tier of All-NBA players this season, four players have staked their places as First-Team locks. Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are fighting it out for MVP with historic seasons, and Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo have both had dominant years on offense and defense.

Outside of these four, the last spot on the First-Team is much more up for debate, but I’ll give the edge to Donovan Mitchell. While I don’t feel great about this choice, he is the leading offensive force on a juggernaut Cavaliers team headed for around 65 wins. Mitchell’s main argument is his role on an exceptional regular season team, which, alongside his 24 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 4.9 assists, is enough to warrant his place.

The Second-Team is where things start getting interesting, from a Cade Cunningham perspective. I have six players fighting for those five spots, so I’ll start with the player who will have to get bumped down: Steph Curry. Curry has been awesome since the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler (and started winning games), especially in the 17-game stretch after the trade where, per NBA.com, he averaged 29.1 points on 66.1% true shooting while leading Golden State to go 14-3. Through the first half of the season, however, Curry was averaging only 22.7 points on lower efficiency, and the Warriors sat four games under .500. Steph has been his dynamic self, but has lacked a little in the full season consistency that he would need to be above the rest of these players.

That leaves me with an All-NBA Second Team of Karl-Anthony Towns, Jaren Jackson Jr., LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, and … drumroll, please … Cade Cunningham.

DEEETROIT BASKETBALL.

Cade has been the engine for the Piston’s unexpected success; everything that happens on the offensive side of their floor runs through him. He has the second highest qualifying assist percentage in the league, with his 9.2 per game accounting for 40.9% of the Pistons’ assists (per NBA.com). Outside of Jaden Ivey and Dennis Schroeder (who have only played 30 games and 23 games for Detroit this year, respectively), the next best creator is Jalen Duren with 2.6 assists per game. His teammates score 23.7 points per game off his assists, plus the 25.7 that he scores himself. This number, 49.4 points per game created directly, is third most in the NBA, tied with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

This graph shows the top 50 players by assist percentage in the league this season, along with their points per game. Cade Cunningham, the red dot, is one of only three men this year to average at least 25 points and have an assist percentage over 37%.

Cade’s shooting splits don’t jump off the page, but his ability to initiate offense for himself and others is invaluable to the Pistons. His 17.2 drives per game, according to NBA.com, put constant downhill pressure on opposing defenses, and make life easier for shooters like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley (who has made himself a lot of money with his 44% shooting on catch and shoot threes, per Synergy Sports).

For All-NBA Third Team, I’m giving the nod to Steph, Darius Garland, Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Williams, and Evan Mobley. On top of Curry, we have J-Dub for his two-way importance on the league’s best team, Haliburton for his strong second half of the season, and two more representatives of the Cavs. Pistons fans, feel free to call this “the team Cade was too good for”.

Cunningham will be first representative of Detroit on an All-NBA team since Blake Griffin in 2018-19, but that isn’t the most exciting takeaway from his breakout season. Cade has given a full year’s display of what he can do, and, crucially, where he can grow. He has the tools, and he is certainly not done developing and improving. Jalen Duren said it best: “He's only gonna continue to get better. This is probably the worst version of him we will see.”

With an increasingly talented supporting cast, along with stability at head coach, Cade will only grow from here. In addition to his skills as a basketball player, he brings the Pistons strong leadership and unwavering confidence. He’s Detroit’s franchise player and superstar of the future.

For now, he deserves an All-NBA spot to celebrate. It will be the first of many.