Cade Cunningham is officially listed as questionable for Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, but, according to ESPN’s Vince Goodwill, he’s going to play. The Detroit Pistons star has been sidelined since March 17 because of a collapsed lung.
The injury took Cunningham out of the MVP race and the All-NBA discussion, and that is unfortunate — he led Detroit to the best record in the East, and his exclusion from end-of-season awards makes them less reflective of what actually occurred on the court. For the Pistons, though, Cunningham’s absence wasn’t such a bad thing. And if they make a deep playoff run, they might say this stretch was exactly what they needed.
Cunningham missed 11 games and Detroit lost just three of them. Two were in overtime. And while the first game was against the woeful Washington Wizards, none of their other opponents were among the eight teams that are flagrantly tanking. They got some breaks on the schedule — they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves twice without Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels and blew out the Philadelphia 76ers without Joel Embiid — but they beat the full-strength Los Angeles Lakers and took the Oklahoma City Thunder to overtime. Not bad for a team that was widely expected to fall apart offensively without Cunningham, its best player.
When Cunningham went down, the Pistons had scored 119.7 points per possessions with him on the court and just 108.5 per 100 without him. That lower mark is identical to that of the Brooklyn Nets’ league-worst offense. During Cunningham’s 11-game injury absence, they scored 115.8 points per 100 possessions — not great, but better than league-average. And because their defense, which was already awesome, fared a bit better, they outscored opponents by 9.5 points per 100 possessions, which is only slightly worse than their mark with Cunningham on the floor (+10.9) and better than their overall net rating before his injury (+7.8).
It is impressive that Detroit performed so well — and clinched the top spot in the East! — while Cunningham was sitting out. What’s important, though, is the way that the Pistons pulled this off. They didn’t just grind out ugly wins. They were forced to empower other players to make plays, and several players stepped up. Specifically, these 11 games should serve as a confidence-booster for Daniss Jenkins, Jalen Duren and Kevin Huerter.
Pistons now in even stronger playoff form
Jenkins, 24, was already one of the season’s happiest development stories. Having started on a two-way contract, Jenkins changed numerous games off the bench and established himself as a rotation player. With Cunningham out, though, he exploded, averaging 18.9 points, 7.6 assists and 4.2 rebounds in 35.6 minutes per game while shooting 43.1% from deep. He cooked the Lakers for a career-high 30 points, ending Los Angeles’ nine-game winning streak. He had 14 assists against Philly.
With Cunningham in the fold, Jenkins will return to a bench role. He has made an argument, though, for more minutes alongside Cunningham. (They have shared the floor for only 251 minutes this season, one minute fewer than Jenkins and Huerter — a trade-deadline acquisition — have played together.) He may have even made an argument to close some games.
Duren strengthened his All-NBA and Most Improved Player cases in the last few weeks. All of the things he’d been showing off for months — his work as an offensive hub, his improved ballhandling, his finishing in traffic — became more prominent. He averaged 22 points on 73% true shooting during this stretch, and his stat line against New Orleans was particularly outrageous: 30 points on 10-for-12 shooting, seven assists, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 31 minutes.
To be clear, Duren did not turn into Nikola Jokić. His 33.4 frontcourt touches per game since Cunningham’s injury (up from 24.6 before that) led the team, though, and his aggressiveness was necessary. The Pistons are entering the playoffs with a much better center than they had this time last year, even though it’s the same guy.
Early in his Detroit tenure, Huerter was a bit hesitant. He wasn’t shooting particularly well, and he didn’t seem all that comfortable in his new environment. He got DNP-CDs in six of seven games coming out of the All-Star break.
After Cunningham went out, though, the Pistons had a more pressing need for a connector like him. Even before the shots started falling — from his 22-point performance against the Pelicans onward, he has made 40% of his 3s — his movement, passing and secondary creation have come in handy. He’s been sprinting off pindowns, making quick reads and giving the offense some juice. Here’s one of his six assists against the Thunder:
All season, as Detroit has piled up regular-season wins, there has been skepticism about whether its formula will translate to the playoffs. The Pistons are short on shooting, don’t have an elite offense and, for months, were extremely reliant on creation from Cunningham, whose 42.7% on-ball percentage is right up there with Jalen Brunson’s 44.8% mark, per databaller. In theory, at least, the way they played without Cunningham means he’s returning to a better, more balanced team, one that can be more effective when he’s on the bench and when opposing teams try to get the ball out of his hands.
Isaiah Stewart, Detroit’s defensive anchor, is also about to return, by the way, after missing the last 13 games with a strained calf (he, too, is officially listed as questionable for the Bucks game). In the immediate aftermath of Cunningham’s injury, there was some chatter that play-in teams might have gotten lucky, as one of them would have had the opportunity to play against a shorthanded version of the Pistons in the first round. Instead, it looks like Detroit is going to be stronger than ever in the playoffs, provided that Cunningham and Stewart can get up to speed quickly. The shooting issue still exists, but it’s hard to imagine anybody wanting to play them.
