Cade Cunningham Chasing Rare Detroit Pistons Milestone

Two-time All-Star Cade Cunningham has been playing the best basketball of his young career.

As an MVP candidate, leading the top seed in the east, Cunningham has become a league-wide superstar over the course of this season. 

The Detroit Pistons guard is averaging about 25 points, 6 rebounds, and 10 assists a game. Not to mention, he also tallies about one steal and a block making him a two-way threat on the court.

Beyond the stats

Another extremely important feature of Cunningham’s game is his availability. Cade has only missed 6 games this season, making him one of the more available superstars in the NBA.

Thanks to commissioner Adam Silver, to make an All-NBA team, a player must participate in at least 65 games. This means some players will be snubbed for not being available in enough games.

The expectation is that both Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic will not meet this 65 game minimum, and with Giannis Antetokounmpo already ineligible the competition is a tad less competitive. 

Joining exclusive company

It has been longer than the last time the Pistons won the finals since Detroit has had an All-NBA first team caliber talent. The last Piston to earn this honor was Grant Hill in the 1996/97 season.

Outside of Hill, the other Pistons to make this team include Isiah Thomas, Dave Bing, Gene Shue, and finally George Yardley.

Bing was lucky enough to earn this honor twice, and Isiah was so talented he made first team All-NBA three times.

More records up for grabs

If recently selected first time All-Star Jalen Duren can continue to perform well enough to earn an All-NBA selection himself, the Pistons will have 2 All-NBA players for the first time since Chauncy Billups and Ben Wallace both made the second team in 2006.

Wallace and Billups are the only Pistons tandem to ever achieve this, putting Duren and Cunningham with the exclusive company of NBA champions. 

Duren has played extremely well this season and is likely to land on at least the All-NBA third team with so many players eliminated by the 65 game minimum.

MVP aspirations

Cunningham is very likely to make first team All-NBA, in fact, it would be a bit of a surprise if he missed it by any metric. Cade is also chasing a much shinier prize.

If Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic are both eliminated from the MVP race due to the 65 game minimum, then Cunningham would appear to be the best candidate remaining.

If Cade and them can rally and finish their season strong, they will be poised for a deep post-season run, a bunch of awards, and multiple broken records.