Cade Cunningham should be the only one safe in Pistons' retooling

Langdon has now torn this thing down, but his job is far from over yet. He needs to tear the Pistons down to the studs in order to rebuild what used to be one of the proudest franchises in the NBA. 

That means nobody can be safe and anybody who participated in last season's debacle should be able to lose their job.

That list featured Weaver and Williams, but it should include everyone down to the popcorn vendor on the in section 101 as well as every player currently on the team,

Well, every player besides former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham.

It's not because of the investment the previous regime made into Cunningham, either. Nor is it because at this moment, he's really the Pistons only marketable player.

Those things are reasons to keep Cunningham around, but the reason is because he's legitimacy a player on the precipice of becoming a star in today's NBA. 

No, he may not ever be Luka Doncic and he's certainly no LeBron or Michael, but Cunningham is coming off a season that saw him average 22.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists per game while essentially being Detroit's only real player on the floor for large chunks of the season.

Cunningham had next to zero help and the roster that Weaver contracted around him did no favors. Often thought of as a probing, calculated point guard with a lethal mid-range game the ability to score from all three levels, Cunningham's game is at its best when he's able to slowly find the weaknesses of a defense and kick it out to his teammates beyond the three point line.

The problem? Of the four players he often played with, only forward/center Isaiah Stewart was a consistent threat from deep and even he was just a 38.3% shooter on low volume from three-point range. 

The Pistons looked a bit better when Weaver traded for forward Simone Fontecchio (42.6% from three) but a supporting cast of Jaden Ivey (33.3% from three), Ausar Thompson (18.6% from three) and Jalen Duren just wasn't cutting it last season.

Sure, Cunningham has had some shooting woes of his own (he shot 35.5% from three last season), but he's darn near perfect everywhere else on the floor and if he doesn't have players around him that can play into his ability to facilitate — it becomes really easy for defense just to focus on him, which certainly hurt his efficiency last season.

If anything, though, the fact that he was always hounded by the opponent's defense yet still managed to be the 21st best scorer in the league by average goes to show you what Cunningham's ceiling can be.

He has an All-Star ceiling, if not an All-Pro ceiling, and Langdon and the Pistons need to start actually building around that.

No matter who Langdon brings in to replace Williams, building this thing to fit Cunningham's star power is a must. It's Detroit's only way forward.