Wild Pistons stat underscores Cade Cunningham's improvement

But some of Cunningham's perceived improvement is due to the players around him. He's playing at an All-Star level in part because when Cunningham passes to an open teammate, he can actually make the shot. Last season, the Pistons made 34.8% of their threes and took 31.7 per game. This season it's a 36.9% on 37.1 attempts per game. That translates to 2.65 extra points per game just on three-pointers.

That also means opposing teams can't solely focus on stopping Cunningham on defense. Unlike last season's motley crew, Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley can all make teams pay for leaving them open.

With a roster full of NBA players, the Pistons can actually stop people on defense this season. They improved from 26th in the NBA in defensive efficiency to 17th without particularly adding great defensive players — they just stopped giving minutes to the terrible ones. Some of that may have been tanking and some was simply poor talent evaluation.

Cunningham should be headed to the All-Star team but his situation should be instructive for looking at other top prospects. It's impossible to see what a young player can do in the NBA if his team doesn't have enough real NBA players.