How Good is Cade Cunningham, Really?

Thoughts on redrafts, efficiency, and recency bias.

Any time I bring up the Pistons nowadays, it’s usually negative. Losing 28 straight games and breaking the single-season losing streak will do that to a team’s reputation — and they aren’t even done yet. Things are a mess in Detroit, with Monty Williams seemingly enamored by Alec Burks’ ability (or inability, really) to hit late-game shots, while everyone else on the team seems to be scrambling for some form of a moral victory, maybe.

I recently read an article from Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports, in which he came to the conclusion that this Pistons team is the worst team of all time to try. In other words, Detroit isn’t tanking, and somehow that’s worse than whatever the heck is going on right now.

Even so, if there’s been one silver lining in the past few games, it’s been the continued breakout of Cade Cunningham, showing the flashes of what made him the number-one pick in 2021 — and maybe a little more. Yet, can we trust a player who is putting up numbers on a bad team? Can we trust a guy whose efficiency has been scarily bad up to this point? I think we can find out. But first, it’s time to vent about redrafts.