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Eric Woodyard
After a six -point point loss Brooklyn network, Detroit Pistons just set up Brand of all time for consecutive losses In one season in the history of NBA, drop 27 in a row. It was 26 December 2023. Inside the dressing room, the mood was grim and quiet – apathy constant threat to penetrate the season well at a pace to become the worst in the history of the NBA. Cade cunninghamThe 22 -year -old team of the team spoke first.
“Don’t jump off the ship,” he said. “Right now is the easiest time to get off and be alone, but we must continue to rely on ourselves and continue to push each other and stick to each other more than ever.”
There may be no player in the league to know better. After being selected No. 1 in the NBA 2021 proposal, he lasted the unfortunate 23-winning campaign of newcomers and injured 17 victories in the following year and was now in the middle of the season that violated all the bad records.
And after last year he endured the worst record in franchise history, at 14-68, Cunningham carries the low moments when this year leads a miraculous turn of the pistons and soothes what could remain a heavy favorite as a heavy favorite to win the most improved NBA player.
“It was time to give them nothing else to think,” Cunningham Espn said when he asked about the early bust. “But I felt support from the first day of the first day, and more than anything I wanted to raise my end of negotiation.”
Detroit is 42-32 this season entering Wednesday’s clearing with Western guidance Oklahoma City Thunder (21:30 ET at ESPN), making Pistons the first team in the history of NBA to triple its victory from the previous season, with the exception of two periods of locking in 1998-99 and 2011–12, for ESPN research.
Cunningham is an average of career maximum at points for the game (25.7), helps the game (9.2) and the percentage of the goal in the field (46.2%). He has a chance to become the first Pistons player to play an average of 25 points for the game by Jerry Stackhouse in 2000-01 when he set a franchise record with 29.8 ppg.
“I don’t think people give him full respect,” New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion WilliamsonAnother former selection No. 1, ESPN said. “In my opinion, this year’s all-NBA player. He did his thing, but from watching Cade from a distance and my several interactions with him, it’s someone who let him talk for him.”
This work could do Cunningham by the third Pistons player to join Isiah Thomas (six times) and Kevin Porter (13.4 in 1978-79) and the first with 25-9 season.
But its goals are much higher.
“I think I can be the best basketball player in the world. I think I’m on my way,” Cunningham said. “I want people to understand it, and that’s what I work to show people every time I play.”
With five seconds remaining in regulation, Detroit Lions All-for receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown He pulled out the phone and hoped to capture the scene from his seat in Miami. It was 19 March. Pistons and heat were tied 113-113.
When he pressed the record, he told his girlfriend, Brooklyn Adams and Lions Teammate Craig ReynoldsAs he has never witnessed the pistons they won personally ..
Pistons veteran TIM HARDAWAY JR. Returned the ball to Cunningham in the falling seconds and when Cunningham was released, he launched 25 feet 3 that started to give pistons unlikely victory at Bummer.
Cunningham picked up his jersey No. 2 in front of the crowd of the Kaseya Center in Jubilac.
It ended up double, with 25 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in victory.
Former double star star Andre Drummondnow with Philadelphia 76ersHe published a viral image of Cunningham.
Drummond still root for Detroit. He was part of the last Pistons team to achieve the playoffs in 2018-19, and said he would ever want to retire in Detroit.
“It’s amazing to see how Detroit victory. People actually look at me crazy for publishing or like things in Detroit, but it’s like my home Detroit,” said Drummond Espn. “To see the success of the city of what is happening to the team, I almost feel like I was part of it, even if I don’t play for the team.”
St. Brown, the selection of the fourth round in 2021 nfl draftIt also concerns Cunningham’s rise. The Lions stepped out of the 3-13-1 season in 2021 for a record 15-winning season in 2024.
“It is obvious that it is different sports, but we had the same way in terms of the mere success of the team. I feel that I know exactly what it looks like,” said St. Brown.
“I’m glad I look at it and I can sit down and see them that right now they come from really nothing to be a solid team.
It wasn’t long before Cunningham won the long -term frustrated fan base Detroit. A few Cartier sunglasses broke out at night at night as “enthusiasts”, an iconic fashion piece in the city.
He learned of urban culture through popular rappers such as 42 Dugg, Baby and Babyface Ray, as well as an underground film scene and through Tubi McGraw Ave. When the League announced that Cunningham was appointed to his first NBA All-Star game in January, 42 Dugg was one of the first to share the news.
“I feel that Cade fits more into culture, and we were all young and upstairs and came,” Dugg said. “It seems to me more to us. We’ve seen Cade several times.
This season, Cunningham has nine triple doubles this season, the third in Pistons history for the NBA Legend Grant Hill, which published 13 in 1996-97 and 10 in 1995-96.
No other player in the history of Pistons had five in the season.
Cunningham’s style was often compared with Hill before the injury robbed him of the top.
Hill, CEO of the US national team, does not mind hearing his name attached to the rising star, such as Cunningham, which he sees as a strong candidate for the FIBA World Championship and the Olympics during the next cycle.
“I think there are some similarities in terms of trying to control the game and try to have an impact on the game in many different ways,” Hill Espn said.
“They think the game at a very high level, and only has this incredible feeling and incredible basketball instincts and I feel that it was some of the similarities we brought to the game.”
Ask those around Cunningham for the underestimated quality of his game and the answer is almost versatile. It is the leadership he provided when the losses were mounted, and now also when the victory does the same.
“Very rarely you will find a guy who can grow and develop and not leave people behind,” said Pistons coach JB Bicerstaff before Detroit’s victory over Washington 113-103 over Washington on March 11. “Cade has a mysterious ability not only to take care of themselves and to do what is for its development and growth, but ensures that it is always right and gives them the same opportunities that are not only to gain.”
Consider: Cunningham has the third highest points created this season on discs (1,162), for Front-Runner MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and New York Knicks watch Jalen Brunsonaccording to the second spectrum.
And helped at 75 3-clerk teammates Malik Beasley and 84 dunes to the center of the pistons HeyBoth in the NBA, or any combo passers -by, per second.
This potential is why Pistons owner Tom Gores agreed to sign Cunningham on a five -year -old, $ 224 million Maximum Rookie Extension Last Offseason, an agreement that has encountered questions across the league.
“What I saw in Cade is not something you see only in court. He accepted adversity; he did not give it to anyone else. He took his own responsibility,” Gores Espn said. “Part of the reason I did not click is that he did not click. He did not start like,” Oh, Geez, Detroit. “Everyone was in.
“And we knew we had to change some things and sometimes you learn the most in difficult times … You’re going through some war and seeing someone acting, and I thought it did so well in many ways.
During the four seasons, Cunningham has already played for three different head coaches: Dwane Casey, Monty Williams and now Bickerstaff.
He missed most of his second season with a fracture of stress on his left leg and still has to experience the play -off NBA, but he says he has the most entertaining of his career at the head of Detroit’s revival.
“Victory. I think this is the main difference for real,” Cunningham said. “It’s a lot of fun winning games. It’s not fun for loss at all, so playing in meaningful games and constantly going to win the position, it was a lot of fun this year.”
Duren said, “It will only continue to improve. This is probably the worst version we will see.”
