Cade Cunningham ranked No. 7 on The Step Back's 2023-24 25-under-25, ranking the best young players in the NBA. Check out the rest of the list here.
The Detroit Pistons have a signature vibe, one that cuts across eras. Well, at least to the degree that black eyes, fat lips and bloody elbows can be a vibe.
Isiah Thomas, Dennis Rodman, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer and company brought the Bad Boys Pistons to prominence with punishing (literally) physicality. The Ben Wallace - Chauncey Billups version did it with a slight veneer of respectability but the basic tone was the same — winning basketball games with brute force.
GMs have been replaced. Coaches have been hired and fired. Rosters have turned over. The names and faces have changed but somehow the roster always seems to hew towards big shoulders with big chips on them — the Josh Smith-Greg Monroe-Andre Drummond frontcourt. The Michael Curry-Lindsay Hunter backcourt. Otis Thorpe. Jerome Williams. Aaron McKie. Jason Maxiell. Rodney Stuckey. Even when Jerry Stackhouse was challenging for scoring titles and taking his brief turn as the next Michael Jordan, he was doing it with relentless assaults on the basket, posting up smaller players and averaging double-digit free throw attempts.
The modern Pistons don't glide, they grind.
The most notable exception is Grant Hill — a contemporary of Kobe Bryant, Penny Hardaway and Ray Allen — whose brilliance is mostly overshadowed by his injury history and extended third act as a solid if unspectacular role player.
Across his first six seasons, Hill averaged 21.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game. He had no real 3-point shot but he picked defenses apart with his mid-range jumper, his touch, his vision, his skill, his finesse. Hill played with an edge and built an impressive collection of poster dunks. But his edge seemed as much psychological as physical. His game was smooth and refined in a way that stands out against the larger Pistons aesthetic.
I point all this out because I think it's an interesting comparison for Cade Cunningham, even if Kendrick Perkins thought of it first.
Cade Cunningham is the key to everything for the Detroit Pistons
The current Pistons roster is loaded with young talent and the vast majority of it, at this point, manifests in the physical.
Jalen Duren is a potentially transformational defensive anchor. He's also 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds with deltoids that could draw an eyebrow raise from Ben Wallace. He is a unique blend of size, speed and power waiting to be unlocked. Comparing Jaden Ivey to a freight train is probably more instructive than comparing him to any actual basketball-playing human. Ausar Thompson's athleticism has been described as "nuclear" and "sky-scraping." The safest prop bet you could make on his rookie season is that he's going to try and dunk on everyone he can. Isaiah Stewart is built like Karl Malone and would have tried to eat LeBron's face, Hannibal-style, if Jerami Grant hadn't put his body on the line.
All that is to say that this roster feels familiar. Forcefully physical. Aggressive. Ferocious in a way that reminds of so many Pistons teams of the past. They still need to develop, figure out how to turn that raw power, adrenaline and rage into winning basketball plays.
That's where Cade Cunningham comes in.
He is the most talented player on this team and his talent is separate enough, distinct enough that it can help direct everything else, scaffold things for his teammates' development, set the marching orders for them as they prepare to fly up, over and through the defense.
Cunningham has impressive physical tools of his own and is still raw, having missed all but 12 games last season with a shin injury. But he's already demonstrated a tantalizing ability to control a game through skill and will. Like Hill, he can get anywhere he wants on the floor with smooth handle, loping strides and effortless changes of pace. Like Hill, he has a feathery, butter-soft mid-range jumper and the ability to toggle between face-ups drives, pull-ups and swinging to back down smaller players in the post.
In his predraft hype-building and brief career, Cunningham has been compared to everyone from Luka Doncic to James Harden. But I think Hill is a far more important and meaningful comparison.
A 20-7-7 line is absolutely in reach for Cunningham this season and Hill was putting up those numbers for the Pistons before Doncic was even born. But it's not about the numbers. It's about what Cunningham, his versatility, his skill and his control mean to a franchise that has had to batter its way to excellence in the past. Hill was a scalpel, in the same way that Cunningham can be this year.
Piston fans got just six years of Hill before he tired of the grind and left for sunnier pastures in Orlando. They made multiple mistakes during that era — burning first-round picks on Randolph Childress, Theo Ratliff, Jerome Williams and Scot Pollard, alienating Allan Houston, and trading for Jerry Stackhouse. On paper, they already have more intriguing building blocks assembled around Cunningham, and a chance to finally see what it looks like when they pair some lightning with their thunder.