Cade Cunningham looks sharp in a suit. But he looked better on Tuesday in gym gear as he gets down to work in Detroit: blue Pistons T-shirt, white Pistons shorts. The No. 1 overall pick is preparing to lead his new team on the floor this weekend in the Las Vegas Summer League.
Cunningham headlines a stacked roster for Detroit that also features All-Rookie forward Saddiq Bey and 2020 seventh overall pick Killian Hayes. (All-Rookie center Isaiah Stewart won't be there due to a minor ankle injury.) The Pistons open play Sunday night against the Thunder, and Cunningham has big goals in mind.
None of them concern himself.
"More than anything, we want to win Summer League," he said Tuesday. "We want to go undefeated as a team. And then on top of that we just want to take a step forward as far as gelling as a young core, being together, playing for each other. I want everyone to leave Summer League feeling like they became a better player and a better piece to this puzzle and add it to this team so that we can go into the regular season feeling good about ourselves.
"So winning is the No. 1 thing, but individually hopefully everybody can leave there feeling like there’s a new confidence going into the season."
Spoken like the leader he is. This was one of the reasons the Pistons drafted Cunningham where they did. They view him as a 'human connector,' both on the floor and off. If he's a pillar of their rebuild, he can also be the glue of their team. Bey, 22, has already seen as much in the 19-year-old rookie.
"He’s a great leader for his age," Bey said Tuesday. "Great young guy. Versatile, being able to play all three levels on the offensive end and being able to switch on the defensive end. I think that’s going to be vital for us."
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Summer League will give Cunningham his first chance to play alongside Hayes, his backcourt partner of the future. Dwane Casey said Tuesday the Pistons will play them in "position-less" roles -- "1A and 1B" -- rather than boxing them into the 1 and the 2. The chemistry between the two will say a lot about the Pistons' path forward. Cunningham said they're off to a good start.
"More than anything he’s a good dude," he said of Hayes. "He’s easy to connect with in just the day and a half that I’ve been around him, so I feel like we’re not going to have any trouble in being able to talk to each other and communicate. Both of our games, we want to make the right play, we want to be playmakers and win. So I feel like it won’t be any problem for us to gel and get going real quick."
After Sunday's opener, the Pistons have three more Summer League games next week. Then the knockout round, and the first chance for Cunningham to guide his team to a championship. He's not focused on posting highlights or stuffing the stat sheet. If anything, he's wary of doing too much. Cunningham just wants to win, now and moving forward.
"I don’t want to come in forcing anything," he said. "I want to get a flow for the team and a feel for everybody on the team. I know what the No. 1 pick perception is, so I think the biggest thing for me is to come and in reassure the team that I’m about playing wining basketball instead of trying to live up to the hype. I want to be able to blend in, get a good flow in the offense and get the ball moving so that we can play good basketball and move forward."