Cade Cunningham won't be on the court for the Pistons' season-opener Wednesday night, sidelined by an ankle injury. But he's still aiming high in his first NBA season.
"If I can get the NBA Rookie of the Year trophy, obviously I’d love to have it," Cunningham wrote in his first entry of a diary with The Undefeated. "I was the No. 1 pick. That award is something that is mine to go get. I’m definitely going to attack the game. I’m definitely going to do what I do."
That said, Cunningham noted Rookie of the Year is just "a trophy." He wants to accomplish more lasting things in year one with the Pistons.
"I feel what I could build in that locker room is going to mean a lot more to me and worth a lot more than whatever hardware I can get," he said. "That’s just an individual award."
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It's not the first time we've heard Cunningham put the Pistons before himself. He entered NBA Summer League wanting to "reassure the team that I’m about playing wining basketball instead of trying to live up to the hype." He said he wanted "to blend in," sentiments he reiterated in his diary.
"I want to do my job," Cunningham said. "I’m in the NBA now and want to win. The only thing that gets real credit in the NBA is guys that win, teams that win. So being the No. 1 pick, you need to impact winning. Something I really try to pride myself on is how much I care. That’s something I really try to think about all the time and care about the most when it comes to playing the game: How I can help the Pistons win."
Cunningham got a lesson in this regard when he talked with franchise greats like Isiah Thomas and Rick Mahorn at Ben Wallace's Hall of Fame ceremony in August.
"Those guys the whole time were talking about nothing soft. Everything you do is physical. You got to have grit to everything. And that’s something that I try to live by, but to hear how passionate they were about it and to see how the teams that they played on played, it lined up perfectly and you can see that even off the court," Cunningham wrote. "They carried a swagger to them. So, what stuck with me more than anything was just how everybody carried themselves. I feel I picked up on how it matched, how they played and why they won so many games. So, it’s something that you want to imitate."
Starting as soon as his ankle will let him.
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