With Malik Beasley riding shotgun, Cade Cunningham drove the Pistons to another win Monday night against the Knicks -- their 10th in the last 12 games. It marks the Pistons' best stretch of play since the last time they made the playoffs. It coincides with Cunningham's latest step into stardom.
Cunningham poured in 36 points against one of the top teams in the East, including 29 in the second half. After four early fouls sent him to the bench for most of the second quarter and saw the Knicks grab hold of the game, Cunningham reclaimed it in the third. He scored 11 points in the first three minutes and put the Pistons back in front on a jumper midway through the frame. They led the rest of the way.
"Think about, one, how many guys are good enough to do that," said head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. "There’s a handful of guys out there that have the ability to say that I’m gonna do it and then actually go out and get it done. I think we’ve seen Cade make a step into the air of the elites in this game. I’m hard-pressed to find someone who’s doing it better than he’s doing it right now."
As he answers one question, Cunningham is posing another. All-Star? The case should be closed. All-NBA? Case in point: He's one of three players this season averaging at least 20 points, eight assists and five rebounds. The others are LeBron James and Nikola Jokic, who have combined for a tidy seven MVP's.
With averages of 24.5 points, 9.4 assists and 6.6 rebounds, Cunningham is challenging the 25-8-5 threshold that just six other players have achieved this century: LeBron (x5), Luka (x5), Jokic (x3), Russ (x3), Harden (x2), Morant.
But it's more than the numbers. Especially since Jaden Ivey went down with a potentially season-ending injury -- over which time the Pistons are now 6-1 -- it's the fact that Cunningham is "impacting winning in a major way, making his teammates better," said Bickerstaff. The reverse is just as true. With better shooters than ever around him, Cunningham is shooting better than ever from three.
"And what I’m so impressed with is how he picks his spots and his times," said Bickerstaff. "We ended that second quarter kind of shaky, and he put us on his back to help us get settled and then allow everyone else around him to do their thing."
At 21-19 -- their best record through 40 games since 2018 -- the Pistons are eighth in the East and just a 1.5 games behind the fourth-place Magic. They are "definitely ahead of schedule" in year one under president of basketball ops Trajan Langdon, as Langdon recently said himself. Cunningham's rise is the biggest reason why, from the fringe of the game's great players to the front door of its elite. That $224 million extension sure looks worth it.
Beasley was equally clutch Monday night, with 22 points and back-to-back threes in the final minute to seal the game. He's been a home run acquisition by Langdon -- really one of the best moves of the last NBA offseason -- a $6 million player shooting 40 percent from three and averaging 16.5 points per game off the bench. His final two threes against the Knicks were assisted by Tim Hardaway Jr., another sharp addition by Langdon.
We'll see how long the Pistons can sustain this. But there should be no more wondering whether they have a franchise player. At 23, Cunningham is a star, on a superstar's trajectory. Isaiah Stewart, his teammate of four years, smiled and said, "It’s just him knowing what he can do out there, knowing he can get to any spot he wants to and nobody can do anything about that."
"I love watching it and I love being a part of it," said Stewart, "seeing him do his thing and just straight up ball out on dudes."