Those who know ball, knew this, said Trajan Langdon: Cade Cunningham was already "a hell of a player" entering his fourth NBA season.
"But he hadn’t driven winning," Langdon said. "And he was our main driver — the driver — of winning this year. I think that’s the biggest step, and it’s the hardest step to take, is turning your stats into meaningful things."
Cunningham's breakout season with the Pistons featured the first All-Star Game and, to Langdon's point, the first playoff series of his career. The stats were historic, Cunningham the fourth NBA player ever to average at least 26 points, nine assists and six rebounds in a season while shooting better than 35 percent from three. The others are LeBron James, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic. Cunningham was the youngest to do it at the age of 23. The story is that he lifted the weakest team in the league into a force to be reckoned with in the East.
The result, said Langdon, is that Cunningham entered the season "looking at other people with targets on their back, and now he’s going to have a target on his."
"(Opponents) are going to be like, 'I’m going against Cade Cunningham tonight, I’m gonna get my rest (the night before) because people are going to be watching. And I can make a name for myself and really impact my stature in the game if I have a really good game against the Pistons and Cade,'" said Langdon. "I don’t think that really started happening until game 60 or 70, where people started looking at us or him in that manner. And I think it’s going to start from the jump next year.
"So the big thing for him — and we’ve talked to him about it — is just getting in elite shape."
For Cunningham, it's not just about building more strength, but more stamina. He's already one of the sturdiest guards in the NBA, especially when it comes to finishing around the rim. But he will take even more blows next season as the target on his back grows. He needs to be able to play through it in the playoffs, where, as he said himself after the Pistons went blow for blow in a six-game loss to the Knicks in the first round, "the physicality is up."
"Every possession just means a lot more in the postseason than the regular season, so you just have to do everything stronger, faster and more together," Cunningham said.
Cunningham's production against the Knicks was on par with his averages in the regular season, but the turnovers were up and the efficiency was down. He and his team were bested by a more seasoned playoff performer in Jalen Brunson, who committed half as many turnovers in the series as Cunningham and hit the series-clinching shot in the final seconds of Game 6.
"If you’ve never experienced playoff basketball, you can’t understand the level you have to go to," Langdon said. "And now he understands that."
Too often, Cunningham admitted, "I’d have a turnover and I’d just wish I could get that play back." He also shot just 5-for-28 from three, a sign of tired legs after he was twice as accurate in the regular season. After playing in a career high 76 games including the playoffs, it's possible that the workload caught up to Cunningham when it mattered most.
The aim next season is for the legs to feel fresh at this time of year.
"Now he has a little bit of late-season and playoff experience, knows how that feels. Once you’ve experienced it, you can train for it because you’ve felt it," said Langdon. "So, he should be training for the first, second round of the playoffs, and not for game 45 anymore. Being in elite shape will be a huge thing for him."
For Cunningham, next season starts this summer.