Detroit Pistons star Cade Cunningham has been diagnosed with a collapsed lung and will miss an “extended period of time,” according to ESPN. This news is a major blow for the Pistons, who are in first place in the Eastern Conference at 49-19 and enjoying their best season in nearly two decades.
Cunningham left the Pistons’ win over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday with what was initially called a back contusion, but it’s clear now that this is a much more serious matter. There is no timetable for Cunningham’s return, but the Pistons are hopeful that he could be back for the playoffs, which begin on April 18, according to ESPN.
Here is a look at the play where it appears Cunningham was injured. Early in the first quarter, he picked up Wizards rookie Tre Johnson III full-court and forced him to lose control of the ball. As Cunningham went to scoop up the loose ball, Johnson crashed into his back. Cunningham immediately grimaced and stayed on the ground for a while before being helped to his feet. He remained in the game for another minute before checking out for good.
Pistons’ playoff situation
The Pistons got off to an incredible start this season. Just before Thanksgiving, they were 15-2 and had already won more games than they did in the entire 2023-24 season. By Christmas, they were 24-6 and had opened up a multi-game lead atop the Eastern Conference that they have maintained for the majority of the season.
Entering Thursday’s slate, they have a 3 ½-game lead on the Boston Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the East with 14 games remaining. The Pistons have not had the No. 1 seed in the East entering the playoffs since 2007 and have not won a playoff series since 2008.
Even without Cunningham, they have a good chance at holding on to the top seed and claiming homecourt advantage throughout the East playoffs. Their remaining strength of schedule is in the middle of the pack at No. 15 and, crucially, they own the season tiebreaker over both the Celtics and the third-place New York Knicks. That effectively gives them a 4 ½-game lead over the Celtics and a six-game lead over the Knicks with 14 games to play.
If Cunningham is not back for the playoffs, though, it’s hard to see them making much noise given how important he is to their offense.
Cunningham’s MVP-level campaign halted
Cunningham was enjoying the best season of his career. His numbers took a hit after he checked out so early on Tuesday, but he is still averaging 24.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 9.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game. His 9.9 assists per game are a career high and good for second in the league behind Nikola Jokić.
Few players have been as single-handedly responsible for their team’s success this season as Cunningham, who is leading the Pistons in scoring and assists and was directly responsible for 2,306 of the team’s 6,519 points (35.4%) in the 61 games he played in.
Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is running away with MVP, but as of Wednesday night, Cunningham had the fourth-best odds (a distant 60-1) on DraftKings. He’s now off the board completely. While MVP may have been out of reach anyway, a spot on the All-NBA First Team was not. At the very least, Cunningham was not going to fall below the Second Team.
Now, it’s extremely unlikely Cunningham will receive any major honors this season or get credit for a top-five MVP finish, which does matter historically.
Under the NBA‘s new rules, players must appear in 65 games to be eligible for awards, including MVP and All-NBA. Cunningham has only played in 61 games, and Tuesday’s outing didn’t count toward awards consideration because he only played five minutes. (“A player will be considered to have played in a regular-season game if he played at least 20 minutes of such game — though he can count two games in which he fell short of 20 minutes toward the 65 if he played at least 15 minutes,” per ESPN.)
While Cunningham has not officially been ruled out for the remainder of the regular season, he would have to make a miraculous recovery to play five more times.
