The Detroit Pistons were one of the biggest surprises of the 2024-25 NBA season. After winning 14 games a year ago (and having not won more than 23 since 2018-19), they improved on that win total by 30 to go 44-38, good for the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference.
While Pistons fans hoped for a step forward this season with J.B. Bickerstaff in charge, few anticipated the kind of leap they would take, spearheaded by Cade Cunningham flourishing into an All-Star player. The former No. 1 overall pick had his best year as a pro, averaging 26.1 points, 9.1 assists and 6.1 rebounds per game on 46.9/35.6/84.6 shooting splits, as he made the jump into full-on stardom in his fourth season.
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As great and surprising as the regular season was, their loss to the Knicks in six games in the first round of the NBA Playoffs left a feeling of disappointment. The Pistons had late leads in all six games, but had their youthful inexperience bite them at the worst possible times. As good as Cunningham was in that series (25.0 points, 8.7 assists and 8.3 rebounds), his shooting fell off a cliff at the worst time (17.9% from three) and he learned a valuable lesson about the increase in physicality and pressure of the postseason.
As he gets set for his fifth season, it will be the first time he and the Pistons have real expectations. General manager Trajan Langdon spoke about Cunningham’s year and what his message was to him going into next year. And after praising his incredible performance this season, he noted that the challenge they’ve issued to Cunningham is simple: get into elite shape.
“He had an incredible year. Stats-wise he was fantastic. He got better, but I think people that knew basketball already knew he was a hell of a talent and he was capable of doing that. But he hadn’t driven winning, and he was our main driver — he was the driver of winning for us this year,” Langdon said. “I think that’s the biggest step and I think it’s the hardest step to take is turning your stats into actually meaningful things and driving winning is really, really hard to do. I think he was looking at other people and had targets on their backs. And I think now he’s gonna have a target on his where people are like, ‘Wow I’m going against Cade Cunningham tonight, I’m gonna get my rest because people are gonna be watching and I can make a name for myself and really impact my stature in the game if I can have a really good game against the Pistons and Cade.’
“I think the big thing for him, and we’ve talked with him about it, is getting in elite shape. Obviously incredibly skilled, incredibly talented, understands the leadership part of it. Now has a little bit of late-season experience, playoff experience, so knows how that feels. Understanding what you’re training for in the summer, once you’ve experienced it, you can train for it because you’ve felt it. If you’ve never experienced playoff basketball, you can’t understand the level you have to go to. And now he understands that, he’s felt that. So he should be training for the first, second round of the playoffs and not Game 45 anymore. So being in elite shape will be a huge thing for him.”
This isn’t some thinly veiled shot at Cunningham for being out of shape, as we’ve seen from some other executives toward stars (see: Dončić, Luka and Williamson, Zion). Instead, it’s Langdon pointing out that, in his words, Cunningham is “the driver” for the Pistons’ success and when a player has that kind of workload and importance to a team, he has to be in exceptional shape for the postseason, not just in good shape.
Langdon also pointed out that’s not something Cunningham had ever truly been able to prepare for, noting you can’t understand what is required by playoff basketball until you feel it. Cunningham, who is by all accounts an incredibly hard worker, has gotten that taste of playoff hoops and can now tailor his summer workouts toward being ready for the 16-game season in April, May and (the Pistons hope) June.
