If you gave Detroit Pistons general manager Trajan Langdon some truth serum, the second-year executive might concede that he wouldn’t actually want to see the team’s best player earn a major postseason accolade.
All-Star Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft out of Oklahoma State, enjoyed a breakout 2024-25 season.
While helping the Pistons win 43 games in the regular season and make the playoffs for the first time in six years, the 6-foot-6 point guard emerged as a reliable offensive fulcrum in new head coach J.B. Bickerstaff’s fresh system.
The 23-year-old Cunningham, who made his inaugural All-Star appearance this year, posted career-best averages of 26.1 points (on .469/.356/.846 shooting splits), 9.1 assists, and 0.8 blocks across a career-most 70 healthy contests — plus 6.1 boards and 1.0 swipes a night.
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He emerged as a true No. 1, on a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit leaned on the growth of Cunningham and center Jalen Duren, Bickerstaff’s improved offense after a debacle of a Monty Williams one-and-done season in 2023-24, plus the addition of four critical new veteran contributors — power forward Tobias Harris, swingman Tim Hardaway Jr., sixth man shooting guard Malik Beasley, and reserve point guard Dennis Schröder — to rediscover its postseason swagger.
The Pistons gave the New York Knicks almost all they could handle in a hard-fought first round playoff series, before ultimately falling in six games.
Next year, Detroit could look pretty different. Beasley, Hardaway and Schröder will all be unrestricted free agents in the offseason, and could all conceivably earn raises and long-term security elsewhere.
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Shooting guard Jaden Ivey, who missed the second half of the season and the entirety playoffs with a fractured fibula in his left, should return healthy at some point early in the year. Cunningham, Duren and rookie Ron Holland should all continue to develop.
But the Pistons, as a mid-market squad, would certainly like to keep careful tabs on their salary cap.
Cunningham’s excellence could, ironically, hurt that ambition.
He seems like to make an All-NBA team when those squads are announced on Friday afternoon.
The 2024-25 Kia NBA All-Defensive Team will be announced today at 2 p.m. ET. The 2024-25 Kia All-NBA Team will be revealed by @NBAonTNT tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET, followed by Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Pacers and Knicks. pic.twitter.com/2H3WoykX2s
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 22, 2025
If Cunningham does earn such an honor for his play, however, his impending maximum rookie scale contract extension would rocket up a bit.
He’s currently slated to earn 25 percent of the league’s cap — but making an All-NBA team will increase his salary rate to 30 percent of the cap when it kicks in next year.
More cap space elsewhere on the roster would enable the Pistons to build around Cunningham more effectively, although surely Detroit would concede he deserves the raise.
It’s a fascinating quandary.
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