Good article on Cade Cunningham from The Ringer...

[vege]

He had like 11 free throws against Denver, so there's hope on that front. Not sure any of them were and 1's, so didn't really help his efficiency, but it's something.

He had a 67% TS against Denver IIRC. FTs are a high percentage shot, so they help the efficiency.

[Uncle Mxy]

Let's see the post All-Star break numbers. He started worse than this as a rookie, and ended well.

[Phenomenonsense]

Doesn't matter how good he is, teams always get to put their entire focus on him and he's not good enough to be Jokic or something where that doesn't matter, and his F.O. isn't good enough to put a single **** shooter near him.

[buzzkilloton]

If we could combine Cade and Ivey into one player we would have a franchise player though.

[Uncle Mxy]

He's a big pg (I don't think he's a pg) but he's unathletic so it negates his size advantage. He finishes around the rim like a 6 foot guard.

I've never bought into Cade being a PG either, felt it was a mistake framing him as a Luka-esque PG. Cade's a wing with a handle, a secondary ball handler/point forward sort. He can actually defend wings semi-decently. He needs to work out the kinks in his wing game, like getting NBA 3P range mastered, not getting caught in traffic and flustered, etc.

[Snakebites]

It’s a good albeit depressing article.

I’ve watched probably 95% of his minutes so far this year and the advanced stats support the eye test. He’s inefficient as both a scorer and a ball handler. High volume output is useless if it comes at subpar efficiency, and subpar is putting it nicely for Cade.

I hope he gets more space around him and hope that helps him, but I’m no longer convinced his ceiling is all that high. We be d to acknowledge the possibility that he’s miscast in his role as much as the ill-fitting guys around him are.

[NYPiston]

Exhibit A on why I was against trading Grant.

I have no problem trading Grant because it netted them Duren eventually and I don't think paying him what we got paid would have served them well going forward but they needed to replace him. Bogey ain't it, Joe freaking Harris certainly ain't it.
It does look like they might have dodged a bullet with Cam Johnson though, although a small sample size.

[Kalamazoo317]

Yeah, I'm happy we got Duren too. But I thought we were onto something for a hot minute there with Grant, Bey, and Cade, and thought it was worth exploring further.
I'm not going to dismiss Bojan completely as a running mate for Cade until we actually see it, though. Bojan's spacing and offensive playmaking should be nice to have alongside Cade.

[mattao313]

He's a big pg (I don't think he's a pg) but he's unathletic so it negates his size advantage. He finishes around the rim like a 6 foot guard.

I've never bought into Cade being a PG either, felt it was a mistake framing him as a Luka-esque PG. Cade's a wing with a handle, a secondary ball handler/point forward sort. He can actually defend wings semi-decently. He needs to work out the kinks in his wing game, like getting NBA 3P range mastered, not getting caught in traffic and flustered, etc.

Exactly I always seen him as a traditional 2 guard I guess the FO fell in love with the idea of having a 6'6 PG.

Sent from my SM-A528B using RealGM mobile app

[Kalamazoo317]

He usually plays in the backcourt with more of a 1, though (Cojo, Hayes, Ivey) so I think they view him as more of a combo guard. I think we just need to get better at letting him be a secondary initiator on offense rather than the primary.

[Sort]

Outside of just letting Ivey and Cade cook together out there, I'd like to see Monty use Cade more off ball as a playmaking three. I agree 100 precent Cade just isn't a number one - or hasn't come close to showing that yet. But man, if Cade is your secondary creator out there when defense has to respect the other four, that has the basis a really good team.

[Kalamazoo317]

Even if he's never all-world, pairing Cade with players who are legit offensive threats and draw double teams themselves should really do wonders for his efficiency. That and getting that three to fall more consistently ....

[ahike12]

There's no doubt that Cade has his own self improvement to work on but I'd love to see him on a team that isn't a complete dumpster fire before passing real judgment. I believe the best stretch of his career was the second half of his rookie season when Bey and Grant were playing some of their best ball as a Piston.
Ever since then, it's been injury and this abomination of a supporting cast that he plays with.

I've said this many times, the Pistons have failed Cade much more than Cade has failed the Pistons.
Only the elite of the elite young players could survive in an environment like this. Cade is not a Luka and he's not a Lebron, he's not equipped to carry the entire weight of a franchise. I do think he could still be a #1 option but he needs a strong 1A to feed off of like Tatum/Brown for instance.

Give him a Brown level player, and not Fn Killian Hayes or a rookie in Ausar who can't create any offense at this point in his career, and I bet he'll look a lot better. Part of the reason for the inefficiency besides the fact that he's the sole focus of the defense is that he has to force up shots because nobody else can hit one. When Stewart is the 2nd best offensive option in your starting lineup, you know you're hooped so to speak. Even with Ivey yesterday, you could see flashes of a better game from Cade. Get this man some freaking help already.

Literally exactly what I think