Shams: Pistons plan to sign Cade to rookie max extension; 5/226

[JNewton]

I was really big on Cade in year 1 when he passed every eye test for me and then some, IMO. Year 2 was obviously a wash, and last year I found disappointing - certainly not ready to blame him for that though, what with a coach who seemed to be actively sabotaging the team and what may have been the worst roster in team history and also only a year removed from major surgery. He definitely needs to put up this year, though.

[Billl]

When he's playing at his best, he's dropping 35/10/8. He'd be a legit all-nba player if he did that all the time. His "average" game including all the poor ones is 22/7/4 and slightly outside of the all-star conversation. ie around #37.

yeah his "average" game was right on par with banchero and scottie barnes, they likely got the all star nods over cade because we were the worst team in the league.

being a borderline all star puts you in the 20-30 range in the league, and there aren't too many guys that can manage an offense like cade. if you disagree and say it's the 25-35/40 range it's still a no-brainer with the potential cade's IQ, poise and skill level at his size presents.

His counting stats are fine.

He’s well below league average in efficiency and his defensive metrics are scary.

He's got to be more efficient, but his counting stats are way better than "fine". Only 3 guys in the league averaged better in both assists and scoring than cade's 23/7 last year.

[Snakebites]

yeah his "average" game was right on par with banchero and scottie barnes, they likely got the all star nods over cade because we were the worst team in the league.

being a borderline all star puts you in the 20-30 range in the league, and there aren't too many guys that can manage an offense like cade. if you disagree and say it's the 25-35/40 range it's still a no-brainer with the potential cade's IQ, poise and skill level at his size presents.

His counting stats are fine.

He’s well below league average in efficiency and his defensive metrics are scary.

He's got to be more efficient, but his counting stats are way better than "fine". Only 3 guys in the league averaged better in both assists and scoring than cade's 23/7 last year.

Only 11 guys took more shots per game than him, and only 3 turned the ball over more, to compare those to his points and assists. Only one other guy in the league missed over 10 shots per game while also matching or exceeding Cade in turnovers- and that was Luka- the highest usage and among the most efficient volume scorers in the league- so he gets a pass.

So I think my "fine" appraisal of his counting stats was if anything generous. He should have been able to do BETTER with the amount of shots he was getting and the amount of time the ball was in his hands. You can certainly excuse him for some of this given how awful everything about our team was, but that's just it- we're EXCUSING. I'd prefer if we didn't have to "excuse" at his extension number.

I hope he turns it around this year. But it does need to be a turnaround, all things considered. His PER paints him as a somewhat better-than-average offensive player- the type of talent that is a third option or so on a good team. You can criticize that metric all you want, but I do think it at least gives a vague idea of a players offensive value. And that's without even looking at his DEFENSIVE value, because even I don't want to talk about that unflattering aspect.

I don't think it's a controversial take to say that he was given this extension based on what the FO thinks he COULD do, not what he HAS done. And that's always a risky proposition. My hope is that time will vindicate the decision.

[Laimbeer]

Somebody said in the Pacer game thread he'd pass Hali this year, so there's that.

[bstein14]

He's looking like he's going to be a legit star in this league for his 5 years of his max deal... That said, the clock has already began ticking on the amount of time we have left to put a halfway decent team around him before he asks out. I would say we have about 14 months and then once we his January 2026 if we're not looking like a team that could make the playoffs he's going to ask for a better situation. We've been an incredibly horribly managed team since the moment he's been here.