After a hugely successful season, the Detroit Pistons now find themselves facing a do-or-die situation.
The Detroit Pistons entered the 2025 NBA Playoffs with nothing to lose, completely flipping the script from being one of the NBA’s worst teams into a 44-win six-seed in the Eastern Conference.
Going up against a deep and battle-tested New York Knicks in the first-round, the Pistons clinched Game 2 to seize their first-ever postseason win since 2008. And they feel they should have won Game 4.
Even with Jalen Brunson’s clutch explosion and the brilliant performance of Karl-Anthony Towns, the Knicks were lucky, benefitting from a late ‘no call‘, winning 94-93.
It is star player Cade Cunningham who is their driving of their ongoing fight. The Pistons’ centerpiece, lauded by Carmelo Anthony as “scary” for New York, is averaging 25.8 points, 9.0 assists and 8.8 rebounds in 4 games so far in this series.
But despite the brilliance of Cunningham on the league’s biggest stage, it’s been clearly evident that he still has a long way to go.
In the pivotal Game 4, despite finishing with a triple-double of 25/10/10, the Pistons star couldn’t come up clutch down the stretch, going 2-7 in the fourth quarter, missing a go-ahead jumper that could have given Detroit a lead.
In the last two games at home, Cunningham also only tallied seven total free throw attempts.
Former NBA star Lou Williams is convinced that this series is a humbling experience for the 23-year-old, a chance to learn how to address further areas for improvement and take the next step of his superstar ascension.
“When you’re such a young player, you’ll go back and you’ll look at your first experience and you’ll make your adjustments,” the former NBA star said on Run It Back.
“Look what it did for Michael Jordan when he went against the Detroit Pistons back in the day. He knew he had to get stronger, had to get bigger, had to get tougher and be prepared for the physicality of what the playoffs bring.
“And from that, it birthed a beast. It birthed somebody that was the most aggressive player that we had ever seen in the history of the playoffs shortly after that.
“This can be the same case for Cade Cunningham.”
Michael Jordan is indeed a perfect example to follow for Cunningham regardless of how this first-round series against the Knicks will ultimately conclude.
Jordan had to endure the agony of three consecutive years being eliminated by the ‘Bad Boys’ on their road to the title. And after being motivated by these failures, the rest was history for the Chicago Bulls legend.
With his talent, Cunningham holds a significant chance to be one of the greatest of this generation. This might not be the year for him, but it has been a big step forward in his mission to guide the Pistons back to glory in the near future.
“This is going to be something that he’s going to learn from,” Williams added. “It’s going to be a learning experience.
“He’s going to go in the summertime and figure out things that’s going to make his experience more hedged towards his way and the way that he’s going to want to play basketball dealing with the physicality of the playoffs.”
