Cade Cunningham had the talent to be an All-Star the second he stepped onto an NBA court for the first time; he was the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft for a reason.
But a complete lack of talent around him and a franchise with no interest in winning during his first three seasons made translating his talent into production extra difficult. He's been good the whole time — great on occasion — but Cunningham was never in real All-Star discussions to this point.
But in year 3, Cade's elite skill level has translated into efficient scoring, a career-best 3-point clip, and his team is at least competitive every night, giving him a chance to earn his first All-Star bid. Via The Athletic, Cunningham said:
“I believe I am. Whenever I’m on the court every night, I feel like I’m the best player. I try to do whatever it takes to help my team win, and my teammates have made me look great this year. I’m just trying to help my team win and we’ll see what happens with it.”
The biggest knock on Cade during his first few years reagrded his shooting, which was below league average in most categories. If you actually watched Pistons games, those numbers didn't feel as bad — Cade forced a lot of shots because he literally didn't have any teammates who could score consistently.
But in year four, with an NBA roster around him, that has changed. He's averaging 23.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, shooting 39.3 percent from 3-point, grabbing 6.1 rebounds and posting a 55.5 percent true shooting (still not great, but certainly passable). Detroit is considerably better when he's on the court and still carries the Pistons offense, he just has some weapons around him to help out now.
Cunningham probably deserves to be an All-Star. He's posting All-Star caliber numbers, anyway. The problem is that right now... a lot of players are. Some really, really good players will be left off this year's All-Star team. But if Cade's season continues to progress in a positive direction, he'll have a pretty strong case when voting opens up.
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