Through 76 games in 2024-25, the Pistons are 42-34. Detroit has six games left in the regular season. On Wednesday night, the Pistons lost 119-103 to the Thunder.
The team’s star player Cade Cunningham has been sidelined for the last five games with a calf injury. Detroit’s playing it safe with their franchise cornerstone as playoff basketball looms just around the corner.
There’s some big money news brewing for Cunningham too. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps says the 23-year-old is practically guaranteed to make an All-NBA team this season.
That’s huge.
If Cunningham makes All-NBA, he’ll be eligible for a massive five-year, $269 million extension this offseason.
Cunningham has been the real deal since Detroit grabbed him with the first overall pick in the 2021 draft. The Oklahoma State product has started every single game he’s played in his pro career – all 204 of them.
This season, he’s taken his game to another level.
He’s putting up career-best numbers with 25.7 points and 9.2 assists per game.
What’s really important is that Cunningham has already played 66 games this season. That’s significant because the NBA now requires players to appear in at least 65 games to qualify for end-of-season awards.
Even if he sits out until the playoffs, he’s already cleared that hurdle.
In ESPN’s final MVP straw poll for the season, Cunningham finished 7th – pretty impressive for a player on a team that’s been rebuilding.
The financial implications are massive. Thanks to something called the “Rose Rule Provision,” making an All-NBA team means Cunningham’s contract will start at 30% of the team’s salary cap instead of 25%.
That’s an extra $45 million on top of the $224 million contract he signed last offseason.
Not bad for a fourth-year player who’s quickly becoming one of the league’s elite point guards.
