The Cade Cunningham for rookie of the year hype train is slowly gaining steam. The latest courtesy of the Detroit Pistons themselves who released a Cade for Rookie of the Year infographic and hype video.
It all goes down so smoothly.
When your name is listed alongside the likes of Michael Jordan and few others, you know you’re having a hell of a season.
It’s fun to see some of Cade’s many accomplishments all neatly organized together. We are really not appreciating just how rare having a player, no less a rookie contributing in so many areas of the game. And you can add quality defense to boot, which is harder to quantify, but the die-hards who have watched him game in and game out know he’s already a good defender who could get much better.
The Pistons highlight Cade ranking in the top five among this season’s rookies in major statistical categories including points, rebounds, assists, steals, 3s, triple-doubles and minutes. Cunningham would also be just the 10th rookie in NBA history to average at least 17 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in a season.
Cade has also performed well in the clutch, leading all rookies in clutch scoring. I will note, he also is 31st in clutch points in the entire NBA. Cunningham also has seven games of 25 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists while the rest of the rookie class has seven such games combined.
While Cunningham gets a boost because he has such an outsized role in Detroit’s offense, it is incredibly rare to see a rookie reach such heights. Cade’s output of points, rebounds and assists through 59 career games put him in elite company joined by only LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Luka Doncic, Alvan Adams and Oscar Robertson.
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Cade Cunningham ROTY Candidate.pdf
Of course, we at Detroit Bad Boys have been trying to document the case for Cade Cunningham all season with a collection of some of his best moments and performances with our Cade Cunningham Highlights series.