Update: Minutes after I first published this report, Shams Charania together with James Edwards III of The Athletic reported that the Detroit Pistons believe star point guard Cade Cunningham has avoided serious injury.
Posting on social media, Charania writes that “Cunningham could miss at least a few games.”
The original story follows.
While there is still no official medical update on Detroit Pistons star guard Cade Cunningham, the team officially ruled him out of Tuesday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.
The news comes via the official NBA injury report, with the Pistons filing players’ game availability with the league. Cunningham, Monte Morris and Isaiah Livers are all listed as out with injury.
Cunningham left Sunday’s game in Denver midway through the second quarter and never returned. He played just 11 minutes and was eventually announced as out with a left knee strain.
He appears to have injured his knee in the team’s previous game against the Golden State Warriors but attempted to play through it.
Cunningham is averaging 22.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 7.3 assists this season, but has really shifted into another gear as he attempted to will the league’s worst team to some actual wins.
In the 10 games before his limited action against the Nuggets, Cunningham had boosted his numbers to 28.7 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 8.1 assists while limiting his turnovers to 3.4 per game. He also shot 53.2% from the floor and 37.3% from three.
The lack of a firm medical update in the nearly 24 hours since he walked to the sideline presents two potential outcomes, one good and one horrible.
The first is that there is no medical update because it’s a relatively minor strain that they are monitoring to understand a window of limited time he might miss. That is the good option. The bad option is that they have an initial diagnosis in hand, are working to get a further evaluation/second opinion, and will announce an extended absence for Cunningham in the near future. That’s the horrible option.
Considering the team is calling the injury a strain, and that it happened against the Warriors and Cade felt he could try to play through it has me leaning toward option one. But you know me, I’m a hopeless optimist when it comes to our Pistons.