The Detroit Pistons finally did it: defeated the Toronto Raptors 129-127 at Little Caesars Arena last night. However, with Thursday’s 128-122 overtime loss to the Boston Celtics, the Detroit Pistons made history in a way no team ever wants to. That loss was the now 3-29 Pistons’ NBA single season record 28th consecutive loss.
As the team battled to get on the right side of things, star guard Cade Cunningham is taking a different approach to the losing, and from the outside looking in it sounded a bit delusional.
Following Thursday’s hard-fought road loss to the NBA-best 24-2 Boston Celtics in which the Pistons led by as many as 19 points, Cunningham, the 2021 No. 1 overall pick, sounded like someone who believes his cellar-dwelling team is on par with the rest of the league.
Cade Says Pistons Aren’t Inferior To Rest Of League
During his postgame presser, Cunningham didn’t hold back on how he feels about his team in comparison to the rest of the league.
“I think it shows like we’re on the same level as all these teams we’re playing against,” Cunningham said, per ESPN which despite the win still slounds off. “There’s no team that I’ve ever come across in the NBA where I felt like a was going into a slaughterhouse.”
Cunningham’s confidence in his team is definitely commendable and perplexing at the same time. With Detroit just one loss away from setting the league’s all-time losing streak at 29, Cunningham is staying positive and showing the leadership the Pistons expected when they took him No.1 overall.
Cunningham’s optimism is great, but he’s definitely over-selling his team’s potential at this point. A losing streak of that magnitude can’t mean anything else other than the team is horrible, regardless of the latest win. However, Cunningham’s competitive nature won’t let him admit that — at least publicly. He’s been producing some great individual performances, but his buckets haven’t come at the times his team needs to secure a win.
As a player, yes, Cunningham can say that because he’s playing at an All-Star level, but unfortunately his team’s record being so bad will likely keep him from being selected.
Monty Williams Was Brought In To Right Ship
In the offseason the Pistons moved on from head coach Dwayne Casey who’s still the only coach to be fired in a season when he won NBA Coach of the Year while with the Raptors. They hired former Pelicans and Suns head coach Monty Williams making him the second-highest paid coach in the league behind Spurs five-time NBA champion coach Gregg Popovich. Williams is being paid $13 million per season over six years, and thus far the Pistons aren’t getting any return on the investment.
Since last March, the team has won four games, while losing an astounding 53. That can’t bode well for a team’s psyche, and that’s what Williams was hired to change.
Even with the latest win, his current roster doesn’t seem likely to get much better this season.
