Last season the national NBA audience discovered what Detroit Pistons fans already knew: Cade Cunningham is the real deal and one of the best players in the league.
Cunningham had toiled in obscurity on the worst team in the NBA for the first three seasons of his career, one of which he missed almost entirely due to injury.
The dreaded “B” word was starting to be thrown around by people who had mostly not seen the guy play, as no one but the diehards and masochists were watching the Pistons.
He exploded onto the national scene last season, making his first All-Star and All-NBA teams while leading the Pistons to 44 wins and a first-round playoff appearance, their first in six years.