The Detroit Pistons went into the offseason with a simple assignment: make Cade Cunningham’s life easier on offense. That need has only become more obvious as the summer has unfolded, and right now Minnesota looks like the team that actually did something about it.
The Timberwolves have already made their move, landing LaMelo Ball in a blockbuster trade with the Charlotte Hornets. Ball may not have been the right fit for Cunningham in Detroit, but the bigger point is impossible to miss: Minnesota identified a need next to Anthony Edwards and attacked it. The Pistons, at least so far, have not matched that urgency.
Edwards has spent years carrying a major load for a Wolves team that has been one of the best in the Western Conference, even while falling short of the NBA Finals. Minnesota has cycled through different running mates for him, first Karl-Anthony Towns and then Julius Randle, and now it has shifted again with Ball in the picture.
That move makes a lot of sense for Minnesota because the Wolves have long needed a point guard who can organize the offense and still score enough to ease the pressure on Edwards. Ball checks those boxes.
Detroit is searching for that same kind of answer for Cunningham. The Pistons need another creator, someone who can both score and make plays, because Cunningham is carrying too much of the offensive burden. When he has a rough night, the whole operation tends to go with him.
Ball wasn’t the solution for Detroit, but Minnesota’s quick strike has put the Pistons in an awkward spot. The Wolves acted. The Pistons haven’t.
And that’s the part that stands out most. Detroit still has time to make a move, but the trade market has not produced the kind of swing this roster clearly needs. So far, the only notable offseason change has been losing Tobias Harris in free agency and replacing him with John Collins.
The Pistons still need to do what the Wolves have already done for Edwards: find Cunningham the help he needs.
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The Cavaliers now have to navigate a payroll that is already heavy in the wrong places, with Mitchell and Evan Mobley taking up a massive share of next seasons money and Mitchell set to climb even higher on a future player option. Once a team gets boxed in like that, the choices get harder fast, and names such as Dennis Schroder, Max Strus and Jarrett Allen can move from useful pieces to potential pressure points. For the Pistons, the broader takeaway is simple: Clevelands new deal may create the kind of cap tension that eventually sends a useful player onto the market. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Are Running Out Of Time To Help Cade Cunningham
Detroit still has not solved one of its clearest offseason questions: who can take some of the burden off Cade Cunningham as a creator and shot-maker? The front office has been linked to ways of adding another offensive engine, but the market has thinned quickly, and the list of realistic options looks a lot shorter than it did even a few weeks ago.
Trey Murphy III of the New Orleans Pelicans has emerged as one of the few names left who could fit that need, giving the Pistons a possible path to more secondary scoring without forcing Cunningham to do so much heavy lifting. Other paths have already disappeared as the offseason has moved on, which leaves Detroit staring at a familiar roster gap and a shrinking window to address it. [Read more 🡒]