The Detroit Pistons didn’t have much room for error in the final minutes of Saturday’s game. Kevin Durant was amid a 30-point second half, and Devin Booker was working on a 30-piece of his own.
Cade Cunningham was subbed out for his final rest of the evening with 6:06 remaining as the Pistons trailed the Phoenix Suns 110-109. In the 3:42 of game time Cunningham missed, Detroit’s deficit deepened to 119-115, it failed to register a single assist, and its only two field goals came in isolation and transition.
The Suns went on to win 125-121, dropping the Pistons to 21-21 and highlighting their need for a secondary ballhandler and playmaker to aid Cunningham. Cunningham finished with 11 assists and was a plus-five in a 4-point loss, and no other Detroit player tallied more than two assists.
When the Pistons’ lead guard is gathering his wind on the sideline, Detroit often becomes stagnant offensively and either concedes leads or digs a deeper hole for itself.
Of the Pistons’ 40 remaining games, 23 are against teams that have winning records. Detroit must shore up its playmaking outside of Cunningham to put itself in position for its first postseason bid since 2019. Considering the Pistons announced Jan. 2 that Jaden Ivey would be re-evaluated in four weeks after breaking his fibula in his left leg, their need for playmaking could intensify.
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Cunningham enters Sunday at third in the NBA in assists per game and second in turnovers. Though he shoulders the majority of Detroit’s playmaking responsibilities, not many assists are generated outside of him. Aside from Cunningham and Ivey, Tobias Harris is the Pistons’ leading assist man with 2.5 per contest.
And to make matters worse, in Detroit’s nine games without Ivey, it ranks 21st in the association in assists per game at 24.9.
So, how can the Pistons begin to put more assists on the stat sheet, especially in Cunningham’s minutes off the floor?
“Just making plays for each other,” Cunningham said after the game. “Getting each other open, being aggressive, getting downhill and making defenses collapse on you. I think that’s the main thing. That’s how I try to set up my teammates. Sometimes it’s just how the ball rolls or how teams are guarding you.
“I thought (Marcus Sasser) did a good job of setting the table. I thought we had solid offense. Maybe it didn’t turn to assists, per se, but I didn’t think there was a big drop-off as far as production offensively.”
Get that outta here 😤#DetroitBasketball https://t.co/OHAoHhUnnK pic.twitter.com/tJWxYU2v6r
— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) January 18, 2025
Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff offered a similar assessment of how to make things easier offensively.
“It’s just got to be ball movement,” Bickerstaff said during his postgame news conference. “We keep talking about the diversity in our offense and just doing the next right thing. That’s one of the things, again, we’re continuing to work on. We don’t want to be a one-dimensional, ball-dominant team or dribble-dominant team.”
To Phoenix’s credit, it didn’t allow Detroit to notch an assist once Cunningham re-entered the game either. The only field goal the Pistons made inside the final 2:49 was Malik Beasley’s 3-pointer from the top of the key once the game was already decided. Although Cunningham has become the undisputed closer, Detroit still needs other players who can create for themselves and others.
Sasser could be an avenue to more playmaking, as he slots in behind Cunningham at backup point guard. He has eight games this season with at least four assists despite averaging just 13.8 minutes.
“Being aggressive first, that’s my mindset,” Sasser said from the locker room. “I feel like the passing and the playmaking comes from me being aggressive. The corner passes, the roll passes, pocket passes, I feel comfortable with them. I’ve just been working on them with a lot of reps. As the season goes on, I’ll get more reps and get more comfortable with it.”
Cunningham finished with 20 points, 11 assists and six rebounds but shot 7-of-26 from the field and 1-of-7 from 3. Harris led the Pistons with a team-high 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting, but they still needed another player with the ability to take pressure off Cunningham. That need is only amplified when Cunningham struggles to put the ball in the hoop, as he did Saturday.
Yes, Cunningham is just 23, but a season full of scoring and assisting responsibilities while averaging 35.6 minutes per game can take a toll on any player’s body. But Bickerstaff seemed confident after the loss that his team would regroup and find ways to be more creative on the offensive side of the ball.
“We want to be a team that can move the basketball, set off-ball screening actions, find some cuts to the basket, put some flow into our offense,” Bickerstaff said. “Where everything is not just stagnant, everybody is standing and wanting. Those are things we’ll continue to work on, and we’ll get better at it.”
Bickerstaff and Detroit will now embark on their longest trip of the season, taking on the Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers in a 10-day stretch. Each team has a winning record and will present its own unique set of challenges.
(Photo of Cade Cunningham and Suns center Nick Richards: David Reginek / Imagn Images)
