Cade Cunningham's rise to superstardom is complete and it's glorious

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I'll admit it without hesitation.

I didn't expect the Detroit Pistons to come back from a 3-1 deficit against the Orlando Magic. In fact, as some of you dear readers may remember, I was ready to bury the Pistons after the Magic stole Game 1 on the road in Detroit. I was ultimately proven wrong. I will be wrong in the future, too. Such is life in trying to predict the chaos of playoff basketball. But to me, above all, credit is due for the one young man who put the Pistons on his back.

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Of course, I'm talking about Cade Cunningham. The young point guard may as well have donned a red cape to take the Pistons to the second round.

Let's be clear. At times, Cunningham struggled mightily with being the only consistent offensive option against a strong defensive team like the Magic. Through the first four games of this first-round series, Cunningham shot just 39-of-92 from the field (42 percent). With 27 total giveaways at the same time, he was a turnover machine with a loose dribble, seeing him give the ball away to any semblance of additional defensive pressure. I couldn't blame Cunningham too much for trying to solve Orlando's tenacious defense without a real running mate, but it was still tough to watch him look like a bona fide playoff dropper.

When it comes to being a real No. 1 option, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

But something curious happened as the Pistons crawled out of a 3-1 hole. When Detroit no longer had any margin for error, Cunningham rose to the occasion. That same Magic defense that stuffed him and a lifeless Pistons offense into a locker during the first half of the series? Suddenly, it had no answer for Cunningham's craftiness and methodical patience as a scorer. He kept getting to his spots on the court while doing whatever he wanted. The dam broke in a 24-point comeback win in Game 6, where Cunningham kept pushing and pushing until there was no longer any resistance. His average numbers in Games 5-7 — 36 points, 5 rebounds, almost 7 assists, and over 61 percent shooting from behind the arc — read like something out of a video game.

This Pistons comeback was as big a statement for the 24-year-old Cunningham as I could imagine. Like any modern NBA face-of-the-league-caliber player, he solved a team that thought it had him backed into a corner. He found a groove and a zone the Magic could no longer reach. That speaks volumes.

I'm still skeptical of what this iteration of the Pistons is capable of. I still do not expect them to even reach the NBA Finals out of the East because I still think Detroit's roster is too flawed around Cunningham to make it all the way to June. But I know what we should think of Cunningham now. With his first legendary postseason triumph in the books, he has ascended to bona fide superstardom. We should now expect Cunningham to be a mainstay in the annual MVP conversation. We should expect him to eventually win a ring in Detroit.

He really is that special.

And if that title somehow never manifests, down the line, he feels like someone we will talk about the Pistons failing to provide proper support. A living, breathing bar trivia question about sports championships (or lack thereof).

Cunningham has arrived as one of the NBA's new faces. Denying him that status now would be denying the inevitable.

Is the NBA's 3-point era dead?

I'm usually hesitant to over-index on play-style narratives with such a small sample size. But an eye-opening trend has developed through the first round of this year's NBA playoffs that we should monitor.

Just one of the NBA teams in the top 10 in 3-point attempts during the regular season advanced to the conference semifinals. Meanwhile, seven of the top 10 defensive teams are all still playing. Hmm. For all the talk about how everyone jacking up 3-pointers has ruined the NBA in recent years, it's jarring to see athleticism on offense and physical, defensive play ultimately win out in 2026.

Is this a sign of things to come in the Association? Will we see a bunch of squads on the outside looking in right now overcorrect to account for their deficiencies on these fronts this summer? Are we going to stop seeing so many 3s?

Well, the 3-pointers aren't going away, but I'm not positive about the rest here. All I know for sure is that everyone likes to copy a champion in pro sports. In this case, if you like this "old-school" shift in NBA playoff basketball on both ends of the floor, you can probably thank the Thunder for their efforts.

Shootaround

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This article originally appeared on For The Win: Cade Cunningham lifted Pistons over Magic like a future NBA MVP winner

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