Pistons: 3 observations from Cade Cunningham’s Summer League
By Duncan Smith
Cade Cunningham’s Pistons Summer League observations: 2. The Cunningham and Killian Hayes experiment
One of the things we’ve been most intrigued to watch for is the pairing of Cade Cunningham and Killian Hayes in the backcourt. While Hayes is an exceptionally poor shooter at this early stage in his career, there’s some hope that playing alongside Cunningham could help unlock him.
Well, it hasn’t, and the pairing has functioned in reverse from what was expected. As Cunningham is the transcendent franchise cornerstone, and himself a gifted playmaker and shooter, it was expected (by me, at the very least) that he would have the ball in his hands and run the offense. Instead, Hayes has largely been the point man and lead ball-handler with Cunningham functioning away from the ball.
Sure, it’s easier to get Cunningham mismatches in the post and good stuff like that if he’s off the ball, but that can’t be the main driver of the offense. He is worlds better at creating his own offense from all over the floor than Hayes probably ever will be, and positioning him in the corner is an odd way to utilize his talents.
Maybe the Pistons are simply trying things out, but there’s no reason they can’t also try things out that they’re going to actually use in the regular season, like letting Cade Cunningham actually run the show. Hopefully, this is a short-term experiment that runs its course by the end of the week.