In the summer league, Cade Cunningham practiced more off-the-ball play than in college, and handed over the responsibility of possession to Killian Hayes, the potential guard named seventh overall by the Detroit Pistons last year. He has a high ball quotient, precise outside touch, and can even act as a ball-handling striker, capable of a variety of positions on the offensive end; however, just because of the versatility of the champion, should he give up his strengths?
In college, Cunningham’s role was much simpler. Oklahoma State University, his alma mater, has not qualified for the championship in the past three years, so apart from him, there is no one in the top 50 in the United States. The whole team is naturally centered on Cade, which also contributed to his top stats of 20.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 43.8% shooting per game. With both size (6 feet 7 inches, 215 pounds) and skills, he Naturally became the team’s number one offensive organizer and offensive finisher.
The upper limit of his cultivation is also obvious: to become the best player in the game, from LeBron James, Luka Doncic to Nikola Jokic, the above three can take care of the team’s first offensive and organizer. However, from the current point of view of Cade, he may not be good enough to achieve such intensity: the biggest problem comes from his two-point shooting rate: when under supervision, he can’t be free to force like the number one pick in previous years. Score:
In recent years, the performance of the number one perimeter player in college
The difference lies in physical fitness. Cade didn’t have the explosive power to throw off the defender during the dribble in an instant. From time to time, we saw that he had some obstacles in creating gaps. In the end, he could only end up with a mid-range jumper. In terms of shooting ability, he is a good shooter (averaging 5.7 three-pointers per game, with a shooting rate of 40%). The shooting rate of the match-up shots is still relatively high, but he is far from scoring freely. cut.
This part of Cade is quite similar to Luka Doncic. The difference is that the latter feels good enough to ignore the physical disadvantages. His two-point shooting rate in the European League in the previous season of the NBA was staggering: 57.2%!
Cunningham prefers to play with his brain. He likes to dribble the ball to detect the inside, and then pass the ball outside. The advantage is that he won’t be rushed to shoot. However, the disadvantage is that he rarely carries the victory or defeat on his shoulders and takes over the game alone. In the last season he scored more than 30 games, there was only one game, and it should be proved that he is more like a traditional ball-handling: he can dominate the game without a lot of shots.
However, in Las Vegas, Cunningham also showed that he can play other styles: the champion can give up holding the ball to control the offense, successfully play a more leafy role, switch to an off-ball play, and wait for the opportunity to fire from the periphery. His data in the summer league shows the clues when compared with his college years: the average assists per game has fallen to 2.3, but the average outside shots per game has skyrocketed from 5.7 to 8.7.
So the question is, is “off the ball” the way he wants to enter the NBA (more precisely, Detroit)? If Cunningham joins a champion-level team, such as the Golden State Warriors with the Big Three, or a talented new army in the formation, such as the Minnesota Timberwolves, then starting from the green leaves is forgiven; however, he joined today It’s the untalented Detroit Pistons. There is no reason to ask Cade to give up control.
This is why Hayes has become a major problem in the auto city. It seems quite reasonable to put the two potentials together on the court: Cade and Hayes can both control the ball and launch an offense, and both have a body that can defend multiple positions; but why is Cade succumbing to a less responsible role?
Hayes was reimbursed for a hip injury last season. Before missing most of the season, he was just a rookie who averaged 6.8 points per game and an overall shooting percentage of 35.3%. The results of the summer league were not much different. Although it does not mean that he is a parallel importer, he is still not as good as the top pick. The point of cooperation.
Further reading: Should I chooseCade Cunningham?Pistons’ No. 1 pick to make a choice
In fact, it is Hayes that should change. However, there are two things that hinder him. One is that he is not an outstanding three-point shooter (in his rookie year he averaged 2.8 shots per game, shooting only 27.8%), and the second is asking a point guard to switch off the ball. Shooters are actually quite difficult (even if their shooting skills are not bad). For the entire time, these point guards have lived in the days when they are commanders. Suddenly they have become the one who obeys the orders. Both physically and mentally, they need a period of adaptation. This is the main reason why Cunningham’s skill pack is so rare.
Detroit Pistons head coach Dwane Casey is likely to start the season with Cade and Hayes starting lineup and try to balance it.
For each other, the best way is to stagger their main playing time so that each other has the opportunity to be the masters on the court. However, this also means that once Cade has the ball, it is difficult to solve the problem of how Hayes will switch off the ball. If Hayes can’t adjust in time, then the day when he is put on the bench or even cleared out of the trade is not far away.
