{"id":521953,"date":"2026-01-07T06:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/521953\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T06:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T06:38:11","slug":"espns-stephen-a-smith-calls-cunningham-the-closer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/521953\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith calls Cunningham ‘the closer’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this latest episode of The Detroit News’ Pistons podcast, beat reporter Coty Davis and Detroit News contributor Tarohn Finley discuss Stephen A. Smith’s praise for Cade Cunnnigham and the front-running Pistons.<\/p>\n

The ESPN host of “First Take” said the Pistons “got leadership, they got athleticism, they got defense, they got perimeter shooting, and they have a closer. Cade Cunningham is that dude.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Here are other highlights from the podcast, sponsored by Varsity Ford of Ann Arbor<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u25b6 3:00: Pistons rout Knicks in playoff rematch<\/p>\n

\u25b6 6:10: Back-to-back wins over Cleveland, New York<\/p>\n

\u25b6 7:10: Cade Cunningham on lessons learned from the playoffs<\/p>\n

\u25b6 10:40: Stephen A. Smith believes in the Pistons<\/p>\n

\u25b6 11:30: J.B. Bickerstaff on dominating the Knicks defensively<\/p>\n

\u25b6 13:30: Pistons were on a 28-game losing streak just two years ago<\/p>\n

\u25b6 15:40: Varsity Ford of Ann Arbor<\/p>\n

\u25b6 18:50: Cunningham might be MVP front-runner<\/p>\n

\u25b6 23:30: Other most valuable player candidates<\/p>\n

\u25b6 28:30: Thunder hit bump on the road<\/p>\n

Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In this latest episode of The Detroit News’ Pistons podcast, beat reporter Coty Davis and Detroit News contributor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[59,14906,14908,14907,72,7,901,909,902,296,188,3860,74,130,133,131,71,86,6,67,61,134,297,3569,132,66,83,73],"class_list":{"0":"post-521953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-affiliate","9":"tag-ann","10":"tag-ann-arbor","11":"tag-arbor","12":"tag-arts","13":"tag-basketball","14":"tag-cade","15":"tag-cade-cunningham","16":"tag-cunningham","17":"tag-detroit","18":"tag-detroit-pistons","19":"tag-detroitpistons","20":"tag-entertainment","21":"tag-espn","22":"tag-espn-inc","23":"tag-inc","24":"tag-local","25":"tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","26":"tag-nba","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-overall","29":"tag-overall-positive","30":"tag-pistons","31":"tag-podcasts","32":"tag-positive","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-sports-news","35":"tag-u0026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115852444037022989","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}