{"id":617688,"date":"2026-02-22T12:03:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T12:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/617688\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T12:03:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T12:03:13","slug":"pistons-notes-cunningham-langdon-huerter-ivey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/617688\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Notes: Cunningham, Langdon, Huerter, Ivey"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cade Cunningham<\/a>\u2018s outstanding season is moving him into the MVP conversation, writes Vincent Goodwill of ESPN<\/a>. The Pistons guard turned in his latest dominant performance with 42 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds in Thursday\u2019s win at New York, as Detroit solidified its hold on the top spot in the East and improved its league-best record to 41-13.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt comes from doing the things I said, what I needed to do to be in that conversation,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cNow that we\u2019re getting closer, there\u2019s more [talk] like \u2018What is your case? You should speak on it.\u2019 I don\u2019t really care to speak on it. I want the people that vote on it to be smart enough to look at the game for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, he added, \u201cI think I am [MVP]. And if you don\u2019t agree with me, that\u2019s your opinion.\u201c<\/p>\n

Cunningham ranks 12th in the league\u2019s scoring race at 25.7 PPG and second in assists with 9.7 per game. He\u2019s been the driving force on a team that has shattered all expectations coming into this season, and his competitive spirit has affected his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a winner, man. He really is. Attitude, leadership, every day, the guy is special,\u201d Tobias Harris<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cI think more than anything, he wants championships, and that\u2019s a difference. There\u2019s guys who want to win MVP and guys who want to win championships.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the Pistons:<\/p>\n

In an interview with Chris Mannix of SI<\/a>, owner Tom Gores gives credit to president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon for turning around a franchise that won just 14 games two years ago. \u201cI probably saw 20 different people, a lot of known names. And Trajan was not necessarily one of the known names,\u201d Gores said of the hiring process. \u201cHe had a good reputation. But I saw a real CEO and an executive in him. \u2026 His execution skills, like a CEO, are excellent, his strategy and analytic skills, excellent. He\u2019s very execution oriented. And to me, I\u2019ve never gotten anywhere in my life just with vision. We have to execute and he\u2019s very execution oriented, and of course has a vision.\u201d
\nKevin Huerter<\/a> is only averaging 12 minutes per night in four appearances since being acquired from Chicago at the deadline. Speaking to reporters before Saturday\u2019s game, coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he expects Huerter to eventually move into a larger role, per Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link<\/a>). \u201cYou see him and he\u2019s got the reputation as a shooter, but I watch him as a play-maker, a ball-handler \u2026 his understanding of the game as a whole,\u201d Bickerstaff said.
\nBickerstaff also commented on the decision to part with Jaden Ivey<\/a>, who was getting limited playing time while working his way back after fracturing his left leg last season, Sankofa adds (Twitter link<\/a>). \u201cWe expected a full recovery but the timing we didn\u2019t know, which is something you can\u2019t ever know,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cAnd then the part of it for him, believing it and trusting it. That happens with injury too, especially when you\u2019re that explosive and your athleticism is so unique.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cade Cunningham\u2018s outstanding season is moving him into the MVP conversation, writes Vincent Goodwill of ESPN. The Pistons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,909,296,188,3860,1018,4103,6,297,7840,6244],"class_list":{"0":"post-617688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cade-cunningham","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-jaden-ivey","14":"tag-kevin-huerter","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-pistons","17":"tag-tom-gores","18":"tag-trajan-langdon"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116114188451102411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617688","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=617688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}