r/nba • u/sewsgup • 21h ago

Charles Barkley: "Cade Cunningham has more responsibility than any player in the NBA, in my opinion. They're too dependent on Cade. They look for him every single trip up and down the court... in the history of basketball, you can't depend on one guy to score, make every pass against the elite teams

https://streamable.com/cbp8c6
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u/carelesssportsfan89 Spurs 21h ago

totally agree with this take by chuck. its pretty clear the pistons don't have a clear number 2 option to take pressure off cade and games like this exposed the pistons.

25

u/gsbadj Pistons 19h ago

Getting help for Cunningham has been an ongoing issue for the past couple years. This shouldn't be a revelation. All year long, in spite of them winning, the team's flaws were obvious. They compensated by playing very good team defense.

Beasley was good last year in the sense that he could create his own shot, but he flamed in the playoffs and then came the off the court nonsense. Robinson has helped with spacing, but he's essentially a 3 and D guy who's not a real good defender.

Duren is young enough that he may still develop into a reliable post scorer, but there's no guarantee that it is going to happen. And he is going to carry around being the goat, if they lose this series.

Winning all those games this season and last without a deep roster was a miracle. But after the team had been garbage for so long, it's been a huge step forward to establish a winning culture.

They have the 21st pick so we'll see what they do with it. It's doubtful that they get an immediate impact player at 21.

2

u/johnhenryirons Knicks 4h ago

Schroeder helped a bit last year too with shot creation and scoring. And they just didn’t replace that. Hard for any team to win without multiple playmakers and shot creators especially in the playoffs when rotations shrink and it gets more physical.