The Detroit Pistons had a historically bad season during the 2024 season as they won just 14 games. Keeping Cunningham was an important thing for them to do, as he’s a building block. On Sunday, it was reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic, that Cade Cunningham would be signing a five-year, $226 million max rookie extension to remain with the Pistons.

After missing a majority of the 2022-23 season due to injury, the former No. 1 overall pick had a bounce back season of sorts. He averaged 22.7 points, 7.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds for the Pistons even as his team floundered.

The Pistons are still in the midst of a rebuild that began before Cunningham arrived in Detroit. Though, this offseason… that rebuild has been reset. The team has hired Trajan Langdon as the team’s top executive and they fired Monty Williams. On Sunday, the Pistons also hired former Cleveland Cavaliers coach JB Bickerstaff as their next head coach. The next step for Langdon and Bickerstaff will be to figure out how the roster around Cunningham, because so far, it doesn’t quite fit. There’s a lot of young players who struggle to shoot the three, including No. 5 overall pick Ron Holland.

Cade Cunningham will need more spacing around him to make this extension worthwhile. Detroit’s first order of business, retaining their most talented player is now out of the way. They can focus on maximizing the talent around him. Though, Langdon did acknowledge that it’ll take time to set his vision for the franchise into motion. He hopes to add shooting and floor spacing — two lingering areas of concern from last season — in free agency or via trade.

***

Looking to write Sports Articles? Come Join us.

Subscribe to the Fantom Sports YouTube channel!

Follow Fantom Sports on Twitter!