NBA All Star Game: Why Was Cade Cunningham Excluded from the 1st Overall Picks Skills Challenge Team?

The 2024 All-Star weekend will feature a skills challenge that will test players’ passing, shooting, and ball-handling abilities. This year’s skill challenge will feature three teams. Indiana Pacers trio Tyrese Haliburton, Benedict Mathurin, and Myles Turner will compete as one of the three teams and will go by the name, Team Pacers. Since the 2022 All-Star weekend, the city hosting the event fields a team from its NBA roster to compete in the skills challenge.

In 2022, the Cleveland Cavaliers fielded Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland, and Evan Mobley as Team Cavs and won the event. Last year, Utah Jazz trio Jordan Clarkson, Collin Sexton, and Walker Kessler competed as Team Jazz and made it two-for-two for the team representing the host city. Team Pacers will aim to make it a hat trick for the host cities in 2024.

Two teams will battle Team Pacers in the skills challenge. Team All-Stars will feature Toronto Raptors’ Scottie Barnes, Philadelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey, and Atlanta Hawks’ Trae Young. Team Top Picks will see the first picks in the 2020, 2022, and 2023 drafts team up. The young trio of Minnesota Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards, Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero, and San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama will look to beat their experienced counterparts.

Logically, Cade Cunningham, the top pick in the 2022 NBA draft, should have been part of Team Top Picks. Edwards’ presence over the Detroit Pistons star has raised some eyebrows on social media.

Let’s look into why Cunningham isn’t a part of the Team Top Picks in the All-Star weekend’s skills challenge.

Cade Cunningham sits out of the NBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge

Cade Cunningham’s absence from Team Top Picks could be due to a slew of reasons. He competed in the skills challenge competition during the 2022 All-Star Weekend as part of Team Rookies alongside Raptors’ Scottie Barnes and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Josh Giddey. They made it to the final but were beaten by Team Cavs.

While Barnes is returning to compete for a second time as part of Team All-Stars, Cunningham likely did not want to compete again until he earned an All-Star nod. Injury could also be a factor in his absence from Team Top Picks. The Pistons star has missed ten of his team’s last 16 games due to a knee injury. He’ll likely use the All-Star break to rest and recuperate.

On the other hand, the Pistons are 8-44 this season and featuring one of their players at the All-Star weekend wouldn’t seem inappropriate. Perhaps that also played a part in Cunningham’s absence. Overall, there are plenty of potential reasons why the Pistons guard isn’t a part of Team Top Picks. However, no concrete reports on the exact reasoning is available yet.