After being the face of the Detroit Pistons’ worst season in franchise history last year, Cade Cunningham has carried his team back to relevancy and appears to be a lock for his first All-Star appearance. Following Detroit’s disastrous 14-68 campaign, the Pistons now sit at 22-21 and seventh in the Eastern Conference. Cunningham’s rise to stardom, evidenced by his balanced averages of 24.5 points, 9.3 assists, and 6.4 rebounds, has thrust him into the national spotlight in recent weeks.
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Cunningham has solidified himself as an elite all-around talent and one of the best playmakers in the league, but Rajon Rondo believes the 23-year-old still has room to improve. During his appearance on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back, Rondo was asked by Lou Williams which young guard he believes is the closest to a “pure point guard.” The pair discussed how many of the NBA’s top young guards are hybrids now, balancing playmaking and scoring, before the conversation shifted to Cunningham.
While they didn’t declare the Pistons star a “pure point guard,” Rondo did underline Cunningham’s ability to manipulate the game and operate as a three-level scorer. Lauding the job JB Bickerstaff has done to improve this Detroit squad, Rondo said,
“If I can get my hands on a Cade Cunningham… I think he could become a pure point guard.”
“If I can get my hands on Cade Cunningham…I think he could become a pure point guard.”
Cunningham is already a three-level scorer, but with a few tweaks, @RajonRondo thinks Cade wouldn’t need 30 points to win games for the Pistons
https://t.co/VPI1jNDlZS pic.twitter.com/77OVZr41Wa
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 22, 2025
The four-time All-Star stated he would make only a couple of tweaks to Cunningham’s game but emphasized how much the personnel alongside him matters as well:
“If [Cunningham] has to be the man, and he has to get 30 [points], then that’s what he has to do. But if he had maybe two more superstars in the game, he wouldn’t have to manage to go get 30 every night.”
The Pistons have done well in adding extra spacing around Cade, but the team still lacks a legitimate costar to shoulder more of the offensive load.
Rajon Rondo was one of NBA history’s greatest playmakers
There aren’t too many point guards with a higher basketball IQ than Rajon Rondo, who made a career for himself as one of the league’s most creative passers. Cunningham already ranks third in the NBA in assists, trailing only Nikola Jokic and Trae Young, but his 9.3 average still pales in comparison to Rondo’s best playmaking numbers.
Throughout his prime with the Boston Celtics, Rondo was responsible for getting the ball to the team’s superstars, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. He played his role to perfection, serving as a lockdown defensive guard while dishing out more than 11 assists three different times during his tenure with the Celtics. Even after leaving Beantown, the 38-year-old was an elite playmaker, once again leading the NBA in assists with the Sacramento Kings in 2015-16.
Rondo certainly had weaknesses in his game, which is one of the reasons he passed the ball so much. The former point guard doesn’t possess the scoring abilities of Cade Cunningham, but Rondo’s knowledge and expertise could definitely help accelerate the former first overall pick’s path to superstardom.
