Cade is an All-Star, Luka Doncic, and the WNBA in Detroit | The Weekly Drive
Cade Cunningham is now an All-Star, the NBA has been uprooted with a major trade, and Tom Gores is working to bring the WNBA back to Detroit.

Hey there Pistons fans, and welcome back to the Palace of Pistons Weekly Drive. It’s NBA trade deadline week and things have already been bonkers (stares in Luka Doncic). There is a lot to unpack across the league, and we will cover it when the dust settles. Nevertheless, the Pistons have an All-Star and a Rising Star on the roster, to go with some nice wins that keep them firmly in the playoff picture. Let’s get into it.
Game Recaps
Game 46: Detroit 91, Cleveland 110
Rapid Detail: In what was a pretty cold shooting night for both teams, the Pistons just ended up being colder. Cade Cunningham shot 34% from the floor and Detroit as a team shot just 27.8% from deep. That won’t get it done against a team with as good of an offense as the Cavs.
Game 47: Detroit 119, Indiana 133
Rapid Detail: The Pistons dug themselves a hole in the first quarter allowing 40 points, which forced a scramble to try and come back. Encouragingly, Detroit did make it close in the fourth quarter before giving up a 9-2 run.
Game 48: Dallas 102, Detroit 117
Rapid Detail: Cunningham celebrated his All-Star nomination with a 40-point effort and the Pistons outlasted the Mavericks at home to snap a three-game losing streak. Little did the Mavericks know that disaster would be right around the corner.
Game 49: Chicago 119, Detroit 127
Rapid Detail: The Pistons withstood a triple-double from Nikola Vucevic to beat the Bulls and move above .500. Cunningham had a 22-point, 15 assists effort, and Jalen Duren added a double-double. And, for the second game in a row, the team the Pistons beat immediately made a franchise-altering trade.
Cade Cunningham, All-Star
As expected, the Pistons will have a representative at the NBA All-Star Game in Cade Cunningham. The fourth-year point guard, who is having a breakout season, was selected one as of the reserves for the All-Star game. In a conference with some excellent guards, Cunningham earned his spot on the roster amongst the league’s elite.
The 23-year-old is averaging 25.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 9.4 assists per game while leading Detroit from the basement of the Eastern Conference up to playoff position midway through the season. It’s an organizational win, top to bottom, and something that should be celebrated.
Rising Star Ausar
Oh, and Ausar Thompson is also headed to the Bay Area for All-Star festivities as part of the Rising Stars game. The 22-year-old Thompson has been a defensive menace all season and is now getting rewarded for it, replacing injured sophomore Brandon Miller on the roster.
After having his season end prematurely last March due to blood clots, Thompson has had quite the turnaround. This only solidifies his place on the roster as a blue-chip prospect.
Luka Detour
There will be many league-wide think pieces about Luka Doncic and what the gobsmacking midnight deal means, so I will try to keep it Detroit-centric.
The Los Angeles Lakers, who have once again lucked into an all-world talent, are currently starting Jaxson Hayes at center. That is not feasible in the long or short term. Could they be calling about Isaiah Stewart or Jalen Duren? It’s certainly possible.
Do Western Conference teams, like the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors, get more aggressive? Those two organizations have limited buying power and would need a third team as a dumping ground for bad contracts. Detroit could act as that team if given some draft capital or a good young player to sweeten things.
What about the Pistons as buyers? Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II, and P.J. Washington are joined by Anthony Davis in a loaded frontcourt and the Pistons could sniff around and see what happens. The Mavericks are a team that has to win now, so their desperation level should be quite high. Let’s see if the Pistons could take advantage.
News and Notes
When was the last time a player was openly advocating to stay with the Pistons? Well Malik Beasley, in an interview with HoopsHype’s Mike Scotto, did just that. Read the full interview here.
Pistons owner Tom Gores, along with several other key investors, officially launched a bid to bring a WNBA team to the Motor City. They join Cleveland and Nashville in making bids for WNBA teams.
Isaiah Stewart was suspended one game after picking up his sixth flagrant foul. Naturally, the game he missed was his bobblehead night.
Two major trades have just gone down in the last 48 hours, and there are still several more days to go before Thursday. We have covered the Pistons and the trade deadline in some previous posts, but clearly, the rest of the league has no interest in being normal. So who knows what will happen?
In the meantime, how about checking out the latest Palace of Pistons Podcast? After all, it was ranked the number one Pistons podcast according to FeedSpot. Seems like that’s worth a listen in my book.
See you next week, assuming the NBA doesn’t implode. We came close late Saturday night.
Mike