Do Cade Cunningham And Jaden Ivey Work Together?

One of the more pressing issues among the Pistons fanbase is the future of their dynamic backcourt. Are Cade and Jaden a match, or is it time for Detroit to look elsewhere for answers?

Let’s start this article by immediately answering the question I asked in the title. Yes, Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey absolutely can (and already do) work together.

One of the most difficult issues that arise with a bad young team is parsing through the mounds of failure to find exactly what works. After all, when you have the worst record in the NBA and no players on your roster who have played more than 81 minutes with a net rating better than -4.3 on the season, it can be difficult to find any positives.

A quick look at Ivey and Cunningham’s two-man lineup splits is, frankly, quite ugly. For the season, they have a net rating of -9.6 points per 100 possessions together but, dig a little deeper, and there are some clear signs that the partnership is beginning to heat up.

First, you cannot talk about Jaden Ivey’s 2023-24 season without first discussing head coach Monty Williams’ decision to bring Ivey off of the bench for 13 of his first 19 games. It was clear that Williams didn’t trust Ivey on either end of the court. Ivey was largely asked to play an off-ball role offensively and was quickly yanked off of the court any time he made a mistake defensively. If he tried to make a play and turned the ball over, you could expect Ivey to find himself locked to the bench for an extended period the second the Pistons had an opportunity to sub him out.

After a historically disastrous start to the season, and injuries to both Cunningham and Williams’ dream son-in-law Killian Hayes, he was forced to give Ivey a real shot in the starting lineup. The results have been highly encouraging.

Since entering the starting lineup permanently, Ivey has been allowed to create more for others. This is partially because of injuries to other guards and to Williams simply being forced to give the most dynamic athlete on his roster more responsibility as a playmaker, a role he grew into as last season progressed.

At the beginning of the season, Ivey was largely asked to sit in the corner as a catch-and-shoot “threat” and occasionally drive to the rim when the defense allowed him to do so. Now, he’s doing far more with the ball in his hands. Over his last 23 games, Ivey’s usage has increased by nearly 5% and his assist percentage has increased from 16.9% to 22.4% while his turnover percentage has simultaneously decreased over that span. He’s also providing more of an outside threat, draining 37% of his three pointers on five attempts per game.

Simply put, he’s become more efficient with added responsibility as a scorer and playmaker, the opposite of what Williams seemed to believe would happen. Even more impressively, nine of those games have come without Cunningham on the court to soak up defensive attention.

That production has caused some to wonder if the Pistons are better off without Cade Cunningham running the show (a claim that fellow Palace of Pistons contributor Mike Anguilano recently debunked), but the numbers seem to support the idea that the Pistons aren’t better off with one player or the other, but instead both on the court at the same time.

Over their past 11 games played together, two-man lineups with Cunningham and Ivey on the court have a net rating of -4.8 in 356 minutes played. That might not seem like much of an improvement, but when you dig deeper into the extenuating circumstances, there’s reason to be optimistic.

First, you have to account for injury. Ivey and Cunningham have only played 98 minutes alongside defensive stalwart Isaiah Stewart (regardless of what you think of Stewart’s role on this team, his effect on Detroit’s defense is undeniable.) In those 98 minutes, the Pistons are +17.8 points per 100, a number that will undoubtedly regress with a larger sample size but is indicative of just how crucial it is to surround the backcourt pair with effective defenders.

That becomes even more clear when examining the 248 minutes they’ve played alongside Jalen Duren, where the trio has a net rating of -1.7, a marked improvement over Detroit’s overall net rating of -6.9 over that timespan. With all four players on the floor, the Pistons’ net rating has been a staggering +26.9.

Another reason for optimism lies in the consistency of their offense as a duo. While Detroit’s defense has been up and down without Stewart and Duren being able to stay on the floor, the pairing of Ivey and Cunningham has improved their offensive rating together from a pitiful 101.7 points per 100 possessions up to 118.4, a mark that would rank 7th in the league this season. There’s good reason to believe that with a healthy Stewart and a more effective supporting cast, those overall numbers will improve simply by surrounding Detroit’s backcourt partnership with superior defenders.

So where do we go from here? To me, the answer seems clear. Allow Ivey and Cunningham to play meaningful minutes together where they both handle playmaking duties. As Ivey has moved into the starting role and taken on more responsibility, their turnover percentage has dropped while their assist percentage has gone up, their true shooting has increased, and they’ve improved their net rating by more than 10 points over that timespan. The defense needs work, yes, but that is something that can be improved either by getting Isaiah Stewart back onto the court or potentially moving on from defensive liabilities like Bojan Bogdanovic, who has shared the court with them for all but 30 of their past 356 minutes on the court.

For Detroit to maintain the level of competitiveness they’ve provided since Ivey became a full-time starter, Williams has to stay the course. That means not pulling Ivey when he makes the occasional mistake or riding Cunningham into the ground until he suffers yet another overuse injury. Williams must allow his two most talented players to play off of each other not just because that’s what fans want to see, but because it WORKS. Whether he does that remains to be seen, but the formula should be crystal clear at this point.