The Detroit Pistons were perhaps the most consistent Eastern Conference team during the first decade of the 2000s. They made six straight conference finals from 2003 to 2008, winning the NBA Finals in 2004 and nearly pulling off a repeat in 2005, losing in seven games. Since that stretch, however, the team has been impressively bad.
After losing to the Boston Celtics in the 2008 conference finals, the Pistons haven’t won a single playoff game. They’ve only made the postseason three times in that span and have been swept every time.
This past season was the lowest of the lows. The Pistons set a single-season record for most consecutive defeats, losing 28 games in a row en route to a 14-68 record. Detroit fired its head coach, Monty Williams, even though the franchise owed him $65 million.
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With a new coach (J.B. Bickerstaff) and a new president of basketball operations (Trajan Langdon), the latest rebuild is officially in place. That means signing the face of the franchise to a long-term—and historic—deal.
The Pistons and Cade Cunningham agreed to a five-year, $224 million maximum rookie extension. If Cunningham makes the All-NBA team next season, he could earn $269 million over the duration of the contract. It’s the largest contract the Pistons have ever given a player.
The Pistons selected Cunningham with the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft. Since then, the Pistons have won 23, 17, and 14 games for a grand total of 54 wins. That’s not all on Cunningham, of course. Basketball is a team sport, and he missed all but 12 games during the 2022-23 season with a stress fracture in his left shin. But it’s still an abysmal three-year stretch.
Last season, Cunningham bounced back from the injury and posted career-highs in points, assists, three-point percentage, and effective field goal percentage.
There’s always a concern with players on bad teams. Were the numbers great because Cunningham is an All-Star in the making? Or was he simply putting up strong stats in meaningless games? The Pistons were officially eliminated from the playoffs with more than a month to go in the regular season, and aside from a 2-1 start to the season, they were never really in serious contention.
Yet Detroit is not traditionally a free agent destination, and it’s clear Cunningham is a talented player. They had to re-sign him and hope to put up a more competitive roster this season. This summer, they’ve added Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley, and Paul Reed.
No matter how the upcoming season goes, this is life-changing money for Cunningham. He’s still 22 years old and is already making ten times his age with this next contract.