How Cade Cunningham Is Chasing Detroit Pistons First Assist Crown in 40 Years

Cade Cunningham is having a phenomenal season, and is currently averaging 10 assists a game.

In a record breaking year for the Pistons, Cade himself has achieved (or is set to achieve) a handful of accomplishments that have not been seen in Detroit in many years.

One of the more impressive accomplishments Cade is currently competing for is the NBA season leader in assists.

The current state of the race is quite unique.

The current leader in assists per game is Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic at 10.4 assists per game. Cunningham is a close second at an even 10 assists a game.

Third place is a far cry from Cade, as Luka Dončić is only averaging 8.5 assists a night. With Cade being significantly ahead of third place, the race comes down to him and Jokic.

Both players have less than 20 games remaining, which does not give Cade much time to catch Jokic. However, there may be a silver lining for Cunningham.

With only 15 games remaining for Nikola Jokic, he must play in at least 7 more games to remain eligible for a statistical leader. Traditionally, it is required that a player participate in at least 58 regular season games to remain eligible for season-long statistical leaders.

This eligibility requirement could eliminate Jokic, and leave Cunningham atop the stat race as Cade has already played in 58 games.

Closing the gap

As Cade has played in 7 more games than Jokic this season, he has more total assists on the year. This doesn’t mean much, outside of illustrating how close Cade truly is to catching Jokic.

Jokic may lead the category by 0.4 assists per game, however, Cunningham has almost 50 more total assists this season. However, after dishing out 13 assists in the win against the 76ers, Cade has been on a hot streak.

Making history

If he can continue to increase his season average in assists he would be the first Piston to lead the league in assists since Isiah Thomas in 1984-85.

Outside of Thomas’ lone assist title in the 80s, Kevin Porter earned back to back assist titles himself from 1977-1979. This would make Cunningham only the third Piston to ever achieve this honor.

In a season where Cunningham and the Pistons have already achieved so much, the season leader in assists would be an illustrious feather to add to Cade’s hat.