With Cade Cunningham leading the Detroit Pistons to the best record in the NBA at the All-Star break, it has led to the point guard getting major attention for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. As the Pistons star in Cunningham is looking to take the torch as one of the elites of the game, head coach J.B. Bickerstaff makes a huge comparison between him and Dwyane Wade.
Bickerstaff was on the podcast “Road Trippin,” where he was talking about Cunningham and how he continues to impress him this season. The closest comparison he could think of is the Miami Heat legend in Wade, for the specific reason of making circus shots and bringing that “wow” factor.
“It’s like one night you’ll see something, you’ll be like, ‘Damn that boy’s cold.’ And then you’ll see something a week later, you’ll be like, ‘God damn.’ It’s one of those things where, I always liken it. I remember like Dwayne Wade, right? Like when Dwayne Wade became Flash, like I remember that year specifically when he was like falling down backwards and just throwing the ball up over his head, and it was just going in,” Bickerstaff said.
J.B. Bickerstaff continues talking about Pistons' Cade Cunningham
Another comparison he made was to the 1999 film “The Matrix,” where the main character Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, is considered “the one,” which Bickerstaff mentions is how Cunningham sees himself.
“Like Cade is in that stage now where he just believes that he's different. You and I were laughing about the Matrix, right? When Neo believed he was the one. Like Cade believes he's the one now and like his game is translating it,” Bickerstaff said.
Bickerstaff also believes if the season ended today, he'd be the league's MVP.
Cunningham is averaging 25.3 points, 9.6 assists, and 5,6 rebounds per game while shooting 46.2 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range. He's helped Detroit get to a 40-13 record, putting them first in the Eastern Conference, as the first game off the All-Star break is on Thursday night against the New York Knicks.
