The Detroit Pistons' nightmarish 2023-24 season is nearing its end. There are only eight games left on their calendar for this season, and they'll be looking to at least get a rare victory to help end this campaign on a much better note than they began it. On Monday night, the Pistons will be taking on the Memphis Grizzlies, an opponent as good as any to get a win against at this juncture of the season.
To that end, the Pistons will be needing the services of Cade Cunningham, and with the team having nothing to play for but pride, it's fair to wonder whether or not he'll be playing later tonight against the Grizzlies.
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Cade Cunningham injury status vs. Grizzlies
Cade Cunningham has missed his fair share of games this season, and he initially appeared to be in danger of missing yet another contest after the Pistons listed him as “questionable” on their injury report due to left knee injury management.
Given how important Cunningham is to the franchise and their hope of turning their fortunes around in the coming years, the Pistons are well within their rights to exercise caution when it comes to the health of their franchise cornerstone. Be that as it may, the Pistons must also build winning habits on the court, and one of the strongest ways to do so is to actually put in the work during the games that count.
Fortunately, Cunningham has since been given the greenlight to play and will start, per James L. Edwards III of The Athletic,
Cade Cunningham has played in the Pistons' past two games (a loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves, a win against the Washington Wizards), so he was never on the likelier side of the equation when it comes to missing the upcoming contest against the Grizzlies — especially when this contest is neither the front-end nor the back-end of a back-to-back set.
The last four games Cunningham missed were in the context of a back-to-back. On March 18, he missed the second game. On March 24 and 25, the Pistons guard missed both games. And then dating back to February 7, Cunningham missed their game during that day as well with that being the first of a back-to-back.
While Cunningham will play, it remains to be seen if the Pistons will limit his minutes. If that happens, Jaden Ivey will be tasked to help in leading Detroit's hapless offense.
Pistons fight for lottery positioning… while trying to avoid making bad history
At 13-61, the 2023-24 Pistons will have eight tries to avoid being the worst team in franchise history. That distinction belongs to the 1979-80 team that won only 16 of its games for a terrible winning percentage of 17.6.
At this point, it looks like the Pistons are a lock to get a 14 percent chance at the number one overall pick of the 2024 NBA Draft. Thus, it's not like they have to consciously plummet; their depleted roster is already doing all the plummeting for them.
The good news is that it looks like the Pistons have a few winnable games to end the season. They'll be facing the Grizzlies twice, and they can definitely beat the Brooklyn Nets, a team that's in a woeful state at the moment. Cade Cunningham will have to be healthy, however, so that the Pistons can have a better chance to avoid making the wrong kind of history once more.
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