Cade Cunningham candid on last-place Pistons: ‘We’re bad’
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Pistons lose 11th straight after falling to Raptors (1:28)
Pascal Siakam leads the Raptors to a 29-point victory over the Pistons, the 11th straight defeat for Detroit. (1:28)
Nov 20, 2023, 09:45 AM ET
Cade Cunningham offered a brutally honest assessment of the last-place Detroit Pistons, who are mired in an 11-game losing streak.
“We’ve got to be realistic about the situation,” Cunningham said Sunday after Detroit’s 142-113 loss to the Toronto Raptors. “It’s hard to just be like, ‘Oh we’re good, we’re good,’ because we’re bad. We’ve got to address that.”
The Pistons enter Monday with the NBA’s worst record at 2-12 and are struggling through their third losing streak of at least 11 games since the start of last season. Detroit’s last victory was against the Chicago Bulls on Oct. 28.
“I think a few of our guys are dealing with how hard the league is,” Pistons first-year coach Monty Williams said. “When you’re dealing with it, the one thing you can control is your competition level. I didn’t see that across the board tonight.”
Cunningham finished with 18 points Sunday and was the only Detroit starter to score more than 10 points. The 2021 No. 1 draft selection said it was “unacceptable” for Williams to have to question the Pistons’ level of competition.
“We’re the youngest team in the league, scrapping and clawing for everything,” Cunningham told reporters, according to The Athletic. “That should be the last thing that needs to be asked of us or talked about — how hard we’re competing. That should be a given.
“When we wake up in the morning, we should be like, ‘We got to get to the court.’ [Williams] shouldn’t have to ask. That’s something me and [Isaiah Stewart] are also trying to stay vocal about. Everyone has to come with it.”
The upcoming schedule will not get any easier for the Pistons. Nine of their next 10 opponents currently own a winning record, starting with Monday’s home game against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets.