If there’s a third championship era in the Pistons to come on Troy Weaver’s watch, then someday the Cade Cunningham-Jaden Ivey backcourt will be talked of with similar reverence to their Isiah Thomas-Joe Dumars and Chauncey Billups-Rip Hamilton predecessors.
And if Pistons fans are eager to see Cunningham and Ivey together – now that the latter’s rookie season has inflamed the imagination for what he can become – they should know their anticipation is matched by Cunningham and Ivey.
“He picked it up so fast,” Cunningham said of Ivey. “The pace and the poise he showed at the end of the year, I knew he was going to be that but I didn’t realize he was going to pick it up so fast. To see that was huge for the team and huge for him to feel that. He’s only going to take more steps like that every year he’s playing. With his work ethic, he’s going to be great. I’m excited for him and I’m excited to play with him.”
They got all of 11 games together before Cunningham’s season was ended by a shin injury that eventually required surgery. Cunningham said Monday that he’s now been cleared to run at full body weight and will be progressing shortly to full go. He looks noticeably thicker in his upper and lower halves and says the perspective he gained from the sideline will benefit him when he returns for the 2023-24 season.
Ivey leaned on Cunningham throughout the season for the shared experiences of having the onus of directing their team’s offense as NBA rookies. And through the process of navigating the season together, they came to find they enjoy each other’s company and admire each other’s fiber.
“I’m super ecstatic to be able to be on the court with him again,” Ivey said. “I talk about it all the time. It’s not the player I look forward to playing with, it’s the person. I enjoy seeing, every single day when I step in that locker room, it starts with the spirit and he has that. He’s the vet getting every single person going in this locker room. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back on the court with him and getting to work this off-season.”
Cunningham, minutes earlier and out of Ivey’s earshot, had expressed virtually that exact sentiment about pairing with Ivey.
Cunningham said he’s not sure exactly what it will look like – who’ll be on the ball more often than not or how their roles will intersect – but his confidence in their ultimate success is unshakeable.
“Over the course of the year, more than anything, I’ve come to respect and like the person Jaden Ivey. The way he goes about life, the way he goes about his work. And because of that, it makes me want to make it work even more outside of the player he is. We’re going to be on the court together and I want to make sure it works because I respect the person more than anything.”
Ivey grew in so many different areas from his early days at Cunningham’s side to the season’s final third, improving markedly as a pick-and-roll ballhandler and decision-maker while emerging an above-average 3-point shooter on high volume. Less visible to the average fan but not to Dwane Casey and Weaver was his growth on the other end. Casey, in fact, said Ivey had progressed more on defense than offense.
Listen to Ivey’s explanation for that improvement and you’ll have the context needed to put Cunningham’s observation about Ivey’s character in perspective.
“Just pride. I learned early on I was getting beat off the dribble a lot. I made constant mistakes on defense that led to a lot of other teams’ wins. I feel like I put myself in a lot of trouble at the defensive end for my team. Middle of the season, I remember when I was getting my work in, I talked to Coach (John Beilein) and I’m like, ‘Let’s work on some defense. Let’s work on some closeouts, work on being low man.’ That’s when I feel like my mind shifted a little bit to where I got more focused on this aspect. In order for us to be a better defensive team, I think that’s when it flipped for me. I feel I’ve shown strides to be a great two-way player.”
That, too, will give Ivey and Cunningham something in common with the championship backcourts that helped put – as Weaver put it – greatness in the walls. The Pistons have a talented quartet of young big men, a top-five draft pick incoming and at least $25 million in cap space to bolster the roster over the summer. But nothing is more central to their future than the Jaden Ivey-Cade Cunningham marriage. They’re as eager as anyone to get it started.