The Detroit Pistons have made the contract extension for guard Cade Cunningham official, as relayed by a press release from the team.
The deal is for the maximum, agents Jeff Schwartz and James Dunleavy told Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Cunningham averaged 22.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 7.5 assists, 0.9 steals and 0.4 blocks for the Pistons this past season in 62 games, shooting 44.9% from the field, 35.5% on 3-pointers and 86.9% from the free-throw line. He’ll make $13.9 million next season.
Detroit, of course, finished with the NBA’s worst record (14-68) and set the single-season NBA mark for consecutive losses at 28. But the Pistons have made some changes, theoretically to help benefit Cunningham, the face of the franchise.
That included changing coaches from Monty Williams to J.B. Bickerstaff, as well as landing veteran players such as forward Tobias Harris, shooting guard Malik Beasley and wing Tim Hardaway Jr.
Woj reported that Cunningham’s new deal is worth $224 million, and could be worth up to $269 million.
“Cunningham — the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft — can elevate the deal to 30 percent of the team’s salary cap with the earning of All-NBA honors next season,” Wojnarowski wrote.
“Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon made Cunningham’s extension a priority upon taking over the job several weeks ago and reached an agreement on Tuesday with Schwartz and Dunleavy,” Wojnarowski wrote.
Cunningham has averaged 20.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.5 assists in 138 career NBA games (all starts). He joined Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James as the only No. 1 pick in NBA history to average at least 20.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 6.0 assists and 1.0 steals through their first three NBA seasons.
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