The Pistons provided a brief update on Cade Cunningham‘s recovery from a collapsed lung today, announcing (via Twitter) that the star guard “continues to progress in his return to play process” under the supervision of medical experts, including those on the team’s staff. He’ll be reevaluated in one week, according to the club.
There are no real specifics within the Pistons’ announcement about where Cunningham is in his recovery, but they said when initially revealing his diagnosis that he’d be reevaluated in two weeks, so an update was due today.
For what it’s worth, ESPN’s Vince Goodwill previously reported that the Pistons were optimistic about Cunningham’s lung in about two weeks. The hope, Goodwill explained at the time, was that the 24-year-old would then be able to do non-contact work for a week, followed by a week (or more) of contact work ahead of the playoffs. It’s unclear based on today’s announcement if that timeline is still realistic — next week’s update could provide more clarity.
With Cunningham set to miss at least one more week, he’ll officially fall short of the 65-game threshold required to be considered for end-of-season awards. That means he won’t be eligible to be included on MVP ballots and won’t make an All-NBA team this season, despite an impressive 61-game showing that saw him lead the Pistons to the No. 1 seed in the East by averaging 24.5 points, 9.9 assists, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.5 steals in 34.4 minutes per game.
While the Pistons will need a healthy Cunningham to make a deep postseason run, they’ve more than held their own during his absence, going 6-2 over the past two weeks. Their only two losses during that stretch came in overtime to the Hawks and Thunder, two of the NBA’s hottest teams.
Sad for the Pistons that this will mean he might not play in the 1st rd. I hope he’s not rushing it considering how serious this is.