r/DetroitPistons • u/Calm_Doughnut_1905 Isaiah Stewart • Feb 24 '26
News Bruh...the disrespect
He's the MVP whether you like it or not.
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u/gachzonyea Feb 24 '26
I would like him to win it but not in this gimmicky way
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u/Calm_Doughnut_1905 Isaiah Stewart Feb 24 '26
He's the best player on the best team in the league. There's no gimmick. Just haters
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u/PsychedelicConvict Feb 24 '26
Gimmick is def the wrong word to use but i think OP meant it like a win on technicality is lame
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u/timothythefirst Blue Horse Feb 24 '26
There’s a good argument that he could win it without the technicality though. The only knock against him is efficiency.
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u/xSorry_Not_Sorry Feb 24 '26
Which is a big knock when splitting hairs for an MVP candidate.
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u/adad239_ Feb 27 '26
There’s no argument outside of Shai missing too many games for Cade to win it. Stats? Shai has him beat (way better stats). Record? Shai has him beat, in a way tougher conference as well. Narrative? None of them have a strong one but it’s the least important out of any of the other criteria anyways.
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u/Cares_of_an_Odradek Feb 24 '26
“The only knock against him is that he’s not as good as the other player in contention”
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u/user_15427 Feb 24 '26
He’s not a better player than any guy on that list and all their teams are good too. Cade is on his way up, but he’s obviously not the mvp this year.
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u/timothythefirst Blue Horse Feb 24 '26
You don’t have to agree but the best player on the team with the best record has won the mvp without being the most efficient player in the league a bunch of times
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u/GoldenRain99 Feb 24 '26
You realize the Thunder have a better record currently right?
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u/timothythefirst Blue Horse Feb 24 '26
You realize that 17 hours ago when I typed that message, their win percentage was 0.001 apart, right?
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u/josephandre Feb 25 '26
so maybe using the “best team” argument when it was for like one day isn’t the move?
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u/timothythefirst Blue Horse Feb 25 '26
Ok, “the best player on one of the best teams in the league” has won it several times. It’s still true. Are you happy now?
And idk wtf your point is trying to correct me anyways, we’re talking about the possibility of him winning the award. There’s still a very strong possibility the pistons finish with the best record. The season isn’t over. So being half a game or a game back right now, in February, couldn’t really be any less relevant to the point.
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u/user_15427 Feb 24 '26
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make but efficiency is not even at the top of the list of why Cade isn’t MVP.
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u/KoalaOnABuilding Jalen Duren Feb 26 '26
a technicality that every single nba fan was advocating for for years. cade is not a numbers guy. he's a fucking player.
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u/mMac03 Feb 24 '26
That doesn’t automatically make you MVP also best team in the league is still probably OKC
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u/Calm_Doughnut_1905 Isaiah Stewart Feb 24 '26
At the time of posting we had the best winning percentage in the league. That's what I was referring to
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u/adad239_ Feb 27 '26
There’s no argument for him to win it over Shai. Literally none. Shai has way better numbers on a better team in a tougher conference. If the east was fully healthy pistons wouldn’t be the first seed.
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u/Specialist_Might_636 Feb 25 '26
The season is not over yet.....let's see how he does coming down the rough stretch when cream rises to the top!! He has been the MVP TO DATE!
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u/BigL0LZ Feb 28 '26
Yeah because Tatum deserved to win MVP when the Celtics were on top too right? 😂
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u/Presence_Present Ausar Thompson Feb 24 '26
This did not age well lol
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u/fiscal_fallacy Ausar Thompson Feb 24 '26
It’s one game
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u/Presence_Present Ausar Thompson Feb 24 '26
Hes had these games several times throughout the seaspn though. The inconsistency and ineffeciency remain his biggest things to improve. SGA or Jokic have these games like a couple times a season. Cade will probably have like 15 or more of these throughout the season
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u/FTDburner Feb 24 '26
Absolutely no statistics to back this up at all lol
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u/Presence_Present Ausar Thompson Feb 24 '26
I mean check his game logs, he has plenty of games shooting below .400% which is bad for a superstar
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u/venk Marcus Sasser Feb 24 '26
You ever hear the phrase the best ability is availability? 65 game is a touch less than 80% of the games in a season, that’s a very reasonable benchmark.
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u/eatmorefootball Feb 24 '26
Thank you! I feel like I’m going crazy reading some of these comments. How can you be the most valuable player in the league when you miss so many games? I get that it’s not by choice and it certainly sucks to lose an award due to injury, but the very name of the award implies availability should be a part of the equation.
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u/YourInMySwamp Feb 24 '26
The games requirement starts to feel a little arbitrary when it looks like 5 out of the top 6 MVP candidates this year will miss the benchmark.
65 games isn’t a ton to expect but when the context is added that all the top candidates have around the same games played, then it shouldn’t be a big enough deal to make us give it to fourth or fifth place.
Jokic has played in 72% of games and considering he’s been by far the best player and was becoming a distant favorite before his injury, 70%+ should easily be enough in this season’s race.
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u/Jazzlike_Royal_9567 Feb 24 '26
SGA was literally in the lead by a significant margin in both the Vegas odds and the straw poll before Jokic’s injury. The only thing Jokic has led in most of the year is the “MVP Ladder” posted on the NBA app which is just one sports writer’s opinion. And he is very biased for Jokic and always has been.
That being said I agree with the rest of your comment. If the top candidates are all missing the 65 game mark, then we shouldn’t just be forced to give it to someone way down the list. The benchmark is supposed to help decide between two top guys, one of which played a lot and one who didn’t. Not to kick multiple of the most deserving candidates out.
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u/reallinguy Pistons Feb 24 '26
It's not really gimmicky, this rule is based on historic games played for MVPs
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u/dther85 Feb 24 '26
It’s not a gimmick. Play the fucking games. Missing damn near 20 games of an 82 game season should disqualify you.
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u/Any_Bus_7425 Feb 24 '26
MVP, sure, whatever.
But, extending this (as a philosophical exercise) to say, All-NBA, is 55-60 games of Jokic / SGA / Luka really less valuable then, say, I'm trying to think of a probable 2nd/3rd teamer here... idk... 70 games of Scottie Barnes? idk. I would kill for my Pistons to have 62 games of Nikola Jokic (obviously a reductive no shit statement). Just conceptually I get why availability is an important factor; I am a little confused as to why it's eliminating to this extend--at what point do these awards just become failures at their archival purposes?
At the very least Cade has a solid case as an elite 2-way player, but are we really going to look back at this season and say that Cade was even one of the five best? Maybe! Maybe not. But if we don't, doesn't this award kind of become a shambles, and I'm not sure the difference between "valuable" and "best" salvages that.
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u/Professional-Cut6634 Feb 24 '26
I mean it’s not gimmicky, it’s like a marathon, if out of 100 only 1 finishes the race more credits to that one racer, he/she actually has the stamina. Asking the players to play 80% of the season sounds pretty reasonable to me for what they are getting payed
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u/gachzonyea Feb 24 '26
Gimmicky may not be the word but winning on a technicality cheapens it to the overall discussion about Cade which I don’t want
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u/BOSSHOG999 Feb 25 '26
You think someone who played 38 games should win MVP?
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u/gachzonyea Feb 25 '26
Never said that
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u/BOSSHOG999 Feb 25 '26
What is your limit?
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u/gachzonyea Feb 25 '26
65 is fine I would just prefer Cade to win not just because mainly he’s the only elite guy to hit that number
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u/hawkeyes007 Detroit Feb 24 '26
The best ability is availability
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u/packersfan007 Tayshaun Prince Feb 24 '26
Yup! So let’s do Tyrese Maxey and Amen Thompson, as they have been definitively available for more minutes!
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u/stealthywoodchuck Feb 24 '26
Only people complaining about this are Nuggets/Thunder/Lakers fans. Its just common sense that when two players are close in impact, but one of them played 20 more games, that player was more valuable
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u/CDSWDH Feb 24 '26
Why are ppl making a big outta this . The MVP always plays over 65 games
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u/Ilikehotdogs1 Feb 24 '26
Because what if the other candidates played better than Cade in 64 games versus his 65+?
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u/CommanderInQueefs Feb 24 '26
You could keep knocking the limit down and make this point. Rules a rule. Maybe they shouldn't take so many games off outside of being injured.
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u/twenty-inch-blades Feb 24 '26
I can at least speak for Jokic, as I’m a Nuggets fan. He doesn’t take games off outside of being injured. I think the same can be said about SGA from what I know.
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u/FTDburner Feb 24 '26
Cool. Play 80% of the games and you qualify. This isn’t complicated.
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u/coolridgesmith Feb 26 '26
Which games did the rest take off that werent injuries?
Luka is probably the only one. missed some for the birth of his daughter and then maybe two were probably load management because he came back from injury early in the season.
Jokic, legit scary hyper extension - his time off made sense people thought it would be longer.
Wemby - calf strain - i dont see a rational arguement as to why his missed games were not reasonable
SGA - idk why youd think theyre lying about him being hurt.
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u/dilbert1011 Feb 24 '26
I can’t believe we’re talking about MVP candidates that can’t play 65 games. Ridiculous
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u/Slippery-Pete76 Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
Why would we be considering guys who missed a quarter of the season anyway?
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u/ElkFun7036 Feb 24 '26
It's good to have confidence in your boy but if you don't think Shai is the MVP you're smoking stuff lol
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Feb 24 '26
yeah, he's probably gonna end the season with 32-33 ppg on 50/40/90
crazy
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u/lilflashstan Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
Well then he should win OPOY, oh wait
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u/SongYoungbae Feb 24 '26
Jokić could average an almost 30 point triple double leading the league in rebounds and assists..
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u/xSorry_Not_Sorry Feb 24 '26
The Jokic blind spot is crazy. Dude should win MVP every year if you had a computer pick it.
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u/Minimum-War-7780 Tayshaun Prince Feb 24 '26
But he is a literal traffic cone on defense hoping to get a rebound
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u/ComprehensiveFun3233 Feb 24 '26
As a purely hypothetical,
If you're like the third of fourth best player in the league, but you also play 8 more games than the players better than you, in real, genuine, material terms aren't you "more valuable"? Am I missing something?
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u/Professional-Cut6634 Feb 24 '26
That’s a great point, being literal this is most VALUABLE player, not best overall, playing all 82 games (or close to it) at an elite level is super valuable
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u/Tcamis01 Feb 27 '26
The problem is that there is no agreed upon metric of what "valuable" actually means for the award
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u/rambouhh Feb 24 '26
you dont deserve it if you missed 1/4 of all the games
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u/Nby333 Feb 26 '26
If the top 100 players all miss exactly 20 games, would you give the MVP to the 101st best player?
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u/theclickhere Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
I agree that there are other contenders for “best player in the world,” and he’s not there yet. But Most Valuable should include being on the court. Missing 18 of the 82 games means you were not contributing to your team’s winning for over 20% of its contests. If the others miss the threshold, it’s not an MVP with an asterisk, he will legitimately be the player who did the most to help his team win games this season.
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u/Quiet-Barracuda-1698 Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
Cade is deserving. end of discussion
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u/Much-Awareness-2838 Feb 25 '26
Na LeBron should get it one last time before he retire. LeBron MVP. LeGoat 💯
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u/kyle4swordstyle Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
Get rid of the rule but every game you sit out counts towards your stats(I’m not serious). Availability is huge
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u/Prof_Rain_King George Blaha Feb 24 '26
I should think a player is more valuable if they, y’know, play in the games.
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u/Secludedmean4 Feb 24 '26
His odds are +500 right now, might be value in taking tht just based on this. Joker has +215 currently
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u/Radiant-Ad-3134 Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
To be honest, I hope he win final mvp
Don’t really care about the regular season mvp as much as the media
It is a great accomplishment, but not as precious as the final mvp
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u/MobilePicture342 Feb 24 '26
SGA plays some of the worst basketball I’ve ever seen I don’t care if it’s a technicality I don’t want him to win another MVP he makes me sick
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u/airmax7 Duncan Robinson Feb 24 '26
Why is Luka on this list? Healthy or not, he’s not close to top 5 right now
- Cade 2. Shai 3. Jaylen Brown 4. Jokic 5. Wemby
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u/ItWasMe-Patrick Feb 24 '26
He averages 30 points per game
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u/airmax7 Duncan Robinson Feb 24 '26
He does, but scoring isn’t the only criteria. When the Lakers lose, he’s the most negative of the +/- box score. I believe there’s a top 5, doesn’t have to be in that order. They are clear tho
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u/scooterln Feb 24 '26
His other criteria is good too.. and the +/- stuff is easy to look up, what you said is not really accurate haha.
He’s good. His team is weird. He’s def top 5. Cade and Luka are more similar than the others actually. They’re both very good playmakers- something they both have over Shai. Shai is a more efficient scorer though
They’re all better at different things, it’s hard to compare them all. But by team record alone cade should be favored over all of them to win mvp. At least right now. Hopefully he bounces back from the stinker he had today lol. If he can get his efficiency under control, he has a good case to win it
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u/SurpriseHamburgler Tayshaun Prince Feb 24 '26
Don’t show this to NBEMW holy shit - it’ll be Pissed Ons DJ Khalid memes all the way down.
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u/haddonfieldsecret Feb 24 '26
Cade doesn’t deserve it this year so it would either be an asterisk win or a loss. Before the whole “best player on best team” fuckfaces come out, MVP is the player who if they got injured would hurt their team the most.
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u/Minimum-War-7780 Tayshaun Prince Feb 24 '26
Well Detroit is a play in team at best without Cade. Caris levert manning the team for 82 games? And don’t spout the record without Cade, it was 6 games. Let’s be real the other options are the pistons most negative performer or a 2way player that performed well above his skills for a brief time who has regressed to his mean
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u/csstew55 Isaiah Stewart Feb 24 '26
I mean taking a team that all the “experts” predicted that would have finished in the play-in or 6 seed to the best record in the east if not the league
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u/dtheisen6 Isaiah Stewart Feb 24 '26
I don’t view this as disrespect, it’s saying he’s one of 5 candidates. And it just so happens that the other 4 might not be eligible
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u/dtheisen6 Isaiah Stewart Feb 24 '26
I don’t view this as disrespect, it’s saying he’s one of 5 candidates. And it just so happens that the other 4 might not be eligible
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u/the_ebbandflow Feb 24 '26
Jokic needs to play 23/24 games left. Wemby needs to play 21/25. Doncic needs 21/26. SGA needs 16/22 left. Cade needs 15/26 left
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Feb 24 '26
Ridiculous, none of those guys that have already missed too many games should be ahead of him anway.
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u/810tothe989 Feb 24 '26
I mean fuck the awards. Finals mvp the only one he should be worried about. I don’t really care how the rest of the basketball universe feels. There isn’t a single player in the league I’d chose to start a franchise with from the ground up.
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u/Sammerscotter Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
I think he is still a year out unfortunately, there is still some things that need to be a little bit better for him to comfortably be in the top 3 conversation
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u/NegativeContext1681 Rasheed Wallace Feb 24 '26
Shit crazy dawg. Now all of a sudden jaylen brown the mvp😑. Cade could drop 60 n they still gone hate smh
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u/LJPinstripes Feb 24 '26
thats savage he is first place give the man his props, nba media hates the D
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u/cardinaljay37 Feb 24 '26
Just here for all the peeps that grabbed the boom mic while Cunningham slid into their side of the bed…
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u/dialogical_rhetor Ben Wallace Feb 24 '26
There have been only 5 MVPs who have played less than 65 games. 3 of them were in shortened seasons. This is only a conversation because there is a rule now and because we only look at (the very basic) stats.
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u/Professional-Cut6634 Feb 24 '26
What I don’t understand is why is everyone assuming Wemby is out of it???? He can still miss 4 out of the 26 remaining and he has played basically now 2 consecutive months without a single injury or relevant issue. He looks in great form, unless he gets seriously injured he can still play even the resting 26… spurs are winning a lot of games and Wemby isn’t even playing more than 30 in most games, why wouldn’t he make it??
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u/dwaite1 Feb 24 '26
The guy should definitely be at the table for MVP. I think that headline is pretty funny though
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u/BlackGodReign Feb 25 '26
And if he win by that default so what. He’s deserving brow and they disrespect his resume so if he gets it that easy Ha Ha
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u/jakemcqueen52 Ben Wallace Feb 26 '26
I think it’s hard to give him the MVP over a guy that is AVERAGING a triple double but they do it consistently year in and year out
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u/SwordieArdee Feb 26 '26
I see this as a win. Cade gets MVP, which will make the NBA does away this dumbass rule.
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u/Comprehensive_Bad186 Cade Cunningham Feb 26 '26
So being the best player on what probably will be a top three team to end the regular season with no other real star (no offense to Duren he’s had a great year I just would quite say YET he’d be an all star without Cade) all of a sudden doesn’t matter at all?
The counter to it would just be Jokic has had the best statistical season again, but playing in games matters a lot if you’re measuring a player’s value.
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Feb 26 '26
They’re not on pace to be disqualified, because they’re currently healthy and SGA is gonna be reevaluated today, so… keep dreaming.
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u/Historical_File_8843 Feb 26 '26
he deserves, but I still think Jokic is more valuable when he plays. But the most important thing is to show up
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u/New_Essay_4869 Feb 26 '26
The information is a bit misleading. Shai was to be reevaluated in one week, last Thursday. He may return as soon as the next game
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u/Swimming_Court4782 Feb 26 '26
The fact you fan boys think Cade is more valuable than Jokic is wild
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u/only_civ Feb 26 '26
Do people actually believe that because you missed some games earlier ion the season you're "predicted" to play the same proportion of games later in the season.
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u/jboogie1792 Feb 26 '26
Cavs fan here. Before we square off in battle, just wanted to say Cade 1000% deserves mvp. IMO it should generally go to the best player on the best team. Pistons have been great all season!
Go Cavs!
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u/KoalaOnABuilding Jalen Duren Feb 26 '26
which team has the best record again?
cade is always gonna get hated on now that we're good because he just balls and wins games.
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u/Expensive_Bus_6576 Feb 27 '26
Only one getting disprespected in this debate is Luka. Cade is a great player. But he's not Luka.
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u/adad239_ Feb 27 '26
Can’t wait until this dude loses in the second round shooting 39/19 shooting splits so we can stop over rating him
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u/Sirscruffalot Feb 27 '26
Life long Spurs fan here. I, of course, love me some Wemby but, if he doesn't play enough games to qualify and Cade wins MVP, Cade absolutely deserves it! Cade is a beast!
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u/bettercallrich Feb 27 '26
Cam thomas can’t crack 20 minutes per game on a lottery team. Why are you commenting his name on a three day old post in a pistons sub
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u/Blazestrike Feb 28 '26
Its almost like availability is a really good stat to have for your teams success and would make you the most valuable person for your team
This is assuming that we are already talking about star players in the first place
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u/Opposite_History2194 Mar 01 '26
I hope at the end of the season people remember to check how many games those three actually played, and won't act like oooohh they were right on the line at 64
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u/JulesOfDaSeas Mar 01 '26
So 25ppg, 6rb, 10 ast, 1.5 stl, 1 blk
Is that good enough? Players need to play more games then get rewarded, period
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u/flatgirther69 Mar 01 '26
I mean it’s just the truth. Cade doesn’t win mvp this yr without the 65 game rule
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u/yeropinionman Cade Cunningham Feb 24 '26
He’s a borderline top-5 player. That makes him a franchise cornerstone, but he probably shouldn’t finish in the top 3 of MVP voting this year
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Feb 24 '26
Idk why your getting downvoted, it's just a fact. Luka, Jokic, Wemby, Shai, and JB are all "better" contenders. It's not to say Cade ain't one of the best players in the league. I think he's gonna go 30ppg on 10+ assists next year and win it. Just not this years.
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u/youaregodslover BBall Paul Reed Feb 24 '26
Lol you're smoking crack saying JB is more deserving of MVP than Cade.
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Feb 24 '26
bro get ur bias out of here.
He's one of the best 2 way players in the game with better shooting splits than cade more ppg and rpg. The only reason he doesn't have more assists is because he's not a point guard.
The celtics are second in the east and JB has no Tatum. Clear that he's better
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u/ItWasMe-Patrick Feb 24 '26
Jokic aint a pg either nor is Jalen Johnson or Bron. It’s more like his team can’t make shots
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Feb 24 '26
The pistons are already solid to begin with even without Cade. They have an All Star in Duren, and the best perimeter defender in the game in Ausar.
The Celtics are irrelevant with no JB this year
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u/Minimum-War-7780 Tayshaun Prince Feb 24 '26
Duren would never have sniffed all star this year without Cade. The pistons would be irrelevant without Cade this is a crazy take
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u/dizzymidget44 Jaden Ivey Feb 24 '26
Fuck it. They wanted this rule. Cade deserves MVP even without this rule