BIRMINGHAM, Mich.—As the Philadelphia 76ers prepare for a late-season matchup with the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night, the focus for them is continuing to try and get ready for what they expect will be a deep run into the postseason.
The Pistons sport the second to worst record in the East at 20-56, but they have a young core led by potential Rookie of the Year Cade Cunningham, and they have shown flashes of promise down the stretch.
On the season, Cunningham is averaging 17.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.6 assists and he has gotten much better as the season has gone on. He’s averaging 22.5 points, 7.1 assists, and 6.2 rebounds in the month of March and he has caught the eye of Sixers coach Doc Rivers.
“I love him,” said Rivers. “I’ll tell you, watching him from the beginning of the year to now, I’m amazed at his improvement. You could always see it, but when we played them early on, I didn’t know. I didn’t see it. I trusted my eyes from college watching him and even our guys were like, ‘Man I don’t think’, I said ‘No, he’s gonna be good’. It’s just gonna take him a minute.”
The Pistons are led by former Coach of the Year Dwane Casey who has been known for being an excellent developer of young players and Cunningham and this young roster has been no different.
In the month of November, Cunningham was averaging only 14.6 points and it looked like the game was too fast for him. In a Nov. 4 matchup against the Sixers, he only shot 4-for-17, but he shot 9-for-10 from the line to score 18 points.
“His improvement has been unbelievable,” Rivers added. “Case and their group, they have done an unbelievable job developing that kid.”
On paper, this is a game the Sixers should win. They have the better talent in Joel Embiid and James Harden, but Cunningham and the Pistons have been battling teams to the end. Their last matchup with the Brooklyn Nets was a big example of that where they led for a majority of the game.
“I think these teams are dangerous,” Rivers said. “You saw the Brooklyn game the other night, they were up the whole game. I think at the end of the year, when you’re out of the playoffs, what do you do? You play free and that’s what they’re doing and they play hard.”
The Sixers will have to keep their guard up and be ready for this matchup. These guys are NBA players too.
“These guys are competing for jobs for next year,” Rivers finished. “Some of these guys want to make sure that I’m part of the core that Detroit’s gonna build for next year. They have a nice young thing going on here and some guys wanna be part of that. So you gotta deal with that as well.”
This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!
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