Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nCunningham will be re-evaluated in two weeks, per the team, due to the left lung pneumothorax.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The franchise reportedly is unsure how much time the 24-year-old star will miss, with the first round of the NBA playoffs beginning April 18, but there is optimism he could be ready for the start of the postseason.<\/p>\n
Cunningham, the former No. 1 pick, is an MVP candidate and has led the Pistons to an Eastern Conference-best 49-19 record.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s averaging 24.5 points, 9.9 assists and 5.6 rebounds per game, and earlier this year made his second straight All-Star team.<\/p>\n
Cunningham last played Tuesday against the Wizards, exiting the game in the first quarter with what the team described as back spasms after diving for a loose ball.<\/p>\n
Should he not return during the regular season, Cunningham would fall short of the NBA\u2019s 65-game minimum to qualify for awards.<\/p>\n
His stats have him in the mix for NBA MVP, although he\u2019s a long shot to best heavy favourite and reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Thunder.<\/p>\n
If Cunningham is unable to return this season, it would be a massive blow for a franchise with a legitimate possibility of returning to its first NBA Finals since 2005 and winning its first playoff series since 2008.<\/p>\n
The Pistons have a 3 1\/2 game lead \u2014 four in the loss column \u2014 over the Celtics for the top seed in the East, and are five games ahead of the third-place Knicks.<\/p>\n
Cunningham, in his fifth season, guided the Pistons to their first playoff appearance in six seasons last year, falling to the Knicks in six games in a tense first-round series.<\/p>\n
The Pistons last won a playoff series in 2008, which proved to be the last of six straight runs to the Eastern Conference finals.<\/p>\n
They have lost five straight playoff series.<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on The New York Post<\/a>and was reproduced with permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pistons star Cade Cunningham suffered a \u201cmild\u201d collapsed lung that is expected to sideline him for an \u201cextended\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-551524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}