Detroit Pistons are being cautious with Cade Cunningham’s ankle injury

Detroit Pistons head coach Dwane Casey passed on discouraging noise on first overall pick Cade Cunningham and his ankle he twisted in training camp.

Rod Beard of Detroit News reported that Casey said there’s no exact timeline yet, and caution is going to be essential.  The initial report was that the injury was a minor tweak and nothing to be concerned about for the Detroit Pistons’ first overall pick.

Now, the team is either being cautious, or the injury is worse than initially diagnosed. Here’s Beard’s tweet that was released about the matter.

The good news is that he is still going through shooting drills, so it should not hold him out for an extended period of time. However, with any rookie, any loss of development time is never a good thing.

The Detroit Pistons are taking the cautious route with Cade Cunningham.

The preseason practices would have been an excellent tool for Cunningham to build chemistry with veterans and Isiah Stewart, who did not play in the Summer League. Building rapport will be important for a facilitator like Cunningham to play up to his potential, especially with his pick and roll partners Kelly Olynyk and Isiah Stewart.

Additionally, with any time off, Cunningham won’t be able to pick right back up where he left off. Hopefully, this is just some rust he will need to knock off and not impact his long-term development.

Unfortunately, we may not see Cade Cunningham’s Pistons debut on Wednesday in their preseason opener. The good news is this does not seem like an injury that will hold him out or affect his play for an extended period of time.

It seems like the Pistons are being overly cautious with their newest asset, which seems wise as Cunningham is the future of the team, and the Pistons won’t be competitive in 2021 quite yet.

As fans, it dampens the excitement for the start of the season, but fans should still be as excited as July 29th when the Pistons selected their face of the franchise.