Alright, let’s talk about Cade Cunningham’s rookie season. I actually spent a good chunk of time following him that year, kinda made it a personal project, you know?
It started with all the draft hype. Number one pick, gonna turn the Pistons around overnight, the usual stuff they say. I figured, okay, let’s actually watch this kid and see what’s what, beyond just the highlights.
My Process Watching Cade
So, my routine kicked off. I made it a point to catch as many Pistons games as I could. Not always glamorous, those games weren’t exactly nail-biters most nights back then. But my goal wasn’t just cheering, it was watching Cade specifically.
- Observing the Start: Man, he had a rough beginning after missing some time. Shots weren’t falling, looked a bit hesitant. The online chatter was brutal, people calling him a bust after like, five games. Crazy.
- Tracking Stuff: I wasn’t doing super deep analytics or anything, but I did keep simple notes. Just tracking his shooting percentages, turnovers, assists. Seeing how things changed game to game. It was basic, just pen and paper sometimes, or a simple note on my phone.
- Looking for Improvement: Instead of freaking out about the bad games, my whole thing was looking for the small steps. Better reads in the pick and roll? More confidence driving? Handling the double teams? That’s the stuff I focused on watching.
Why Bother? A Bit of Background
You might wonder why I’d spend time doing this for some rookie on a losing team. Well, I got burned out years ago by the instant hot takes. I remember following another high draft pick, won’t name names, and I bought into all the negativity early on when he struggled. Felt pretty dumb later when he figured things out.
So, with Cade, it was my little exercise in patience. Just watch the player, watch the games, filter out the noise. It became less about Cade himself and more about proving to myself I could just observe without reacting to every little thing.
Collecting a Few Things Too
Part of the process, just for fun, was grabbing a few of his rookie cards. Nothing fancy, no graded stuff that costs a fortune. Just base cards, maybe an insert here and there. It was like a physical reminder of the season I was tracking. Something tangible.
What Came Out Of It
At the end of the season, seeing him pull it together, playing with that poise everyone expected, hitting big shots, making the All-Rookie First Team… it felt good. Not because I’m some genius scout, far from it. It just reinforced my little experiment: patience pays off when watching young players.
It’s easy to get caught up in instant analysis these days. My whole practice with Cade’s rookie year was just about slowing down, watching the game play out, and forming my own read based on actually watching. Simple as that, really. Just watching basketball and trying not to jump to conclusions five minutes in. It made following his journey way more interesting than just reading headlines.
