Much has been written over the past few weeks regarding the All-Star Game's decline in entertainment value due to the lack of effort put forth by the players involved. However, no one can ever say that Cade Cunningham and Team USA Stars teammate Jalen Duren, the Detroit Pistons' representatives for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, ever refused to give their all for even just a second spent on the court.
Neither of them will win MVP honors for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, but The Ringer's Zach Lowe and Bill Simmons both credited the Pistons' star duo for being true competitors for the love of the game.
"I thought the people of Detroit really cared and that's why the game was good," Simmons said on Sunday night's edition of The Bill Simmons Podcast.
"That's what you love about the Pistons," Lowe said. “The fight against Charlotte is their downside, but the upside of who they are, they legitimately want to beat you to the bone and harass you physically, and touch you and they want to leave you.”
All systems go for the Pistons for a deep 2026 playoff run?
The Pistons got a taste of postseason action in 2025, losing in six games to the New York Knicks in the first round. But now, they've gone even further, emerging as one of the toughest teams to beat on a nightly basis in the NBA.
Detroit just wants to swallow its opponents whole, and it's the intensity on the defensive end that makes it very suffocating to play against. And both Cunningham and Duren set the tone for Team Stars, which certainly played a role in defeating Team Stripes 47-21 in the final game of the night.
