With Cade Cunningham firing on all cylinders throughout the season, the Detroit Pistons have emerged as a major force in the current campaign. They currently lead the Eastern Conference with a 49–19 record. A similar uptrend has been evident with the Toronto Raptors, who finished 11th in the East last season, but currently sit in 5th with a 38-29 record.
However, for former Toronto head coach Sam Mitchell, the Raptors may be even more talented than the Pistons, according to a post on X by Omar Osman, despite both teams’ current records.
Sam Mitchell says the Toronto Raptors may have more talent than the first-seeded Detroit Pistons overall 👀:
“You think about Cade Cunningham, who’s his second best player?”
“Look at the Raptors. You got Scotty Barnes and Bey. They’re your 2 best players.”
“You see… pic.twitter.com/zzr39iikJR
– Omer Osman (@OmerOsman200) 18 March 2026
“You think about Cade Cunningham, who’s their second best player? Look at the Raptors. You got Scotty Barnes and BI. Those are your 2 best players,” he said during his appearance on TSN, citing the huge gap between the Pistons’ best and second best players.
This may be understandable since Cunningham is the only Pistons player averaging more than twenty points per game, with Duncan Robinson, who is going at 19 points per game, the only other player averaging more than 15 points a pop. In comparison, the Raptors have a more balanced offensive engine, with RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes averaging more than 15 points per game.
“You look at the center position. Jakob Poeltl and Duren? About the same. So if you look at this Raptors team, and you look at what players have accomplished on the Raptors, you can argue that the Raptors might be a better team in terms of talent than Detroit,” Mitchell concluded.
Of course, Mitchell has a point considering that the Raptors are hardly viewed as favorites to make it out of the Eastern Conference. Detroit has an offensive engine that relies heavily on Cunningham.
However, they still went 5-2 without their main man and fans will argue that their scoring is actually a result of the extremely physical bad-boys-throwback type of basketball they have adopted under JB Bickerstaff. This has resulted in an impressive 25-8 home record this season, which can only be expected to extend into the playoffs.
#Toronto #coach #enthuses #Pistons #comparison
