At this stage in the 2024-2025 NBA season, Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham is expected to land his first All-Star big. Through two fan vote returns, Cunningham has landed in the top ten for Eastern Conference backcourt voting.

However, he dropped from sixth to seventh, according to last week’s results. Despite putting together a career-season, while helping the Pistons make a tremendous jump after last year’s 14-68 campaign, Cunningham isn’t guaranteed to get into the All-Star game the fan votes account for half of the overall voting.

NBA Insider Vince Goodwill is not only convinced that Cunningham is an All-Star this season—but he believes the Pistons guard should be getting consideration to be a starter coming out of the East. On Yahoo Sports’ ‘Good Word,’ Goodwill stated his case.

“I believe Cade Cunningham is an All-Star starter this year. Carrying a franchise that this time last year was like 3-36. Now, they are above .500, where the major additions are an older Tobias Harris, Tim Hardaway Jr, and Malik Beasley. The common denominator in this has been Cade Cunningham.”

Before the Pistons fired up this week’s slate, they held a 20-19 record. On Monday night, the Pistons went into Madison Square Garden and defeated the New York Knicks for the second time this season on the road. Cunningham had another stellar performance on one of the NBA’s biggest stages.

In 32 minutes, Cunningham made 52 percent of his attempts from the field to score 36 points. He dished out four assists and came down with two rebounds. The Pistons picked up a five-point victory, collecting their seventh win in eight games.

Since the start of the new year, Cunningham has averaged 27 points, eight assists, and six rebounds while knocking down 46 percent of his threes.

Looking at his overall season, Goodwill claims that Cunningham’s ability to lift his franchise and find himself consistently in the conversation with active and retired NBA legends should be enough to have the edge over a player like Jalen Brunson, who posts similar stat lines but does it with a more notable supporting cast.

In 36 games, Cunningham has posted an average of 25 points, seven rebounds, and nine assists.