Cade Cunningham has officially been ruled out for the Detroit Pistons’ season-opening game against the Chicago Bulls at Little Caesars Arena, according to media reports.
Cunningham missed all of preseason with an ankle injury and has gotten minimal practice time in training camp. For its part, Dwane Casey and the team have said the injury is nothing serious and that they were being extremely cautious to ensure the prized No. 1 pick returned only when completely healthy.
Casey has also mentioned he would prefer to get Cunningham practice time before putting him back into the lineup.
The news is a bummer if not entirely unexpected, and I still see no reason to think the injury is anything more than a typical ankle sprain. That doesn’t make it any easier on the fans who bought tickets to a home-opener hoping to get the first official glimpse of Cunningham in a Pistons uniform.
The Pistons have a three-game road trip after the home opener, so the next chance Pistons fans will have to see him in person at the team’s home arena is Oct. 30 against the Orlando Magic.
There is no official timetable from the team nor any explicit evaluation or re-evaluation process that has been given. When he’s ready, he’s ready. So … uhhhh …. when will he be ready?
Your guess is as good as mine.