Cade Cunningham earns first-team All-NBA nod

Cade Cunningham was named to the 2025-26 All-NBA First Team on Sunday, giving the Detroit Pistons guard one of the league’s highest regular-season honors after a year in which Detroit returned to the playoffs. The NBA said the All-NBA teams were announced before Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on NBC and Peacock. Cunningham joined Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama on the first team, according to league announcements. Social media reaction from Pistons fans and NBA accounts quickly framed the selection as a milestone for both Cunningham and Detroit. ### Who made the first team with Cunningham? The NBA’s 2025-26 Kia All-NBA First Team included Cunningham, Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Wembanyama, according to the league’s announcement and posts cited by multiple outlets. The league said All-NBA voting is done by a 100-member media panel and that first-team votes are worth five points, second-team votes three and third-team votes one. (sports.yahoo.com) USA Today reported that Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic were unanimous first-team selections. Cunningham’s inclusion put him alongside three recent MVP-level regular-season anchors and Wembanyama, who has become one of the league’s central young stars. ### What did Cunningham do this season? Cunningham averaged 23.9 points, 9.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds in 64 games in 2025-26, according to Basketball-Reference and StatMuse season pages. (nba.com) Basketball-Reference also lists him as a two-time All-Star and notes he had previously made All-NBA in 2024-25. The 24-year-old former No. 1 overall pick has become Detroit’s lead ballhandler and primary offensive organizer. (usatoday.com) His assist average ranked among the clearest indicators of how much of the Pistons’ offense ran through him this season, based on the publicly posted season totals. ### Why did this land differently in Detroit? Detroit’s season gave Cunningham’s award a broader team context because the Pistons returned to the playoffs after a long absence. (basketball-reference.com) The card’s underlying briefing and local coverage tied the selection to the end of an 18-year playoff drought, and MLive documented Detroit’s first home playoff win since 2008 during the first round in April. Yahoo Sports also referenced Detroit’s 60-win season and said the Pistons were preparing for their second straight postseason appearance, while the NBA’s 2026 playoff hub lists Detroit among this year’s playoff field. Those markers helped explain why fan reaction treated Cunningham’s selection as both an individual award and a sign of the franchise’s rise. (mlive.com) ### What were fans saying after the announcement? Social media posts highlighted Cunningham as one of the NBA’s emerging faces and, in some fan commentary, Detroit’s best player since Isiah Thomas. The social briefing tied that reaction to posts published after the All-NBA teams were released. (sports.yahoo.com) Those reactions were not part of the league’s formal announcement, but they reflected how Cunningham’s season was being received outside official channels. Fans pointed to the combination of team success, usage and visibility that came with Detroit’s return to postseason relevance. (sports.yahoo.com) ### What comes next on the NBA awards calendar? The NBA said on May 21 that its Coach of the Year award would be announced on Tuesday, May 26, at 7:30 p.m. ET on Peacock before Game 5 of the Western Conference finals. The same league schedule said the All-Defensive Team and NBA Social Justice Champion award were also set for the following night. The playoffs are continuing while those awards are rolled out. (sports.yahoo.com) The NBA’s official postseason page says the 2026 conference finals remain underway, with the Knicks leading the Cavaliers in the East and the Thunder facing the Spurs in the West. (nba.com 1) (nba.com 2)