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Cade Cunningham Detroit Pistons

Detroit Pistons superstar Cade Cunningham received two first-place votes for the league MVP award, coming in fifth place in total votes.

The MVP award was given to Oklahoma City Thunder superstar guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the second straight season on Sunday night, a deserved honor for the Canadian after he led the Thunder to the league’s best record, while finishing second in scoring. He earned the award, and no one is doubting that the voters got it right.

That being said, not everyone agrees that SGA should have been first for the honor. Indeed, when the voting totals were released by the NBA on Sunday night, there were actually four players who received first-place votes: SGA, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, and the Pistons’ best player, Cunningham.

Cade Cunningham Gets MVP Love

Taking a look at the NBA’s MVP voting totals, you can see that Cunningham finished in fifth place for the honor with 117 total votes. That includes two first-place votes, one second-place vote, three third-place votes, 11 fourth-place votes, and 42 fifth-place votes.

Take a look at the complete voting totals below.

For Cunningham, this is the second straight year that he has received MVP votes, as he finished in seventh place in MVP voting last season. His Pistons finished in first place in the Eastern Conference this season, so it makes sense why the voters were so bullish on him this year.

That being said, it’s still a bit surprising that Cunningham received two first-place votes when it appeared that SGA, Jokic, and Wembanyama were the clear frontrunners for the award. Then again, there is a reason why there are 100 different media members who vote on the award, as there are different opinions shared by so many different people who watch the game. In the end, SGA won it, and deservedly so, but Cunningham’s confidence will get a boost with these two first-place votes.

Pistons Playing Cavaliers in Game 7

On Sunday night, not long after Cunningham learned he got MVP votes, the Pistons took the court at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a winner-take-all Game 7. For Cunningham, this is a great opportunity to prove those voters who gave him first-place MVP votes right in that he’s one of the NBA’s elite players. If the Pistons can take out the Cavs, they will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against the New York Knicks, who have been resting up for the past week since they swept the Philadelphia 76ers.

Should the Pistons make it to the ECF against the Knicks, they’ll have the chance to win four games and then go back to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2005, when they lost in the NBA Finals to the San Antonio Spurs. The last time the Pistons won the NBA Championship was in 2004, back in the days of Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace, and Richard Hamilton. This Pistons squad has a much different look now, but with Cunningham leading the way, they have a chance to win another chip.