Obviously we all knew about the collapsed lung, what I didn’t know about was the fractured rib suffered in the same incident.
How a collapsed lung added to Cade Cunningham’s superstar trajectory
Full article at link.
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“I thought Cade was an absolute warrior,” Langdon said. “I certainly haven’t gone through a collapsed lung. I can’t imagine many people in this room have, especially a collapsed lung and fractured ribs at the same time and really getting no ramp up going into the most intense part of the season. He played three games. When you have a collapsed lung you can’t do anything for 7-10 days. You’re sitting on the couch and you’re making sure that you’re just relaxing. That decondition just happens and it’s deconditioning at the exact wrong time of the year when you’re heading into the playoffs, and especially with what we ask from him.
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Cunningham averaged 28.1 points, 7.5 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 40.2% from 3 during the playoffs. His already-heavy regular season workload increased further, all while he was still working his way back from missing three weeks of action in March and April with an injured rib and lung.
Langdon stressed the deconditioning aspect of Cunningham’s recovery, as collapsed lungs necessitate rest to properly heal. As his peers ramped up for postseason play, he was instructed to keep his heart rate low. Cardio carried the risk of his lung re-collapsing, which would’ve further prolonged his return.
With just three regular season games to get his wind and conditioning back, Cunningham hit the ground running in the playoffs. He opened the series against the Orlando Magic with 39 points and was one of the top all-around performers of the postseason.
It works. When I’m looking to level up in life the first thing I do is collapse one of my lungs.
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He’s going to win a championship here if he gets the right help around him. He’s a special player.
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Yep. This year he proved he’s a true Championsip level Alpha. Now the question is do you go for the find a Robin approach or do you build a team around him with a deeper assortment of fairly high end options? Kind of a fascinating fork in the road tbh.
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Gun to my head this strikes me as the wrong approach. Man if Ausur can just develop a jumper I think he can be Pippen to Cade’s Jordan. Each is not going to be at that level of course but I think there is a legit high end 1-2 with patience and the proper development.
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Giannis is going to OKC.
Holmgren’s play, lack off, guaranteed that. Add in OKC has a surplus of trade options that others can’t match.
Trade for Chet then. Buy low.
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That would actually be a great idea.
A lineup of Cade, Ausar, Giannis, and Duren would have the least spacing of any championship team in a long time. I don’t care who your 2 guard is.
By the way, we’d certainly have to trade Duren to get Giannis, which leaves us with a hole at center, and it still doesn’t solve our ball handling or shooting problems.
I was all in on the Giannis train until I actually thought out what our roster would look like with him versus with someone else at the 2 like Kyrie or Trey Murphy.
Every team has their robin. Pistons the last team that didn’t have a super star, but really great players. It would be nice if Cade could do a LeBron and get two SS for a year or two. Oh wait pistons got f with wemby
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Championship teams’ “Robin” players:
2026 SA/NY: Stephon Castle / Karl Anthony-Towns
2025 OKC: Jalen Williams
2024 BOS: Jaylen Brown
2023 DEN: Jamal Murray
2022 GS: Klay Thompson / Draymond Green
2021 MIL: Khris Middleton
2020 LAL: Anthony Davis
2019 TOR: Pascal Siakam
2018 GS: Kevin Durant
2017 GS: Kevin Durant
2016 CLE: Kyrie Irving
2015 GS: Klay Thompson
2014 SA: Tim Duncan / Tony Parker
2013 MIA: Dwayne Wade
2012 MIA: Dwayne Wade
2011 DAL: Jason Kidd
2010 LAL: Pau Gasol
2009 LAL: Pau Gasol
2008 BOS: Kevin Garnett
2007 SA: Tony Parker
2006 MIA: Shaquille O’Neil
2005 SA: Tony Parker
2004 DET: Ben Wallace / Rip Hamilton
Very few centers on that list, which is interesting.
But those players are definitely all better than Tobias Harris.
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