Cade Cunningham

Cunningham went first overall in 2021 into a rebuild that took four years to turn, and 2025-26 was the season it did: 23.9 points, 9.9 assists and 5.5 rebounds on 46.1 percent shooting across 64 games, a No. 1 seed in the East at 60-22, and fifth place in MVP voting. Two All-Star selections and two All-NBA teams have followed. Detroit lost to Cleveland in the conference semifinals, which is the part still missing. What separates him from other high-usage guards is the assist number attached to that scoring load — he runs an offense rather than simply finishing one. He also added 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks a night, unusual for a guard carrying that much of the creation burden.