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It all began at the Olympic training center in Colorado Springs, Colo., more than six years ago.
Jalen Duren, 15 at the time, was on the main court getting up some late-night shots. He was on his way to joining the U.S. U16 men’s basketball team, having just arrived earlier in the day. He was looking to sharpen his jumper ahead of the first full day of training camp.
As Duren worked up a sweat looking to fine-tune his shot, he heard someone yell, “Damn, that sh– looks like it hurts!”
The voice belonged to someone he had never met before. It was Cade Cunningham, 17 at the time and in town with the U19 national team. Little did Cunningham know he was joking with someone who would become his future Detroit Pistons teammate and, more importantly, a close friend.
Their friendship has blossomed since that interaction. It’s been the basis of the Pistons’ climb in the Eastern Conference standings through the first quarter of the 2025-26 season.
Cunningham, 24, has elevated himself from his first All-NBA selection last season to hearing his name thrown around in MVP conversations. For Duren, a fourth-year leap has cemented the 22-year-old in the Most Improved Player race. If he sustains his early-season level of production, he could garner All-Star attention come February, where he’d likely join Cunningham in Los Angeles.
Duren is averaging a career-best 19.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game. He’s expanded his game offensively, taking opposing bigs off the dribble and occasionally mixing in midrange jumpers. Cunningham is on pace for career highs in points (27.6), assists (9.2), rebounds (6.5) and steals (1.5).
The synergy the pair has developed has become a key component in Detroit’s resurgence over the past 13 months. So, what allows them to click on the court? It traces back to the amount of time they spend together away from basketball.
Last summer, Cunningham coordinated an “off-the-grid” week in Colorado with friends that Duren felt broadened his horizons. The group stayed in small cabins with few modern amenities and spent time in nature, training, hiking and fishing.
“He opens my eyes to different things,” Duren told The Athletic. “The Colorado (trip), I would’ve never done that. (We’re) literally outside, in the woods, only one TV in the main cabin. (There were) bugs, little ass mattresses. I would’ve never done that (on my own). … I feel like that’s what you need in your friend or homie.
“Someone who’s elevating your mindset and encouraging you to grow.”
Their trip to Colorado further exposed Duren to the way Cunningham’s mind works.
“With him, it’s like you can always learn something, you know what I mean?” Duren said. “He’s passionate about a lot of different things outside of basketball. So I find myself learning all types of stuff. We talk about history, we talk about everything. He’s very intellectual.”
Colorado served as a brainstorming session for where they wanted to travel on their next trip. The two decided to head to Rome a month later.
“Us traveling and going overseas, we were seeing so much new stuff all the time,” Cunningham told The Athletic. “I think us being tourists together was a pretty cool experience. … They’ve got B.C. stuff, just all over the place. Stuff you can ride up on and touch almost, which is crazy.”
Duren and Cunningham spent two weeks in Rome. Their hoop shoes got caught at customs, limiting their on-court work and forcing them to work out in store-bought running shoes.
They toured the ancient Roman Colosseum, biked around the city and spent time on the water, sightseeing and shopping. When they did get in the gym, it was at the Stella EBK Basketball Academy Rome, where a summer camp was being held for kids. Cunningham and Duren were easily recognizable to the younger hoopers.
“Seeing the amount of love that we (got), just all the kids being like, ‘Man, we got NBA players in here working out.’” Cunningham said.
“Us being able to travel the world and seeing how far our games had traveled — it’s special, you know? So, us doing that together, I think it was cool.”
Such summer excursions started even before the Pistons broke their 17-year playoff drought last spring. In the 2024 offseason, after Detroit had a franchise-worst 14 wins and set a single-season record with a “depressing” 28-game losing streak, Cunningham made a call to his big man that changed the way they’d each attack the summer.
“I was like, ‘Nah, I need you to come to my city,’” Cunningham said.
Duren remembers traveling to Dallas, roughly 21 miles from where Cunningham grew up in Arlington, Texas, to better understand his point guard as a person.
They played in open runs together, Duren got acquainted with Cunningham’s family — from his older brother Cannen, to his cousin and trainer Ashton Bennings, to Cunningham’s parents — and the time they invested in each other set the precedent for what is becoming a tradition.
“He’s just a genuine person,” Duren said when reflecting on his time in Dallas. “He comes from a great family, a great foundation. I think I share the same. … Even outside of basketball, if I were to put the basketball down tomorrow, that would still be my guy. I’d still reach out to him and kick it with him.”
Duren took inspiration from former New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman to make these summer trips routine. Edelman once explained he sought out Tom Brady, his quarterback and five-time Super Bowl MVP, in the offseason to develop a deeper chemistry on the field.
“It was like, ‘Damn, maybe I should start doing that,’” Duren said. “I started just asking (Cunningham), ‘Yo bro, you got a week for me? Wherever you’re going to be, I’ll just pull up.’ Like, I take care of my crib and all of that. You know, as long as we’ve got a gym, we’re going to make it work.
“So we did, and since then it’s just grown into the trips and what it is now.”
Duren has tailored the past two summers to spend at least a few weeks with Cunningham. It’s a mutual effort, though. Cunningham made time this summer to travel to “Jalen Duren Day” in the Philadelphia suburb of Sharon Hill, Pa. It’s an annual community event Duren puts on at Ramblers Field to help enrich the youth in his hometown. Cunningham, along with his Pistons teammates Ausar Thompson and Paul Reed, were there to support Duren.
Both Duren and Cunningham believe their time spent in the offseason has contributed not only to their individual starts but also to Detroit’s ability to maintain the top seed in the East.
“Everything was organic,” Duren said of their trip to Rome. “We were able to see the world together, create new experiences together, make memories and build that chemistry and camaraderie. So now we come back (to Detroit), and it just carries over to the court.”
It has also helped improve communication between the pair, especially in difficult conversations.
“We can talk to each other in intense, high-pressure situations,” Duren said. “If he feels like I’m f—— up, he can come tell me in any way that he feels is necessary, and I won’t take it a certain way. And I feel like I can talk to him.”
One area in which Cunningham and Duren have an unspoken understanding is in pick-and-roll actions, which Detroit head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has heavily implemented into the Pistons’ game plan.
Per NBA.com, Cunningham’s 183 points as the pick-and-roll ball handler are third in the association to only NBA Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Donovan Mitchell. Duren’s 68 points as the pick-and-roll roll man trails only Nikola Vučević and DeAndre Ayton. Duren is tied with three-time MVP Nikola Jokić for the third spot.
To take their connection a step further, Cunningham’s 41 assists to Duren are more than he has to any other teammate this season. Duren’s nine assists to Cunningham are more than Cunningham has gotten from any of his teammates. Their two-man net rating of 14.3 is the highest of many Detroit players who have played at least 400 minutes together thus far this season.
Bickerstaff is aware of just how much their chemistry propels the Pistons forward in the half court.
“They’ve developed an understanding of how to help one another,” Bickerstaff said last month. “Their pick-and-roll game is elite, and (they have an) understanding (of) how different defenses cover it. They have the nuance to say, ‘OK, now, I’m going to slip this screen, or now I’m going to set this screen.’
“They read each other, they don’t have to have a conversation about it. They see what’s happening, and then on the spot, they can make those quick decisions.”
Both Cunningham and Duren still have room for growth, and with their youth and chemistry, they have the potential to become the best guard-big duo in the league. While Cunningham is under contract in Detroit through 2030, Duren will be a restricted free agent next summer and is playing his way into a potential nine-figure contract. On media day, however, Duren said he wanted to spend his career in Detroit and told The Athletic he hopes Cunningham will be his point guard “for the rest of his career.”
For now, they’re both on pace for career years and have yet to peak, and they’ve helped morph the Pistons from the NBA’s laughingstock to a team the league has to take seriously.
“(These trips) have just tied into us sticking together, us having each other’s backs,” Cunningham said. “And pushing each other to be great.
“We can only help each other get better. We can only help each other get to that point. So, (it’s) really just about us being brothers and having each other’s backs. I think that’s all you can ask for, and we’ll take care of the rest on the court.”
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Hunter Patterson is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Detroit Pistons. Before joining the NBA staff, Hunter was an editor on The Athletic’s news desk and provided occasional Sacramento Kings coverage. Prior to The Athletic, he worked for the NBA as a broadcasting assistant. Hunter graduated from Loyola Marymount University and earned his master’s degree in Specialized Journalism at the University of Southern California.
