Cade Cunningham & Jaylen Brown Make Shaquille O’Neal & Charles Barkley Do the Impossible: Agree

Eastern Conference stars Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown are surging up in the race for this season's MVP award.

Cade Cunningham & Jaylen Brown Make Shaquille O’Neal & Charles Barkley Do the Impossible: Agree

Cade Cunningham, Charles Barkley, Jaylen Brown, and Shaquille O'Neal (Image via FirstSportz)

In Short
  • Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown are emerging as top MVP candidates this season.
  • Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Victor Wembanyama face eligibility issues due to missed games.
  • Both players have garnered support from NBA legends Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley for the MVP race.

This season, Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham has surged ahead to become a viable MVP candidate. So has Jaylen Brown, who has emerged from behind Jayson Tatum‘s shadow.

It so happens that they are not the only ones in the mix, as Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, and Victor Wembanyama are also in the running. However, the last four have missed at least 11 games this season. The NBA’s 65-game rule predicates that to be eligible for end-of-season awards, players must not miss more than 17 games.

Jokic is 1 game away, Wemby 3, Doncic 5, and SGA 6. With more than 20 games remaining, any of them could fall victim to the rulebook, as injuries are not something anyone can predict. Even if they do not miss games, Cunningham and Brown have emerged as candidates who could wrench the MVP away from the other four ‘favorites.’ At least two Hall of Famers agree on this.

I agree with you. The two guys who should be the front-runners for MVP are Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown.

Charles Barkley said

After this, the Round Mound of Rebound asked Shaquille O’Neal why the latter felt that the Pistons star deserved it more than the 2024 Finals MVP.

I watched him the other day, and he has a complete game. He does everything right. Not mostly right, he does everything right all the time.

Shaquille O’Neal replied

Even though he placed Cade Cunningham above Jaylen Brown in the race, the two MVP candidates have managed to get the two Inside the NBA colleagues to agree, something they rarely do.

Another Inside the NBA showered praise on Cade Cunningham

Other than Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley, another Inside the NBA colleague agrees that Detroit Pistons superstar Cade Cunningham is proving people wrong

Cade Cunningham owns the New York Knicks. 42 and 9 at the Garden. It’s so fun to watch. The way he’s revived Detroit basketball is insane. He put the buffs on the day of the Draft and said he was going to do it. And then he’s doing it.

Draymond Green said on his namesake show

The Golden State Warriors star recalled how, during the Oklahoma State alum’s rookie season, he was chirping at the young guard. But instead of cowering away, Cunningham was surprised by the trash talk.

That to Draymond Green was an indication that the Pistons star was not one to lose his focus. That is why the 24-year-old has deservedly earned a signature shoe from Nike.

He has led the Pistons from obscurity to becoming the league’s second-best team. That is enough praise for a young star who did not want to get used to losing.

Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown are dominating

Last year, many felt that Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons had a fluke of a run, even though they were controversially denied a fair chance to defeat the New York Knicks in the first round.

Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown are ruling the East
Cade Cunningham and Jaylen Brown are ruling the East (Image via Marc D’Amico/X)

In the very next playoff series, Jayson Tatum tearing his Achilles allowed the Knicks to finish them off and move on to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Many felt that, along with departures of Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and Al Horford, the Celtics would genuinely struggle to stay with the remaining top teams in the East. Instead, those predictions have been thrown out of the window.

Surprisingly, Cade Cunningham’s Detroit Pistons and Jaylen Brown’s Boston Celtics are currently first and second in the East. After such performances, their odds of becoming this season’s MVP have to be sky high.

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