The San Antonio Spurs should move on from Dante Cunningham
By Andrew Ites
Now that he has fallen out of the rotation and been ineffective all year long, it’s time for the San Antonio Spurs to get rid of Dante Cunningham.
The San Antonio Spurs signed Dante Cunningham to a one-year, $2.5 million deal this offseason to provide some versatility off the bench.
Cunningham has been able to shift between small forward and power forward roles throughout his career, and he’s had some solid seasons throughout his 10-year career.
However, he’s been just short of a disaster this year in San Antonio and it’s time for the Spurs to move on from him before the season is over.
Cunningham currently ranks 77th out of 88 qualifying small forwards in real plus-minus this season. And despite hitting 30 of his 62 three-point attempts this year, he ranks 69th among small forwards in offensive real plus-minus.
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The veteran forward has seen his minutes reduced to mostly garbage time recently, but he’s still a member of San Antonio’s lineup with the second-most minutes played this season.
That lineup includes LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan, Bryn Forbes, and Rudy Gay, and it is a -4.4 in nearly 169 minutes.
In fact, Cunningham is a common thread in most of the Spurs’ least effective lineups as three out of the four most played lineups that include him have a significantly negative point differential this season.
Cunningham’s presence on the team is still costing San Antonio some money this year, and it’s preventing young players like Lonnie Walker and Chimezie Metu from seeing much playing time.
While Walker and Metu have not been good at the NBA level as rookies, getting them some live minutes is much more beneficial to the organization than trotting Cunningham out there every once in a while.
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The Spurs have already shown they’re willing to cut a veteran with their recent buyout of Pau Gasol, and I think they should do the same with Dante Cunningham in the near future.