Knicks study Tom Thibodeau's plan to stop Pistons' Cade Cunningham

GREENBURGH — With a week before the start of the first-round playoff series the Knicks have put together film, crafted scouting reports in book form and plotted out every tendency, every contingency in the game plans that Tom Thibodeau has assembled.

And somewhere in there you can be certain is a plan on how to slow Cade Cunningham.

The Knicks boast one of the most heralded defensive coaches in the game and have three wings with size and versatility, all of the elements necessary to do the job. But during the regular season they didn’t, surrendering 30.8 points per game to the young Pistons star. So there is the challenge and the question.

How do the Knicks solve Cade?

“That’s a very good question,” Jalen Brunson said, smiling to the crowd of reporters as he added, "a very in-depth and strategic question that I don’t want to say with all these people here.”

“Thibs is a great coach,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “We know he puts the time into the craft. We trust him, he’s going to do everything in his power to put us out there with the best knowledge to move forward and have a way to win.”

The Knicks tried a variety of options to stop Cunningham during the season and the results weren’t great as Detroit won the last three meetings. Deuce McBride had little luck, giving up too much size to the 6-6 Cunningham and allowing him to connect on 11 of 15 shots. Cunningham was 7-for-11 against OG Anunoby and 8-for-21 against Mikal Bridges.

“I study his game,” Thibodeau said. “He’s done it against everybody. We know how good he is and we have to be ready for him.

“I think you have more time to prepare for a game so we have to study and we have to be prepared. You don’t study how you get ready to play. You just have more time to prepare for the opponent.”

Anunoby was rarely the primary defender against Cunningham and didn’t play in the final meeting during the last week of the regular season. But he is undoubtedly the Knicks' best defender and Cunningham is undoubtedly the motor that makes the Pistons go. So Thibodeau was asked if he would use Anunoby against him now.

“Oh we could,” Thibodeau said, leaning back in his chair and laughing. “When you have a great player like that, I don’t think you give him a steady diet of anything. You have to give him different looks, there’s going to be different matchups on him, but we understand we have to guard him with our team. It’s very difficult to guard guys of that stature individually. We have to do it collectively, “

"I mean, he’s a great player,” Towns said. “He’s had an amazing season. We know he’s special. So it’s our job to find a way to win with them having that special player.”

Cunningham is special and he brought the Pistons from 14 wins to 44 this season. And he likely will be rewarded with his first All-NBA honor. Cunningham has solid help on the Pistons roster but nothing like what Towns or Anunoby provide for Brunson.

“It’s very important,” Brunson said of slowing Cunningham. “Cade is a guy who makes a lot of decisions over there. It’s best if we don’t play him one-on-one. we have to have each other's back regardless. Obviously, you got to guard at the point of attack but we have to have each other’s back when he’s trying to get his game in the paint.

“He's been playing great. He's been playing as everyone's expected, and he's showing that ability. It's going to be a challenge, regardless, and he's playing at a high level. And we’ve just got to be ready.”

There is no other player on the Pistons who creates the way Cunningham does, working through screens to get in the paint where he is as efficient as Brunson. Long Island native Tobias Harris is a reliable veteran scorer and Malik Beasley played off Cunningham, draining 319 three-point field goals. Tim Hardaway Jr. is a threat and likely would enjoy putting a dent in the Knicks' postseason hopes after being traded away from New York years ago.

“Just executing,” Towns said of what’s next. “We had this week to prepare, come up with a great game plan offensively and defensively. We’ve just got to execute at the end of the day. In my experience the team that executes at a higher level wins the game.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.