Cade Cunningham vs. Joel Embiid Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Joel Embiid and Cade Cunningham, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Cade Cunningham played 5 years in the NBA, 5 less than Joel Embiid, who played 10. Cade Cunningham had the first of his seasons in 2021-22, while Joel Embiid had his rookie season in 2016-17. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Cade Cunningham	Joel Embiid
Season	2021-22	2016-17
Team	Detroit Pistons	Philadelphia 76ers
Honors & Awards	All-Rookie First Team	All-Rookie First Team
Playoffs	Did Not Play	Did Not Play

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	64	32.6	17.4	0.9	4.6	5.5	5.6	1.2	0.7	3.7	3.1	6.7	16.1	.416	1.8	5.7	.314	2.2	2.6	.845
difference:	+33	+7.2	+2.8	+1.1	+1.3	+2.3	+3.5	+0.3	+1.8	-0.1	-0.5	+0.2	+2.3	+.050	+0.6	+2.5	+.053	+4.0	+5.3	+.062
Joel Embiid	31	25.4	20.2	2.0	5.9	7.8	2.1	0.9	2.5	3.8	3.6	6.5	13.8	.466	1.2	3.2	.367	6.2	7.9	.783
Playoffs Stats
* Neiher Cade Cunningham nor Joel Embiid played in the postseason in their season 1

Season 2
	Cade Cunningham	Joel Embiid
Season	2022-23	2017-18
Team	Detroit Pistons	Philadelphia 76ers
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA Second Team
	-	All-Defensive Second Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Did Not Play	76ers Lost East Conf Semis

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2nd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	12	33.3	19.9	1.0	5.2	6.2	6.0	0.8	0.6	3.3	2.8	7.8	18.7	.415	1.4	5.1	.279	3.0	3.6	.837
difference:	+51	+3.0	+3.0	+1.3	+3.5	+4.8	+2.8	+0.2	+1.2	-0.4	-0.5	+0.3	+1.9	+.068	+0.4	+1.7	+.029	+2.7	+3.8	+.068
Joel Embiid	63	30.3	22.9	2.3	8.7	11.0	3.2	0.6	1.8	3.7	3.3	8.1	16.8	.483	1.0	3.4	.308	5.7	7.4	.769
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Joel Embiid	8	34.8	21.4	2.9	9.8	12.6	3.0	0.9	1.8	3.6	3.9	7.5	17.3	.435	1.0	3.6	.276	5.4	7.6	.705

Season 3
	Cade Cunningham	Joel Embiid
Season	2023-24	2018-19
Team	Detroit Pistons	Philadelphia 76ers
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA Second Team
	-	All-Defensive Second Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Did Not Play	76ers Lost East Conf Semis

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3rd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	62	33.5	22.7	0.5	3.8	4.3	7.5	0.9	0.4	3.4	2.5	8.5	18.8	.449	1.9	5.4	.355	3.8	4.4	.869
difference:	+2	+0.2	+4.8	+2.0	+7.3	+9.3	+3.8	+0.2	+1.5	-0.1	-0.8	+0.6	+0.1	+.035	+0.7	+1.3	+.055	+4.4	+5.7	+.065
Joel Embiid	64	33.7	27.5	2.5	11.1	13.6	3.7	0.7	1.9	3.5	3.3	9.1	18.7	.484	1.2	4.1	.300	8.2	10.1	.804
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Joel Embiid	11	30.4	20.2	1.9	8.5	10.5	3.4	0.7	2.3	3.6	3.1	6.2	14.5	.428	1.1	3.5	.308	6.7	8.2	.822

Season 4
	Cade Cunningham	Joel Embiid
Season	2024-25	2019-20
Team	Detroit Pistons	Philadelphia 76ers
Honors & Awards	All-NBA Third Team	-
	All-Star Game	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Pistons Lost East Conf 1st Rd	76ers Lost East Conf 1st Rd

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4th Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	70	35.0	26.1	0.8	5.3	6.1	9.1	1.0	0.8	4.4	2.8	9.8	20.8	.469	2.1	6.0	.356	4.5	5.3	.846
difference:	+19	+5.5	+3.1	+2.0	+3.6	+5.5	+6.1	+0.1	+0.5	-1.3	-0.6	+2.3	+5.1	+.008	+1.0	+2.6	+.025	+2.4	+3.2	+.039
Joel Embiid	51	29.5	23.0	2.8	8.9	11.6	3.0	0.9	1.3	3.1	3.4	7.5	15.7	.477	1.1	3.4	.331	6.9	8.5	.807
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	6	41.3	25.0	1.0	7.3	8.3	8.7	1.8	1.3	5.3	3.3	9.2	21.5	.426	0.8	4.7	.179	5.8	7.0	.833
difference:	+2	+5.0	+5.0	+1.8	+2.2	+4.0	+7.4	+0.3		-1.5	-1.2	+0.7	+3.0	+.033	+0.2	+0.7	+.071	+6.2	+7.8	+.019
Joel Embiid	4	36.3	30.0	2.8	9.5	12.3	1.3	1.5	1.3	3.8	4.5	8.5	18.5	.459	1.0	4.0	.250	12.0	14.8	.814

Season 5
	Cade Cunningham	Joel Embiid
Season	2025-26	2020-21
Team	Detroit Pistons	Philadelphia 76ers
Honors & Awards	-	All-NBA Second Team
	-	All-Defensive Second Team
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Did Not Play	76ers Lost East Conf Semis

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5th Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	23	35.8	27.1	1.3	4.7	6.0	9.2	1.5	0.8	3.7	3.3	9.4	20.6	.457	2.1	6.4	.327	6.3	7.5	.832
difference:	+28	+4.7	+1.4	+0.9	+3.7	+4.6	+6.4	+0.5	+0.6	-0.6	-0.9	+0.4	+3.0	+.056	+1.0	+3.4	+.050	+2.9	+3.2	+.027
Joel Embiid	51	31.1	28.5	2.2	8.4	10.6	2.8	1.0	1.4	3.1	2.4	9.0	17.6	.513	1.1	3.0	.377	9.2	10.7	.859
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Cade Cunningham	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Joel Embiid	11	32.5	28.1	1.5	9.1	10.5	3.4	1.0	1.5	3.8	3.0	9.2	17.9	.513	1.5	3.7	.390	8.3	9.9	.835

Additional Years
* Joel Embiid played 5 seasons more than Cade Cunningham in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 6 to 10, from 2022 to 2026—Joel Embiid played in 3 Playoffs. In those 5 extra years over Cade Cunningham, Joel Embiid got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	1 Season MVP 1 All-NBA First Team 1 All-NBA Second Team 2 Scoring Leader 3 All-Star Game