Starting Pistons center Isaiah Stewart has emerged as a key leader for a rebuilding 9-28 Detroit team this season, writes James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Edwards notes that the third-year big man, still just 21 years old, has become the team’s de facto main presence with star point guard Cade Cunningham shelved indefinitely.
“I’ve been sitting back and just seeing his growth, his progress on the floor and as a leader,” journeyman Detroit shooting guard Rodney McGruder told Edwards. “He’s being more vocal in the locker room, on the bench, in timeouts and in huddles.”
McGruder has spoken with Stewart about being more careful not to show frustration or disappointment on the court during games.
“For me, personally, that’s another growth step in regards to not showing that body language,” Stewart told Edwards. “I do feel like that kind of helped me in terms of learning how to talk to my teammates. You can talk to a certain teammate a certain way, other teammates you can’t talk to a certain way. That aspect has helped me.”
Through 30 games in 2022/23, Stewart is averaging a career-best 11.7 PPG on .467/.373/.742 shooting splits. He is also pulling down 7.8 RPG and dishing out 1.2 APG.
There’s more out of the Central Division:
- The health of reserve Pacers center Daniel Theis appears to be improving as he continues to rehabilitate from a preseason knee scope, notes Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link). The 6’8″ big man was spotted working through on-court shootarounds, per Jeremiah Johnson of Bally Sports Indiana (via Twitter).
- The Bucks‘ 139-118 blowout Christmas loss to the Celtics looked a lot like last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Nehm notes that Boston was frequently able to free up All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum for exploitable mismatches on offense. “He had a big night of tough shot-making and, at some point, it’s on me to maybe change it up, give him a different look, but credit to Jayson tonight,” Milwaukee head coach Mike Budenholzer said of Tatum, who scored 41 points in the Celtics’ win.
- In Wednesday’s 119-113 overtime Bulls victory over the Bucks, Chicago All-Star DeMar DeRozan took exception to a hard forearm in his back courtesy of Milwaukee shooting guard Grayson Allen, and there was a brief dust-up with play stopped. After the game, both DeRozan and Zach LaVine alluded to Allen’s reputation for borderline plays, per Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago. Though video review indicated that Bulls forward Patrick Williams initially fouled Allen, who then fell into DeRozan, Chicago’s stars remained frustrated. “I didn’t know if it was on purpose or what happened,” DeRozan said. “I just felt a hit. That’s all it was.” LaVine weighed in as well: “We know his (Allen’s) track record. Pat got the foul, but DeMar got elbowed in the back of the head. It is what it is. We made up for it with a big win. DeMar responded the right way. The next 20 minutes, you saw what happened.”
Mavs can do Bulluck, Powell and Josh Green for DeRozan.
Bulls will take Luka for Caruso probably
Why would the Bulls make that abortion of a trade? SMH
I’m sure they can. The question is with how many first round picks attached?
The league needs to sit Allen down. I don’t think he gets it. This is about playing ball.
Stewart to me is an old school 4. He and Duren can make make a nice big combo. Both athletic and tough. And still young plenty of upside.
If you actually watch Grayson Allen play defense, he does little things which players find annoying similar to Draymond Green. These two both have high basketball IQ’s and find ways to compensate for their lack of athleticism. The difference is Allen has been labeled a dirty player since the tripping incident at Duke while Draymond is lauded by the media for the same behavior. Dennis Rodman and Bill Lambeer played similar styles and both are considered good players in their eras.
IMO the media and fans need to either praise all players who play this style of defense or vilify them.
I would agree for the most part. The only difference between allen and green (from a fans perspective) is I feel like Dray has dirty plays when hes getting smoked and losing, allen almost feels like hes targeting people. But I 100% agree that they should both get the same amount of criticism from media/fans.
No no no. Dre does cross the line. But no one dies it as much as Allen. He is dirty. Dre is dirty at times too. Rodman was never dirty.
Allen is a cheap-shot artist. While he’s hardly the only one in the NBA. Allen is definitely one of the worst dirty players I’ve seen in years. He’s been that way since college with little repercussion. I look forward to his last day in a Milwaukee uniform.