Last night the Detroit Pistons announced that they would be extending Isaiah Stewart to a new four-year deal, the first rookie extension of the Tom Gores era.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Stewart could get as much as $64 million over the next four years.
Detroit Pistons F/C Isaiah Stewart has agreed on a four-year, $64 million rookie contract extension, his agent Drew Gross of @RocNationSports tells ESPN. Stewart gets the first non-maximum extension for the 2020 draft class. pic.twitter.com/9a2W7tLj23
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 11, 2023
Considering the fourth year is a team option, this deal is not as big as it initially looked, but depending on who you ask, it is either a bargain deal for an ascending player or a complete overpay with not much in between.
Some think it is a value contract, with Stewart’s improvement and the ever-increasing salary cap as the primary reasons:
That was a good deal, the mle next year is going to be a bit over $14m and i think that’s perfectly fine value for Isaiah Stewart and it will only continue to grow in value as he improves and the cap increases
— don (@mitxhelI) July 11, 2023
Others thought it was a terrible deal for the Detroit Pistons and took a less measured approach with their assessment:
Just to be clear if you are not offended by the Stew contract you are a deeply unserious person who is either willfully parroting the teams lines to cover for them, an outright idiot, or the easily blinded by effort type that probably has a Brandon Inge jersey somewhere
— Joe Truck (@Joe_Truck) July 11, 2023
I’m offended by the salaries of school teachers. I’m offended by the salaries of nurses. Let’s take a deep breath here.
So which is it? Is the Isaiah Stewart extension a great bargain for the Pistons or is it a horrible overpay that they will regret? Right now, it’s both.
Detroit Pistons: Is the Isaiah Stewart extension a good deal?
The easiest way to evaluate Stewart’s extension is through dumbed down quantum physics. This contract is a little like Schrodinger’s Cat in that we won’t know if it is good or bad until we open the box.
Yes, there could be a dead cat in the box. There could also be a living, healthy cat. Until we open the box, we won’t know, so right now, it is both. It exists in two states.
The same is true of Stewart’s contract, as it could be an overpay for a role player with a lot of flaws or it could be a team-friendly deal for an impact starter. We won’t know until it plays out.
On the surface, it looks like a slight overpay when we see the contract that Naz Reid got recently. But when you consider that the fourth year isn’t guaranteed, the deal is really more like 3 years/$48 million, so pretty much on par with Reid’s contract. In fact, had it been announced as a three year guaranteed deal with an option for the fourth, the naysayers might be saying less nay.
The Pistons clearly believe in Isaiah Stewart and were willing to bet that he will improve enough to make this contract a bargain. It’s a calculated risk, but a risk all the same, as it wasn’t like there was any hurry to do the deal.
So I’m going to take the wild approach of not having a hot take and decide if the contract is good or bad based on a full season of play.