Detroit Pistons: The most shocking part of the Isaiah Stewart extension

Isaiah Stewart has agreed to a 4 year/$64 million rookie extension with the Detroit Pistons.

It’s been reported that Isaiah Stewart has signed a four year contract extension, becoming the first from Troy Weaver’s inaugural draft class to sign a rookie extension. After possible performance bonuses, Stewart is set to make close to $64 million. For reference, the two other similar big men who received new contracts this offseason, Naz Reid and Grant Williams, signed a three year, $14M/year and a four year, $13.5M/year respectively.

Detroit Pistons: Isaiah Stewart’s new deal broken down

My personal opinion on the deal itself is that Isaiah Stewart, while not a perfect prospect, is a guy contending teams would jump through hoops to have. It was reported that multiple teams were calling Troy Weaver at the deadline to try and acquire Stew. His energy, emotion, and passion make him an indispensable glue piece for a team in contention.

Add in his drive to improve, and the fact that his three point shooting has begun to work (even if only a little), and you start to understand why the Detroit Pistons had to overpay at the moment. Weaver believes in the potential, and that’s what he paid for. If he had let Isaiah become a restricted free agent, it’s very likely another team looking for his energy offers a deal, probably similar or even more than what was just signed, and Detroit would then be forced to match, or let him walk.

The most concerning part of this deal

Without diving any deeper into the debate of whether or not this is a good deal, I want to rather focus on the absolutely absurd fact that has been brought to light since Isaiah signed his deal. Stewart now becomes just the first rookie contract extension since Tom Gores’ regime began back in 2011, and the first since Jason Maxiell in 2008. Meaning, not a single Pistons’ draft pick for over a decade was worth the money they would likely demand.

When you think about all the rookies that have been drafted in that timeframe, that stat becomes even more ridiculous. Below are all Detroit’s draft picks since Gores took over in 2011…

• Brandon Knight, Kyle Singler and Vernon Macklin (2011)
• Andre Drummond, Khris Middleton, and Kim English (2012)
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Tony Mitchell, and Peyton Siva (2013)
• Spencer Dinwiddie (2014)
• Stanley Johnson and Darrun Hilliard (2015)
• Henry Ellenson and Michael Patrick Gbinije (2016)
• Luke Kennard (2017)
• Bruce Brown Jr. (2018)
• Sekou Doumbouya (2019)

Outside of Andre Drummond, who was extended as a RFA (not the same as a rookie extension), not a single rookie has been offered a rookie extension. Granted, a few players were traded before engaging in extension talks because Detroit’s rebuild was sadly still trying to take flight, but the point remains. I think that says volumes about the previous front office, their draft evaluation process, and their extension evaluations, as there are a few players who would go on to prove they deserved that extension. Specifically, players like Middleton, Dinwiddie, Brown, and maybe even Kennard.

So, here’s to Beef Stew, and Detroit’s new(ish) front office, already doing in their first possible year what the previous regimes couldn’t do in nine years.