The Pistons made a deeply controversial move to trade away Isaiah Stewart early this offseason, and additional details are making me question the team even more. Recently, insider Hunter Patterson reported on Stewart's disputes with coaches during Detroit's playoff run. If these disputes (during a couple of awful losses for the Pistons) really did play a role in Stewart's trade, the franchise might not yet be ready to take the leap towards becoming a true title contender.
The Pistons might not have been ready for Stewart's intensity
First off, it's important to note that Patterson doesn't explicitly state that Stewart's playoff clashes with coaches contributed to his trade. However, it's heavily implied when the reporting comes in a section titled "Why did [the Pistons] trade Isaiah Stewart to Memphis?".
Nonetheless, it's pretty astonishing to imagine that the team was ever caught off guard by their most passionate player having an outburst during his first real playoff run. The year before, Stewart played in just one game against the Knicks before an injury took him out for the remainder of the series. And yet Stewart often seemed like one of the only Pistons bringing the correct energy to the playoffs last season.
Let's also emphasize the two incidents mentioned as heated moments for Stewart: they came during a monumental Game 3 loss to the Magic and an utterly embarrassing blowout loss in Game 7 against the Cavaliers. It's natural for any NBA player, especially one as competitive as Stewart, to feel very frustrated in those moments. The Pistons probably needed some more optionality in their lineups throughout the playoffs, but didn't play up to their normal standard in either of the two losses where Stewart had disputes.
Detroit could regret trading Stewart quickly
In fact, as the longest-tenured Piston last season and the enforcer on the team, you could argue that it was Stewart's role to rile up his teammates with his intensity. This not only applied on the court, but also extended to his leadership off of it. If that happened to take the form of arguing with other players or coaches when things needed to change, that might not be such a bad thing.
The Pistons will now enter next season in the aftermath of public contract disputes and without some of their best leaders from last season. If team chemistry suffers after an offseason with a lot of change, the team could need a fire lit under them by any means necessary. That need will be even more apparent in the playoffs, where margins for error get ever smaller and opposing teams ratchet up their own intensity. But this time Isaiah Stewart won't be around anymore to whip the Pistons into shape.
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