Heading into training camp and preseason, Isaiah Stewart was excited about the prospect of shooting more threes this season. It seemed like a smart way to open up more options for the Pistons offense, and built off the success he had shooting from outside two seasons ago. But Stewart has not lived up to that potential in preseason and shot just 1.3 threes per game.
Is Isaiah Stewart ready to shoot more threes?
In his best three-point shooting season, Stewart was getting up 3.8 threes per game and hitting them at a 38% clip. The efficiency was solid for a big, but the volume was not enough for defenses to truly fear his outside shooting. As other Pistons shooters have shown, the defensive attention drawn by high-volume shooting can sometimes be as important for offensive impact as the actual percentage of shots that go in.
In his defense, Stewart played a lot of starter minutes at center in the preseason. With Jalen Duren missing the first two games, Stewart was the one jumping at tip-off and his fellow teammates in the starting lineup didn't necessitate as much three-point shooting on his part. The Pistons starting center gets ample opportunity to make plays rolling to the rim with Cade Cunningham's playmaking and spacing from other starters.
You certainly don't want Isaiah Stewart to force threes and take away from his effectiveness in his role last season. He's not a natural shooter who needs to be flying off screens for spot-up opportunities. But the preseason is a time for experimenting, which the Pistons did on a few other fronts. It would have been nice to see Stewart use this time to get comfortable firing up a higher volume of threes, but perhaps it would have been too much experimentation with other changes already being implemented.
Whether or not Isaiah Stewart drastically increases his 3-point shooting, his greatest strength will always be his defense. And he has continued his excellence on that end in the preseason. He's shown all his defensive skills, whether it's blocking shots at the rim or switching out onto the perimeter at times.
Importantly, Stewart has also decreased his foul rate to 1.3 fouls per game. Fouling was a huge problem for Stewart and the rest of the Pistons defense last season, so this could be a monumental development. While it is only the less-intense preseason, Stewart has still historically had much higher foul rates during these exhibition games in past years.
The Pistons offense could be in need of more three-point shooting in the absence of Jaden Ivey to start the season. The front office did bring in some veteran perimeter players this offseason to take on more of the three-point load, but Stewart's improvement in that regard will be an additional boon. He has not shown that addition to his game yet in the preseason, but it might still be coming in the regular season.