If you hadn’t watched any Detroit Pistons’ games this season and only looked at the stats, you’d think Isaiah Stewart was an afterthought.
Just about every one of his counting stats have gone down, including his minutes, as he’s playing the fewest of his career, nearly 11 fewer per game than last season.
He’s taking about half the number of shots per game compared to last season and has essentially stopped taking 3-pointers at all after having two seasons where he averaged 4.1 and 3.8 attempts per game.
But if you have watched the games, you know that the stats don’t tell the whole story, as Stewart may be playing less and not doing as much on offense but has reduced his focus to pretty much one thing: Protect the rim at all costs.
Stew is still a good defender in space, and coming into this season, that is what he was known for, as he blocked only .8 shots per game last year and spent a lot of time chasing around power forwards and wings on the perimeter.
If you had described Stewart’s defense prior to this season, you might have said “physical” or “versatile” or talked about how good he was at staying in front of smaller players.
You wouldn’t have said “force of nature at the rim” but that is exactly what he has become this year.
Isaiah Stewart: The NBA’s best rim protector
With Victor Wembanyama out, the award for Defensive Player of the Year is up for grabs, and if Stewart were eligible (he’s not), then he would be in the running, as what he is doing this season is special, even though he’s doing it in fewer than 20 minutes per game.
Opponents are shooting 46 percent at the rim when Stew is in their face, which is the best mark in the NBA for this season and for the last five.
It’s not surprising that Stew has improved (as he showed he could protect the rim in his rookie season when he played exclusively at center) but it’s the level of improvement that is shocking.
Even though he is playing 11 fewer minutes per game, Stewart is blocking nearly twice as many shots as he did just last season.
While he’s definitely not at Ben Wallace level (not even close if we’re being honest), Stew has some of the same qualities, as he has a huge wingspan that allows him to affect shots even when he doesn’t block them, forcing players to adjust at the rim.
Another area he reminds me of Wallace is effort, as Stewart goes after everything and never backs down. Sure, this leads to him getting dunked on now and again, but more times than not he either gets the block or at least affects the shot.
And opponents know, as they are increasingly avoiding Stewart in the paint, and the ones who didn’t get the memo are usually getting swatted or forced to pull up for some kind of rainbow floater.
Because he’s not a 7-footer, most people don’t immediately think of Stewart when they think of the NBA’s best rim protectors, but he is up there with the best of them, a surprise given his defensive profile coming into the season.
This year shows what Stew is all about, as he would get more accolades if he were shooting more 3-pointers and playing more minutes, but he was willing to sacrifice that role for a more important one and he’s been a huge part of the Pistons’ emergence as a top-10 defensive team.