Big man Isaiah Stewart emerging for Pistons as key leader

6’8″ starting Pistons center Isaiah Stewart has emerged as a key leader for a rebuilding 9-28 Detroit team this season, writes James L. Edwards III of The Athletic. Edwards notes that the 21-year-old third-year big man has become the team’s de facto main presence with star point guard Cade Cunningham shelved indefinitely.

“I’ve been sitting back and just seeing his growth, his progress on the floor and as a leader,” journeyman Detroit shooting guard Rodney McGruder told Edwards of Stewart. “He’s being more vocal in the locker room, on the bench, in timeouts and in huddles.”

McGruder has spoken with Stewart about more carefully navigating his physical comportment during a game.

“For me, personally, that’s another growth step in regards to not showing that body language,” Stewart told Edwards. “I do feel like that kind of helped me in terms of learning how to talk to my teammates. You can talk to a certain teammate a certain way, other teammates you can’t talk to a certain way. That aspect has helped me.”

Through 30 games in 2022-23, Stewart is averaging a career-best 11.7 PPG on .467/.373/.742 shooting splits. He is also pulling down 7.8 RPG and dishing out 1.2 APG.

There’s more out of the Central Division:

• The health of reserve Pacers center Daniel Theis appears to be improving as he continues to rehabilitate from a preseason knee scope, notes Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files (Twitter link). He was spotted working through on-court shootarounds, per Jeremiah Johnson of Bally Sports Indiana (via Twitter).
• The Bucks‘ 139-118 blowout Christmas loss to the Celtics looked a lot like last year’s Eastern Conference Semifinals playoff series, writes Eric Nehm of The Athletic. Nehm notes that Boston was frequently able to free up All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum for exploitable mismatches on offense. “He had a big night of tough shot-making and, at some point, it’s on me to maybe change it up, give him a different look, but credit to Jayson tonight,” Milwaukee head coach Mike Budenholzer said of Tatum, who scored 41 points in the Celtics’ win.
• In last night’s 119-113 overtime Bulls victory over the Bucks, Chicago All-Star DeMar DeRozan took exception to a hard forearm in his back courtesy of Milwaukee shooting guard Grayson Allen, and there was a brief dust-up with play stopped. After the game, both DeRozan and Zach LaVine complained about Allen’s behavior, per Rob Schaefer of NBC Sports Chicago. Though slow-motion review indicated that Bulls forward Patrick Williams initially fouled Allen, who then fell into DeRozan, Chicago’s stars remained frustrated. “I didn’t know if it was on purpose or what happened,” DeRozan said. “I just felt a hit. That’s all it was.” LaVine weighed in as well. “We know his (Allen’s) track record,” LaVine said. “Pat got the foul, but DeMar got elbowed in the back of the head. It is what it is. We made up for it with a big win. DeMar responded the right way. The next 20 minutes, you saw what happened.”