{"id":460154,"date":"2025-12-08T00:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/460154\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T00:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T00:42:12","slug":"central-notes-stewart-antetokounmpo-pacers-cavaliers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/460154\/","title":{"rendered":"Central Notes: Stewart, Antetokounmpo, Pacers, Cavaliers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isaiah Stewart<\/a> has become an elite defender off the bench for the Pistons over the last few years, and his teammates and coaching staff are making sure people know it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the best defensive center in the league and it\u2019s not close,\u201d coach JB Bickerstaff said, as relayed by Detroit Free Press\u2019 Omari Sankofa II (via Twitter). \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s time that everybody who watches basketball recognizes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pistons star Cade Cunningham<\/a> disagreed slightly with his coach\u2019s assessment, saying he didn\u2019t go far enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s the best defensive player in the league,\u201d Cunningham said, per Sankofa (Twitter video link<\/a>). \u201cI would love to see him get a Defensive Player of the Year award, \u2019cause I think he deserves it. I see the best defenders in the league all the time, and I\u2019m thankful I don\u2019t have to see Stew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart is currently averaging 2.0 blocks in just 22.5 minutes per night, and has five games with at least four blocks this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will never be a shot that goes up that Stew doesn\u2019t contest,\u201d Ausar Thompson<\/a> said, per Sankofa (Twitter link)<\/a>. \u201cHe puts his body on the line every night. It\u2019s beautiful to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing holding Stewart back in award discussions is the league-imposed minutes restriction. A player must play 20 or more minutes in at least 65 games to be in consideration for awards like MVP or Defensive Player of the Year, and Stewart already has six games with fewer than 20 minutes. That leaves him with just 11 more over the rest of the season before he would be deemed ineligible.<\/p>\n

We have more from around the Central Division:<\/p>\n

Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> is the hottest name in the rumor mill these days, but he recently took to the media to state his desire to stay with the Bucks. \u201cThere are people who see a door, who want to hurry up and escape through that door,\u201d Antetokounmpo told NBA on Prime\u2019s Chris Haynes (Twitter video link<\/a>). \u201cI see a wall and I want to run through the wall and make things work.\u201d Haynes adds that according to Antetokounmpo, the two-time MVP\u2019s only focus is getting healthy and being there for his team. Kurt Helin of NBC Sports writes<\/a> that there\u2019s no doubt that Antetokounmpo wants to make things work with the Bucks, and says that any trade involving him feels like it would have to wait until the offseason.
\nThe Pacers got a sorely-needed road win on Friday against the Bulls, Dustin Dopirak writes for the Indy Star<\/a>. Head coach Rick Carlisle is aware of the talent deficiency the team is facing on most nights and how it limits them. \u201cA lot of elements right now have to be in place for us to be an effective road team against a team like Chicago,\u201d Carlisle said. The effort was led by Pascal Siakam<\/a>, who had 36 points and 10 rebounds while hitting five three-pointers. After starting 2-16, this effort gave Indiana its third win in five games.
\nThe Cavaliers were booed at home during Saturday night\u2019s loss to the undermanned Warriors, Chris Fedor writes for Cleveland.com<\/a>. It was the team\u2019s fifth loss in seven games. \u201cCan\u2019t keep getting in this position,\u201d Donovan Mitchell<\/a> said.
\u201cShouldn\u2019t come down to it. All due respect and credit to them, but the consistent thing is we get down and then we start playing. There\u2019s no switch to flip. Until there\u2019s a change in that, we\u2019re going to keep being in these positions where sometimes we do, sometimes we don\u2019t, and we have to fix it.\u201d Head coach Kenny Atkinson\u00a0agreed with his star\u2019s assessment, adding, \u201cWe need a reset right now to rest our bodies and get our principles. You always take lessons from struggles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isaiah Stewart has become an elite defender off the bench for the Pistons over the last few years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,123,113,126,3866,1016,6,114,279],"class_list":{"0":"post-460154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","10":"tag-indiana","11":"tag-indiana-pacers","12":"tag-indianapacers","13":"tag-isaiah-stewart","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-pacers","16":"tag-pascal-siakam"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115681174794465849","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}