{"id":562482,"date":"2026-01-26T19:24:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/562482\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T19:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T19:24:26","slug":"pistons-notes-stewart-secondary-scorer-ivey-sasser-bickerstaff-duren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/562482\/","title":{"rendered":"Pistons Notes: Stewart, Secondary Scorer, Ivey, Sasser, Bickerstaff, Duren"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff made this declaration<\/a> about Isaiah Stewart<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s the best defensive center in the league and it\u2019s not close,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s time that everybody who watches basketball recognizes it.\u201d Stewart is averaging a career-high two blocks per game in 23.6 minutes per game and he explained in detail his shot-blocking prowess and defensive mindset to The Athletic\u2019s Hunter Patterson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a fight,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cYou can\u2019t be scared to get punched, you know what I mean? So for me, it\u2019s just like, OK, you got your dunk. You got your little punch in, but I\u2019m still here and I\u2019m not fading away. I\u2019m going to be here and I\u2019m going to challenge you every time. A lot of it is heart. As much that goes into skill and having the patience, you\u2019ve got to have this (patting his heart). There\u2019s a hundred possessions, at least, in a game. You can\u2019t pick and choose when you want to guard the rim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart has his sights set on the Defensive Player of the Year award. However, the 20-minute rule<\/a> could come into play in his case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the goal,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cI truly believe I am the best defender in the league. \u2026 I may not always get the block. But I\u2019m altering shots, I\u2019m taping holes in our defense. So that\u2019s my goal, that\u2019s something I\u2019m working toward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more on the Pistons:<\/p>\n

Their loss to the Rockets on Friday displayed the need for a second scorer to complement Cade Cunningham<\/a>, Patterson<\/a> opines. Houston packed the paint when he had the ball in his hands and blitzed him in pick-and-roll actions as Cunningham was held to 12 points by a quality opponent. That reinforced the notion that they need another player they can count on for a steady 20 points per game.
\nWith next week\u2019s trade deadline looming, the Detroit Free Press\u2019 Omari Sankofa II<\/a>\u00a0listed the team\u2019s trade assets, breaking down the players into a various categories. He views Jaden Ivey<\/a> and Marcus Sasser<\/a> as \u201cYoung players worth surveying the market for,\u201d noting that Ivey is headed to restricted free agency and that Sasser\u2019s role has been minimized by the emergence of two-way player Daniss Jenkins<\/a>.
\nBickerstaff has already been named<\/a> as one of the head coaches for the three-team All-Star Game. Center Jalen Duren<\/a> believes he should receive the league\u2019s postseason award as well. \u201cCoach of the Year. I think it\u2019s obvious at this point that he should be,\u201d Duren said after the team blew out Sacramento on Sunday. \u201cThey might as well give it to him now, because he deserves it. I mean, he\u2019s put us in position to be where we are now. He\u2019s a part of the culture, the main part of the culture that we\u2019ve built these last two years. And he\u2019s very deserving for everything that comes his way. I mean he\u2019s an amazing coach. He\u2019s an amazing mentor, an amazing leader. I think as we continue to do what we do, the world is just going to continue to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last month, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff made this declaration about Isaiah Stewart. \u201cHe\u2019s the best defensive center in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,909,6101,296,188,3860,1016,1648,1018,912,3302,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-562482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cade-cunningham","10":"tag-daniss-jenkins","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-detroitpistons","14":"tag-isaiah-stewart","15":"tag-j-b-bickerstaff","16":"tag-jaden-ivey","17":"tag-jalen-duren","18":"tag-marcus-sasser","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115963039986515914","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562482","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=562482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}