{"id":807058,"date":"2026-08-08T22:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/807058\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T22:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T22:00:17","slug":"grizzlies-stewart-excited-for-new-chapter-in-memphis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/807058\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies’ Stewart Excited For ‘New Chapter’ In Memphis"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape<\/a>, new Grizzlies big man Isaiah Stewart<\/a> talks about his \u201clove for the city of Detroit,\u201d being traded<\/a> by the Pistons, and his excitement for a \u201cnew chapter\u201d in Memphis.<\/p>\n

\"\"According to Spears, Stewart said Trajan Langdon told him he could be moved in the 2024 offseason, when Langdon became the Pistons\u2019 president of basketball operations. The 25-year-old center\/forward stayed with the Pistons for two more seasons, helping the club rise dramatically up the standings, before being dealt this summer.<\/p>\n

Stewart said he had mixed feelings about the 2025\/26 campaign, when Detroit won an East-best 60 games. He fell out of the rotation at times in the playoffs and admitted to Spears that he was frustrated<\/a> by his lack of postseason playing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBittersweet. We had a great season,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cSixty wins. No. 1 in the East. And that\u2019s how I always pictured Detroit being since I got drafted \u2014 bringing back that identity, that toughness brand to Detroit. I feel like we did that in the regular season. And the playoffs came and it didn\u2019t go exactly how we planned or talked about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart, who was selected 15th overall in the 2020 draft, initially believed he was going to be traded to the Lakers or Wizards, Spears writes, before his agent called him and told him he was headed to Memphis.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Agent Drew Gross) called me back a couple of minutes later and said, \u2018Hey, Trajan called. He\u2019s telling me he got a deal from Memphis that he can\u2019t turn down,\u2019\u201d Stewart said. \u201cAnd a few minutes later it came out that I got traded to Memphis. I didn\u2019t know how to feel. I wasn\u2019t mad about it. I was happy that I was moving on to a new chapter.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first I was like, \u2018Man, so first time I got traded in my career, and I\u2019m in Memphis.\u2019 New teammates, new guys in the system. My mind just started going that way. And I\u2019m thankful because I\u2019m somewhere where I\u2019m really wanted. And the fanbase already respects and loves who I am. I\u2019d rather be where I\u2019m wanted than headed back into a situation where it\u2019s not the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart told Spears he received phone calls from Cade Cunningham<\/a> and Jalen Duren<\/a> after the deal and both of his former teammates wished him well with the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n

According to Spears, restricted free agent center Duren is \u201cseeking a near-max contract\u201d from Detroit, while the Pistons are currently offering $35-38MM per year. Stewart thinks Duren has earned a massive payday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tricky, but [Duren] proved he\u2019s worth what he\u2019s asking for to the organization, if you ask me,\u201d Stewart said. \u201cThey act like they want him to prove it (before last season, when he was eligible for a rookie scale extension), and I felt he proved it. He was an All-Star, third-team All-NBA. I feel like he should get paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a huge core piece. Bring him back. \u2026 He\u2019s been getting better every year. \u2026 I hope it works out and I hope he gets that money at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart also spoke to Spears about the \u201cgreat opportunity\u201d he has with the Grizzlies and his desire to revive the \u201cgrit and grind\u201d era of the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, new Grizzlies big man Isaiah Stewart talks about his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,909,296,188,3860,1016,912,6,297,6244],"class_list":["post-807058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-basketball","tag-cade-cunningham","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-isaiah-stewart","tag-jalen-duren","tag-nba","tag-pistons","tag-trajan-langdon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117062141829448053","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807058","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=807058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}