Stewart Finally Flexes NBA Muscles and Everyone was Impressed
The NBA finally got a long look at Isaiah Stewart.
Look and feel.
It might a few days for all the other guys' welts and bruises to go away.
The 6-foot-9, 250-pound rookie forward from the University of Washington made his regular-season debut for the Detroit Pistons on Monday night in his typical hard-nosed fashion — pulling down 8 rebounds in just 14 minutes of time.
It wasn't enough to prevent a 128-120 defeat to the Atlanta Hawks, but the Pistons won't let anyone call them soft.
"The young man plays so hard he wears himself out but that's why we brought him here," Pistons coach Dwane Casey said. "In fact, his intensity level is so high and once you get that reputation of playing that hard, you will get away with a lot in the league.”
Stewart grabbed 5 of his rebounds on the offensive end, which was the most by first-year NBA player in a debut game since 2012, when Jonas Valanciunas had six for the Toronto Raptors.
He also scored 2 points after hitting 1 of 4 shots and supplied a couple of assists.
After sitting out Detroit's first two games, Stewart shouldn't have any problem pulling a lot more time as a guy willing to do the dirty work.
“I thought he had a couple of ticky-tack fouls but I loved the way he competed,” Casey said. “That’s who he is. He brings that each and every night, that’s not just a one-night thing. He does that in practice, games and we gotta continue to have that. It sets the tone for us.”
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