Since April 29, the player with the third-most 3-point attempts for the Detroit Pistons is a player who didn’t make his first until Feb. 9, 22 games into the season.
Isaiah Stewart, a rookie drafted for his size than his shooting, has significantly expanded his volume during the last two weeks. He has 32 total attempts in his last eight games, narrowly edging out the 31 3-pointers he took during his first 60 games combined.
It’s a rapid expansion of his game, but also a warranted one. Observers said Stewart, a 6-foot-8, 250-pound forward/center, had a nice shooting touch following his freshman season at Washington, but his range fell well within the 3-point arc. He attempted just 20 3-pointers, and made five of them.
The Pistons hoped Stewart would expand his range in the NBA. But they weren’t expecting a lot of 3-pointers early.
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By the end of April, Stewart had taken and made enough 3s that opposing teams began to pay attention to him behind the arc. Of his first 31 tries, he made 13 — a tidy 41.9%. Dwane Casey said earlier this season that by the end of next season, Stewart will be a consistent shooter from outside, with good volume.
The last few weeks of this season could be considered a test run. Casey has been running plays to get Stewart more 3-point attempts, and his volume has skyrocketed. Stewart has seven games this season with at least four 3-point attempts. Six of those were within the last two weeks, including his 19-point performance Sunday, when he set career-highs in both attempts (seven) and makes (three).
Stewart, who turns 20 this month, has made just eight of those 32 attempts, but his comfort level is growing.
“It’s different because before this I’ve never taken so many 3s in a game,” Stewart said. “Usually I never really took a 3 in games. It’s a different feeling, it’s something I’m still getting used to. But it’s something I work hard at every day. Always putting up shots, working on my follow-through mechanics and everything.
“When I’m putting up these 3s, I just try to shoot every one the same. I know the coaching staff has belief in me, belief in that shot. They see it go in every day in practice. That’s why they have that confidence in me to shoot them in games.”
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He’s at his best as a shooter when he doesn’t hesitate. Sometimes you can almost see the gears in his head moving when he catches the ball at the top of the key, wondering if he should keep the ball moving or punish the defense for giving him space.
Stewart successfully did the latter Sunday against the Chicago Bulls. In addition to taking a career-high 3-point attempts, he also showed that he can attack space and finish at the rim. His fourth-quarter layup, on which he drew a foul and completed the three-point play, might’ve been his most impressive possession of the night.
After receiving the ball at the top of the key, he pump-faked and drove past Nikola Vucevic, took a couple of left-handed dribbles, gathered between two defenders and finished a scooping, right-handed layup.
It was one of the few times this season Stewart, who has had success with traditional big-man moves, could be described as guard-like. Becoming a threat from 3-point range is one of the first major steps for Stewart’s development, but he’s already showing that other aspects of his game, such as putting the ball on the floor himself, are starting to progress as well.
“That’s the next step with that,” Casey said on Sunday. “He doesn’t want to forget his day job, but the plays we call for him to pop back and take those are going to be like he did tonight. They’re not just going to let him stand out there and shoot them. So what’s plan B? And tonight he attacked the rim, made excellent plays going to the basket. That’s another step of growth and development on his part.”
Contact Omari Sankofa II at osankofa@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @omarisankofa. Read more on the Detroit Pistons and sign up for our Pistons newsletter.