For years, the Detroit Pistons lacked an identity.
They were built, and rebuilt. They succeeded a little, and failed a lot. It was like watching one of your friends try out a new look only for it to clearly not be working time after time.
Then, Isaiah Stewart arrived.
It felt like a weird pick in a weird draft back in 2020, trading up to draft an undersized center who couldn’t really shoot and played on a Washington team that specialized in the same zone defense that hurt the draft stock of numerous Syracuse players before him.