Detroit Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart speaks with an official during a 2025-26 game against the Dallas Mavericks.

Detroit Pistons big man Isaiah Stewart talks with a referee near the baseline during a 2025-26 game against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. (Nick White/DallasHoopsJournal.com)

Detroit Pistons Put Isaiah Stewart On Trade Block To Improve Offensively

Jake RogersJune 19, 2026 4:52 PMJune 19, 2026 5:10 PM

DHJ Quick Take: Pistons Signal Isaiah Stewart Is Genuinely Available

After holding firm in past cycles, the Detroit Pistons are now proactively making Isaiah Stewart available as it chases shooting and playmaking, with Paul Reed and Jalen Duren set to anchor the frontcourt.

Who is available? Isaiah Stewart, a 25-year-old rim protector coming off a 10.0-point, 5.0-rebound season and the league’s best opponent shooting percentage at the basket.
Why now? Detroit wants perimeter creation, trusts Reed behind Duren, and has a likely Duren extension that makes reallocating Stewart’s salary more practical.
What’s the price tag? Roughly $30MM over two years with a team option on the second, a contract executives view as reasonable for a defense-first big.
What’s next? Detroit has Austin Reaves and Isaiah Joe on its radar, with NBA free agency set to open at the end of June.

The Detroit Pistons have made big man Isaiah Stewart available in trade talks as they pursue shooting and on-ball creation this summer, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic.

Amick framed the situation less as Detroit shopping Stewart at any cost and more as the 25-year-old being firmly on the table if a deal helps the front office balance its roster, a shift for a team that held firm on him in past cycles and now appears willing to use one of its cleaner mid-sized contracts as a building block in a larger trade.

Stewart was a steady contributor for a team that won 60 games, averaging 10.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, and 1.6 blocks in 22.7 minutes across 58 appearances, 13 of them starts. He shot 55.0% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range on 2.1 attempts per game, finishing with a 63.2% true shooting mark. His defense carried the most weight, as he held opponents to 43.8% shooting at the rim, the best figure in the NBA among players who appeared in at least 50 games and faced four or more attempts per night.

That work earned him a seventh-place finish in Sixth Man of the Year voting and a reputation around the league as a heart-and-soul presence, which helps explain the interest he draws despite Detroit’s reluctance to move him before now.

Paul Reed and Jalen Duren Up Front

Part of what makes Stewart movable is the team’s growing comfort with Paul Reed in the frontcourt behind starting center Jalen Duren. Reed outplayed Stewart down the stretch of the team’s second-round series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, averaging 11.4 points and 5.0 rebounds in 13.0 minutes per game over the final five contests while Stewart’s role shrank to 7.4 minutes, 3.8 points, and 1.6 rebounds.

With Reed ready for a larger role and a sizable extension for Duren widely anticipated, reallocating some of Stewart’s money toward perimeter talent reads as the more rational path for a roster that needs spacing and ball-handling.

Isaiah Stewart’s Contract and Trade Value

The contract makes that easier to do. Stewart has roughly $30 million left over the next two seasons, with the final year a team option, a structure teams tend to view as flexible and easy to plan around, and he will be eligible for an extension this offseason.

The deal was originally reported in the $60 million to $64 million range across four years, at about $15 million annually, and executives around the league consider that a reasonable price for a high-end rim protector still in his mid-20s.

Because the option gives the contract a pseudo-expiring feel, it can be aggregated into a bigger package for the kind of shooter or creator Detroit is chasing, and several observers expect significant interest even if no trade ultimately comes together.

A History of Interest, Including From the Dallas Mavericks

Stewart’s name on the market is not new. Reporting from James Edwards III of The Athletic in 2023 indicated that the Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Dallas Mavericks all showed strong trade interest in him as a frontcourt depth target, drawn to a switch-capable, physical big who could anchor bench units, though a poison-pill extension and Detroit’s high asking price kept any deal from coming together.

The market has stayed warm since, with the New Orleans Pelicans floated more recently as a sensible suitor and with Stewart often described as the Detroit young player most likely to be moved.

Stewart is one of several Pistons on mid-sized expiring or pseudo-expiring contracts who could be moved for shooting and playmaking, with Amick noting that Caris LeVert ($14.8 million), Ron Holland ($9.1 million), and Marcus Sasser ($5.2 million) fit the same profile.

On the other side of a potential deal, Amick lists Austin Reaves, the Los Angeles Lakers guard expected to reach unrestricted free agency, and Isaiah Joe, a wing for the Thunder, as players on Detroit’s radar.