Isaiah Stewart Believes The Pistons Would Have Beat the Knicks In the Playoffs if he was Healthy

Last season, the Detroit Pistons took a major step forward, shocking the entire NBA world as they made a postseason push that no one quite expected. That playoff run ended with them taking on the New York Knicks in the first round, and despite the valiant effort, it was the Knicks who came away as winners in six games.

There were many factors that went into the Knicks’ victory, not the least of which were injuries, as the Pistons missed Jaden Ivey for the entire series and big man Isaiah Stewart for all but one game. Now, the latter has spoken out about the showdown with New York, revealing his belief that if he was available to guard Karl-Anthony Towns, the series would have ended in a very different manner.

“I felt if I played, the series would have turned out different and we would have been able to advance — adding what I do on defense and my task with guarding KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) in that series. So, I feel like it would have been a different outcome.”

On paper, injuries can change the course of a series, but given Stewart's history of making little impact on a game overall, it's hard to say that he would have shut down Towns, who was a key piece for the Knicks in this series. There's simply no way to know how an injured player would impact a series, but after their surprise season, the Pistons should be proud of their efforts, hoping to build on that in the coming 2025-26 campaign.