Isaiah Stewart was incredibly productive during his lone year at Washington, but will his throwback game be of interest to the Milwaukee Bucks?
Long before he entered the 2020 NBA Draft, Isaiah Stewart has been on the radar of all NBA teams.
Stewart has been a standout player on the amateur level and even before he makes the big jump to the NBA, Stewart has accomplished plenty along the way in his basketball journey. After all, Stewart won the Naismith Prep Player of the Year as well as Mr. Basketball USA as a senior, was named a McDonald’s All-American, and took part in events such as the Nike Hoop Summit and Jordan Brand Classic.
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Despite his glowing success in high school, Stewart opted to attend the University of Washington, avoiding going to established powerhouses and the kind of blue-blood schools that one-and-done players like Stewart traditionally go to.
Stewart’s one year with the Huskies didn’t go according to plan, but it didn’t stop the big man from being productive and being named first team All-Pac-12 by the season’s truncated end.
While the pandemic has made this a very atypical pre-draft process, one unlike any other, Stewart is relying on his body of work and intangibles to make a great impression on NBA teams as he discussed during his draft declaration with ESPN’s Jonathan Givony:
"“I take a lot of pride in winning national player of the year in high school. The list of guys that won that award is impressive,” Stewart said. “I feel like I am someone who can play in an NBA game tomorrow physically. With all the uncertainty about whether there will be a summer league or what type of offseason the NBA might have, it’s more important than ever to have a long body of work teams can look at. People already know my reputation and what my character is as a person. I’ll continue to show NBA teams that over video conferences, Skype, FaceTime or whatever it might be.”"
In his 32 appearances for the Huskies this season, Stewart averaged 17 points on a .570/.250/.774 slash line, 8.8 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 0.8 assists across 32.2 minutes per contest.
So without-further ado, let’s break the strengths and weaknesses of Isaiah Stewart’s game, see where draft experts currently rate him and examine his potential fit within the Milwaukee Bucks’ system.