Detroit Pistons wing Ausar Thompson has another defensive credential to add to his growing lockdown resume
On Friday night, Thompson was selected to the first All-Defensive squad of his career, though there was little doubt, debate or consternation about which team AT would land on when all the votes were tallied.
According to 100 analysts spread across the world, Thompson was deemed an All-Defensive First Team player by 72 of those individuals. As for the Second Team, 22 more basketball minds thought that Thompson’s game was fitting for that group, which leaves six people who left the Detroit Pistons wing out of their selections entirely– which is a notion that challenges both conventional wisdom and tangible statistics alike.
During the 2025-26 regular season, Thompson paced the NBA with a league-leading two steals per game. In his role as a ball-hawking defender at the point of attack, AT took on some of the toughest defensive assignments in the league and produced the third-most deflections for his ambitious effort. If those numbers were not convincing enough, Thompson won the Eastern Conference’s Defensive Player of the Month award twice during the past season, first in January then once again in March.
At only 23 years old, Thompson possesses a rare blend of speed, timing, agility, instincts, body control, ambition and freedom to operate within a stringent Detroit defense. According to head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, the Pistons allowed for Thompson to stray from his defender at times because of all the turnover opportunities that he creates as a rover. Now, the Pistons do not encourage all of their players to carry out such a dynamic defensive philosophy, but Thompson has shown the ability to balance that risk-taking penchant with the pillars of team-first defense.
As a result, Thompson grew into one of the most imposing defenders in the league, which is becoming increasingly difficult to do from the perimeter. Thompson was ranked as a third-place finisher for the Defensive Player of the Year title behind a pair of bigs, and the NBA continues to move in a direction that prioritizes rim-defense and shot-swatting for its DPOY award. But despite those perceived biases in the voting process, Thompson acquitted himself well as an elite on-ball defender who changed the game single-handedly from the defensive end.
After the Pistons were knocked out of the second round of the playoffs by the Cleveland Cavs, Thompson received an incredible compliment from the opposing head coach, Kenny Atkinson. After the series, Atkinson said that one of their most helpful and impactful tactical changes was to direct the ball as far away from AT as possible. Even if the Cavs had a strong on-ball player, such as James Harden or Donovan Mitchell, with the rock when Thompson was nearby, Atkinson instructed his players to swing the ball around until some space existed between Detroit’s defensive ace and the basketball.
Moving forward, Thompson will look to balance out his game so that he’s more of a threat on the offensive end as well, but the time is nigh to celebrate his defensive ability.
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