Where Do You Rank Detroit Pistons’ Big 3?

Right now, the Detroit Pistons are still in the middle of perhaps their final (and most important) piece of offseason business in re-signing Jalen Duren. As a restricted free agent, Duren is free to test his value on the open market, but the Pistons hold all the cards in the sense that they can match any offer extended by another team. 

So far, Duren has held meetings with both the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, but those discussions have not gone anywhere, and the All-Star center is still without a contract for the upcoming season. But even with that caveat, it is reasonable to consider JD a member of the Detroit Pistons for the time being, especially since the organization is not interested in completing a sign-and-trade for the big man and would match any offer sheet that he signs. 

So, when The Ringer dropped their list of the top 100 players in the NBA earlier today, it was notable that the Pistons can lay claim to three players in the top 60 of that ranking after they finished with 60 wins in the 2025-26 regular season. Cade Cunningham, to nobody’s surprise, was the highest-ranked Piston at No. 9 overall, which is a fairly appropriate spot for the All-NBA point guard after he was unable to lead Detroit out of the second round of the playoffs last year. 

After Cunningham, Duren made his rightful appearance on the list in the No. 44 spot, but that position could somewhat fall under contentious discussions given the fact that he earned All-NBA Third Team honors for his 19.5-point, 10.5-rebound production in the regular season. Now, Duren did struggle mightily in the postseason against the Orlando Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers, so it is more than likely that his recent slide during crunch time impacted where he fell on these rankings. 

After that, Detroit’s chief defensive ace, Ausar Thompson, was placed at No. 56 out of the top 100. Last season, Thompson elevated his perimeter defense, which was already well above average, to an indisputably elite level, and he finished in third-place for the Defensive Player of the Year award as a result. Naturally, Thompson was selected to the NBA’s All-Defensive squad, but ultimately Chet Holmgren finished ahead of him in the DPOY race with Victor Wembanyama taking home the honor. 

While Thompson increased his pressure at the point-of-attack to a new level, the dynamic wing was not quite able to do the same with his offensive performance. Thompson finished with under 10 points per game with 5.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game to his credit, so AT would likely have risen even higher on this list if he were to have progressed offensively in a somewhat similar fashion. However, Thompson was drafted to lock down opposing scorers, and he’s done an excellent job in that role with last year’s 2.9 stocks per game (2 steals and 0.9 blocks) further underscoring his defensive impact. Thompson led the NBA in steals, and he’s a defensive matchup that nobody wants to face with the ball in their hands. 

All together, the three Pistons create an average of 36.3 if their positions on this list were added together then divided by three with Cunningham doing the majority of the leg-work for that analysis, which gives Detroit one of the better trios in the league. Cunningham, Duren and Thompson are clearly the core that the Pistons are building around considering their youth and productivity, so Detroit is still in good shape moving forward despite their postseason exit in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. 

If the Pistons are able to add another quality secondary scorer to that group, then the rest of the NBA would need to watch out because Detroit could very well challenge for a title as soon as that happens. 

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