Pistons Bet $155 Million on Ausar Thompson’s Defense

Ausar Thompson agreed Friday to a five-year, $155 million extension with the Detroit Pistons. Shams Charania said the five-year, $155 million rookie-scale extension is fully guaranteed, pays about $31 million a year, and starts in 2027-28.

There is no player option and no team option. Last season Thompson took 24 threes for a 60-22 team, then got paid like a featured scorer anyway.

Detroit Pays $31 Million a Year for 24 Threes

That is the wager. The Pistons did not wait to see if the jumper arrived. They bought the defender who helped them to the East’s best record and their first Eastern Conference semifinal since 2008, and they bought him below the twin’s number and below a maximum.

Thompson, 23, will earn $11.12 million this season, the last year of the rookie-scale deal he signed as the No. 5 pick in 2023. The new money does not hit the books until 2027-28. For one more year Detroit keeps a first-team All-Defense wing at a starter’s coupon.

THE CONTRACT

• The term: Five years and $155 million, fully guaranteed, with no options.
• The start: The 2027-28 season, after this last rookie-scale year.
• The annual pay: About $31 million, the same base Utah gave Keyonte George on Friday.
• This season: $11.12 million against a $164.961 million salary cap.

President of basketball operations Trajan Langdon had already grouped Thompson with Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren as the three players he wants the roster built around. One of those three is now priced. One was priced in 2024. One is still arguing.

The Same Base as a 24-Point Guard

Friday was a payday for the 2023 draft class. George, the No. 16 pick, agreed with the Jazz on five years and $157.5 million after averaging 23.6 points in 54 games. His base is $155 million. Another $500,000 a year in incentives can push the total up. Thompson’s deal is the base, with no sweetener attached.

George scores. Thompson, in 73 games last season, averaged 9.9 points. Detroit still matched the base. The gap is the point of the bet: a 60-win club valued the stopper even with the scorer’s paycheck sitting on the same table.

THE 2023 EXTENSION BOARD

Victor Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick, already signed a five-year maximum with San Antonio. The rest of the class has until Oct. 19. Brandon Miller in Charlotte is the next name most of the league expects to clear $200 million. Thompson did not wait for that market to finish forming.

Why the Pistons Stopped Asking Him to Shoot

The career three-point mark is 20.4 percent, 38 makes on 186 tries. That clip is not a slump. It is the record. What changed is the volume. Detroit stopped living with the miss and started living without the attempt.

THE THREE-POINT RETREAT

• 2023-24: 21 makes on 113 attempts, 18.6 percent, in 63 games.
• 2024-25: 11 makes on 49 attempts, 22.4 percent, in 59 games.
• 2025-26: 6 makes on 24 three-point attempts last season, 25.0 percent, in 73 games.

Only 4.2 percent of his shots last season came from three. He shot 52.5 percent from the field because almost all of the diet was at the rim and in the short paint, where he hit 53.7 percent on twos. Free throws went the other way, 57.1 percent on 191 tries after 64.1 percent the year before. Career free-throw shooting sits at 60.0 percent. Career field-goal shooting sits at 51.5 percent.

Langdon said in May that Thompson would have fewer offseason limits than a year earlier and would put in “serious work” on the offensive side. The contract does not wait on that work. It pays the player who already exists, a 6-foot-7, 205-pound wing who can pass (3.1 assists) and rebound (5.7) and who no longer wastes possessions on a jumper the numbers rejected.

His sophomore year ended early. A blood clot in March 2024 cut the season off, and the league’s fitness-to-play panel cleared him eight months later. The three-point diet shrank after he got back, not before. Detroit just ratified that choice for five more years.

League-High Steals From a 9.9-Point Wing

The offense is the discount. The defense is the product. Thompson led the NBA at 2.0 steals per game and finished with 146 steals and 69 blocks, 215 combined, third in the league. He is one of three players with at least 300 steals and 150 blocks since he entered the league (312 and 168). He made All-Defensive First Team and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren.

He started 72 of 73 games and played 26.0 minutes. In that package he posted a 3.7 steal rate, which led the league, and a 3.6 defensive box plus-minus. The Pistons went 60-22, the franchise’s third 60-win season. He did it as a 9.9-point scorer, which is the part of the bet other front offices still argue with.

He took a huge step last year, and as the season went on, you saw how much he impacted the game on both ends of the floor.

Trajan Langdon, Pistons president of basketball operations

The playoffs were louder than the regular-season scoring line. In 14 games he averaged 8.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.8 blocks in 30.5 minutes. The totals were 28 steals and 25 blocks. He became the first player with at least 25 steals and 25 blocks in a postseason since Anthony Davis in 2020. Langdon’s word for that run was “big time.”

WHAT DETROIT BOUGHT

• The steals title: 2.0 per game, 146 on the season, in 26.0 minutes.
• The stocks: 215 steals plus blocks, third in the NBA, and a 300/150 career club.
• The votes: All-Defensive First Team and third in DPOY, behind Wembanyama and Holmgren.
• The postseason: 28 steals and 25 blocks in 14 games, the first 25/25 since 2020.

$31 million a year for that profile, on a team that already has a $269 million point guard, is how Detroit ranked a stopper against a scorer on Friday’s market. The remaining risk is the same one the three-point log already stated. If the jumper never comes, the Pistons have already spent as if they knew.

Amen Thompson’s Deal Is $53 Million Larger

Amen Thompson, the identical twin and the No. 4 pick, signed a five-year, $208 million rookie-scale extension with the Houston Rockets on Sept. 3. That is $41.6 million a year, with a 10 percent trade kicker, through 2031-32. The spread between the brothers is $53 million on five-year paper, and $10.6 million a year.

They are the first brothers in NBA history to each sign a contract worth $100 million or more. Combined they have $363 million in new money this offseason. Amen averaged 18.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.51 steals in 37.4 minutes over 79 games last season and led the league in minutes. He made All-Defensive First Team in 2024-25. Houston paid a two-way wing who grew into a primary creator. Detroit paid the twin who shrank his own shot diet and still wrecked games.

Amen represents everything we want our organization to be about. He has elite two-way ability, a toughness and the will to outwork his peers, and he competes in every circumstance.

Rafael Stone, Rockets general manager, on the team announcement

Overtime Elite, the Atlanta academy that produced both, put the two contracts on one graphic the night Ausar signed.

AUSAR THOMPSON GOT PAID 💰

SHOUTOUT THE TWINS FOR MAKING HISTORY‼️

Amen: 5 years/$208 million
Ausar: 5 years/$155 million
Combined: $363 million pic.twitter.com/sKSgnfJ6JY

— Overtime Elite (@OvertimeElite) September 18, 2026

The cheaper twin is still a $155 million player. The more expensive twin is the one who added scoring without giving the defense back. That $53 million gap is the market’s current price on a jumper and a usage bump, and Detroit declined to pay it.

THE MONEY DATES

1. March 2024: A blood clot ends Ausar Thompson’s second season. The fitness-to-play panel clears him eight months later.
2. July 2024: Cade Cunningham signs a five-year, $269 million designated-rookie extension.
3. Sept. 3, 2026: Amen Thompson agrees to five years and $208 million with Houston, 10 percent trade kicker included.
4. Sept. 18, 2026: Ausar Thompson agrees to five years and $155 million with Detroit, fully guaranteed, no options.
5. Oct. 1, 2026: Deadline for Jalen Duren to accept a $9.6 million qualifying offer.
6. Oct. 19, 2026: Last day for 2023 first-round picks to sign rookie-scale extensions.

Langdon’s May warning still hangs over the calendar. “J.D. and A.T will be expensive,” he said. “Once that happens, the optionality decreases.” A.T. happened. J.D. has not.

What This Leaves for Jalen Duren

Duren, 22, made All-NBA Third Team and the All-Star team after 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds on 65 percent shooting in 70 games. Because of the All-NBA nod, Detroit can go up to about $287 million over five years. A rival sheet tops out near $177.4 million over four. That gap is why the Pistons have kept saying they will match anything and why they have not been in a hurry to meet his number.

Charania, on the same day as the Thompson agreement, said Detroit’s offer sits in the range of more than $190 million and that the sides remain dug in. Duren wants more. The playoff drop (10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds through two seven-game series against Orlando and Cleveland) is the club’s leverage. His age and the All-NBA box are his.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The offer: Detroit is in the $190 million-plus range on five years and believes the bids have been fair.
• The ask: Duren has been seeking more, with earlier talks putting his camp above $40 million a year.
• The lever: A $9.6 million qualifying offer, if signed by Oct. 1, would make him unrestricted in 2027.
• The match: The Pistons have said they will match any offer sheet and are not interested in a sign-and-trade.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• A final number: No agreement is in place, and the $190 million-plus figure is the offer, not a signed deal.
• The qualifying-offer path: Whether Duren actually takes the one-year deal remains an open choice, not a plan.

Paying Thompson $31 million a year does not close Duren. It does tell his camp what Detroit will spend on a non-scorer it loves. An All-NBA center will not take less than a 9.9-point wing. He also may not get the $287 million box the honor theoretically opened. The live argument in Detroit is no longer Ausar Thompson’s jumper. It is whether Duren signs before camp or plays 2026-27 on a $9.6 million prove-it year.

The $50.1 Million Already on Detroit’s Books

Cunningham is due $50.1 million due next season on the five-year, $269 million extension from July 2024, a designated-rookie deal that sits near 30 percent of the cap. Add Thompson’s $11.12 million for 2026-27, and two of Langdon’s three pillars are cheap for one more season. The expensive years stack in 2027-28, when Thompson’s $31 million starts and Cunningham’s salary steps to $53.8 million. A Duren deal in the $190 million-plus range would land in that same window at something near $38 million a year.

The 2026-27 cap is $164.961 million. The luxury-tax line is $200.428 million. Detroit still has about $46 million of tax room on the current sheet, which is why Langdon could talk about adding playoff pieces around the core without sounding like a club already in the aprons. The 2027-28 cap is now projected at $176 million. Thompson’s $31 million will not be a max share of that number. It will be a starter’s share with All-Defense production already on the tape.

Friday’s deal is the cheaper half of the twin market and the easier half of Detroit’s core. The Pistons paid a wing who led the league in steals, took 24 threes, and still got the same base as a 23.6-point guard. Duren’s deadline is Oct. 1. Until then, the bet on Thompson is signed, and the bet on the frontcourt is not.