# With extension talks looming, Ausar Thompson irreplaceable for Pistons
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Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson gave Ausar Thompson a big compliment after his team eliminated the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the 2026 NBA playoffs last month.
They overcame Thompson’s defense with a simple plan – keep the ball away from him.
“The tactical adjustment we made was avoiding Thompson,” Atkinson said after Game 7 on May 17. “We were just like, if he’s near the ball, throw it to someone else. I’ve never experienced that in the NBA. Him and his brother, I’ve never seen anything like it where even if you have a great player with the ball and he’s on it, pass it to someone else.”
The third-year wing was so omnipresent and destructive on that end that the Cavaliers, led by a pair of superstar guards in James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, concluded that going against him wasn’t worth the risk.
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During extension negotiations, the Pistons will have to weigh Thompson’s elite defensive impact against his offensive shortcomings. The most-discussed aspect of his game on that end is his shooting – or lack thereof.
He shot 25% last season beyond the arc, on just 24 attempts – just under half of the 49 3s he took in 2024-25 and an even smaller fraction of his 113 attempts as a rookie. (Those 24 3-point tries, incidentally, are the fewest in a season by a small forward with at least 70 games played and 25 minutes a game since Michael Kidd-Gilchrist attempted two in 2017-18.)
Teams tend to leave Thompson open, cramping the spacing and forcing the Pistons to find other ways to get him involved. He is, at least, capable of attacking closeouts and he has worked on adding a short jumper to his game.
A more realistic path for Thompson’s offensive growth could be as a ballhandler. The Pistons often emphasize to him that they want him to be aggressive. He can leave points on the table by going for contested, contorted layups rather than attacking defenders and dunking or drawing contact. It would allow him to further weaponize his passing ability, which is one of his main strengths. It often leads to points after he grabs an offensive rebound and finds a shooter, or pushes the pace in transition after a defensive rebound.
“He was big-time,” president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon said May 19. “I think he took a huge step last year. I think as the season went on you saw how much he impacted the game on both ends of the floor. He put a lot of time into his offensive game last summer. I think he’ll do the same this summer and I think he’ll come back with more confidence.”