Player outlook
Two columns stand between Ausar Thompson and the second round
Detroit's All-Defensive wing is a roster problem on a standard board and a cornerstone once free throws are abandoned. Standard rankings bury him, which is exactly why punt builds should want him.
Delete free-throw percentage and threes from the Ball Ranks board, and Ausar Thompson jumps from 91st to 20th.
Those 71 spots are the entire Thompson draft decision. Everything else on his line is settled: 2.0 steals, a full block, 6.1 rebounds, and 52.8% shooting in 26.8 minutes. The only question is whether your roster can absorb 58.5% free throws and 0.2 threes, or has already stopped competing in both.
Only Wembanyama gets more from the two defensive categories
Thompson led the NBA with 2.0 steals per game last season, made the All-Defensive First Team, and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, per ClickOnDetroit. Model Zero projects the same 2.0 steals and adds a full block.
Only Dyson Daniels gets more value from steals on our board, and only Victor Wembanyama gets more from steals and blocks combined. That defensive pair carries the whole line. Free throws, threes, and turnovers take away more than his points, rebounds, assists, and field-goal percentage add.
The defense also improved as last season went on. From October through December, he averaged 1.5 steals and 0.7 blocks. From January through April, he averaged 2.3 steals and 1.1 blocks in slightly fewer minutes. In 14 playoff games at 30.5 minutes, he posted 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks.
Ausar Thompson's Steals per game trend
Steals per game by month, 25-26.
Full data
| Month | Steals per game |
|---|---|
| Oct | 1 (5 games) |
| Nov | 1.8 (11 games) |
| Dec | 1.5 (13 games) |
| Jan | 2.4 (14 games) |
| Feb | 2.3 (11 games) |
| Mar | 2.5 (13 games) |
| Apr | 1.8 (6 games) |
The offense moved the other way, and that matters as much as the steals. He opened the season taking 1.8 threes a game in October. From December on, he attempted about one three every six or seven games, and his free-throw attempts fell from 3.8 per game before January to 1.8 after it. By spring, the player on the floor was close to pure defense, without the categories that hurt fantasy managers.
Punting free throws moves him five rounds
On the standard board, Thompson is 91st: an eighth-round pick in a 12-team league. Remove free-throw percentage, and he rises to 34th, between Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jamal Murray. Remove threes as well, and he is 20th, between Domantas Sabonis and Kel'el Ware.
The best comparison is the player who outranks him in steals.
Dyson Daniels ranks 37th on our standard board and 16th once free throws and threes are punted. In the build that wants both players, they are four spots apart. On a standard board, they are 54 spots apart. Daniels' free-throw shooting is not much better; he projects to take 1.6 attempts a game to Thompson's 2.7, so his misses do less damage. Daniels brings 5.4 assists. Thompson answers with blocks and a better field-goal percentage.
That gap is the opportunity. A punt-FT% manager can take Daniels in the third or fourth round, or wait for Thompson and spend the earlier pick on a guard who protects threes and assists.
Detroit added shooters instead of replacing him
The Pistons won 60 games and earned the East's No. 1 seed before losing Game 7 of the conference semifinals to Cleveland. They then replaced Tobias Harris, Isaiah Stewart, and Caris LeVert with John Collins, Isaiah Joe, and Taurean Prince, according to NBA.com. ESPN noted that Collins has made 40% of his threes over the last two seasons.
Those additions are built to space the floor around a wing who barely shoots. Detroit also committed to him with a five-year, $155 million extension. No other Pistons wing projects for more than Duncan Robinson's 24.8 minutes. Ronald Holland II, the closest defensive substitute, projects for 22.1 after shooting 43.2% last season.
Cade Cunningham still runs everything, with 8.8 projected assists. The same ESPN review said Cunningham is poised to enter another season without a quality secondary creator. That leaves room for Thompson's 3.1 assists, which rose to 3.5 from January on. His passing will not change a draft, but it keeps assists from becoming a third hole.
A real jump shot would erase the discount
Thompson told reporters at media day that he rebuilt his jumper over the summer: "I'm confident shooting it now." If that carries to the line, the standard board starts arguing back. At 65% on his projected 2.7 attempts, he would rank about 73rd. At 70%, he would be about 56th, a standard-league starter with no punt required.
Even without improvement, the late-season shot profile narrows the gap. At the 1.8 free-throw attempts he took from January on, his 58.5% would cost about two-thirds as much, and he would rank roughly 74th. That is the strongest argument against treating him as a pure specialist: Detroit may already have built a role that hides the flaw.
The other risk sits in the category that makes him special. Thompson averaged 1.1 steals as a rookie and 1.7 in his second season. If he regresses to 1.6, he falls to about 128th on the standard board. In the punt build, he still ranks about 30th. The punt case survives a down year in steals. The standard case does not.
Draft him for the build, not the board
Thompson ranks 68th on Ball Ranks' totals board, up from 91st per game, behind a projected 69 games. He played 63, 59, and 73 in his first three seasons.
In a standard 12-team nine-category league, wait until the eighth round and draft him only if your free-throw percentage is already in trouble. In a punt-FT% build, his value belongs in the third round. Take him in the fourth or fifth, before the rest of the room notices.
On a standard board, he is a roster problem. On the right one, he is the reason the build works.
See Ausar Thompson's full player profile, or find the other punt-FT% bargains on the 2026–27 fantasy basketball board.
Sources and data notes
- Ball Ranks 2026–27 Model Zero projection, 9-category per-game and totals rankings, season history, and monthly splits: October 7, 2026 snapshot.
- ClickOnDetroit on Thompson's All-Defensive First Team selection.
- NBA.com 2026–27 Detroit Pistons season preview.
- ESPN Detroit Pistons offseason recap and 2026–27 preview.
- Sports Illustrated on Thompson's five-year extension.
- Detroit Sports Nation via Yahoo Sports on Thompson's rebuilt jump shot.