{"id":741570,"date":"2026-05-23T02:51:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/741570\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T02:51:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T02:51:15","slug":"detroit-pistons-ausar-thompson-named-first-team-all-defense-first-player-honored-since-ben-wallace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/741570\/","title":{"rendered":"Detroit Pistons\u2019 Ausar Thompson named First-Team All-Defense, first player honored since Ben Wallace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">DETROIT \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickondetroit.com\/topic\/Pistons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickondetroit.com\/topic\/Pistons\/\">Detroit Pistons<\/a> forward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickondetroit.com\/topic\/Ausar_Thompson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickondetroit.com\/topic\/Ausar_Thompson\/\">Ausar Thompson<\/a> has been named to the 2025-26 Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team, becoming the first Pistons player to earn the honor in 20 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The NBA announced the team on Friday (May 22). <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Thompson joins Rudy Gobert of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chet Holmgren of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs, and Derrick White of the Boston Celtics on the first team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Thompson, 23, is the first Pistons player since Hall of Famer Ben Wallace in 2006 to receive first-team All-Defensive honors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Wallace earned first-team All-Defense recognition from 2002-06, helping lead Detroit\u2019s \u201cGoin\u2019 to Work\u201d era to six straight Eastern Conference finals appearances and the 2004 NBA championship.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Other Pistons legends to earn multiple All-Defensive selections include Hall of Fame guard Joe Dumars, who made the team four times, and Hall of Fame forward Dennis Rodman, who earned the honor five times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Thompson is also the first Pistons player since Tayshaun Prince in 2008 to receive any All-Defensive recognition.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson anchors Detroit\u2019s historic season<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">During the 2025-26 season, Thompson averaged 9.9 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 3.1 assists per game, helping Detroit secure the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference with 60 wins. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The Pistons advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs before falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Thompson led the NBA with two steals and one block per game while averaging approximately 26 minutes per contest. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">He also earned Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month honors twice and finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Holmgren and Wembanyama, who won the award.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2013 Detroit Pistons forward Ausar Thompson has been named to the 2025-26 Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[1026,7,10120,3251,296,188,3860,3125,6,297,9413],"class_list":["post-741570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-ausar-thompson","tag-basketball","tag-ben-wallace","tag-dennis-rodman","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-joe-dumars","tag-nba","tag-pistons","tag-tayshaun-prince"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116621625841152431","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}