The Pistons have made their bet on Ausar Thompson, and they didn’t make it a small one.
Detroit and Thompson have agreed to a fully guaranteed five-year, $155 million rookie-scale extension with no player or team options, according to Shams Charania of ESPN. The deal starts in 2027-28 and comes out to an average of $31 million per season.
That’s a huge number for a player who averaged 9.9 points last season, but Thompson’s value has never been tied to scoring alone. He finished third in Defensive Player of the Year voting, made first-team All-Defense and led the league with 2.0 steals per game. In Detroit’s playoff run, he added 7.9 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.8 blocks per game.
The shooting numbers are still the glaring issue. Thompson has hit just 20.4 percent of his career threes and 60 percent of his free throws.
Even so, the Pistons have been better when he’s on the floor, and the front office clearly decided his defense, rebounding and playmaking are enough to justify the risk. If the shot ever gets to a respectable level, the contract could look like a steal.
The deal also created a little NBA history. Thompson and Rockets star Amen Thompson are now the first brothers in league history to each sign contracts worth more than $100 million.
Detroit may be locked in with one core piece, but another negotiation is going in a very different direction. Charania reported that the Pistons have offered restricted free agent Jalen Duren more than $190 million, and Duren wants more.
Miami, meanwhile, is back to doing what Miami does.
Pelle Larsson has agreed to a four-year, $60 million extension with the Heat, according to Charania. The contract includes a mutual option for 2030-31, so both sides have to approve the final season. It begins in 2027-28 at roughly $13.5 million and rises from there.
Larsson, the No. 44 pick in the 2024 draft, put together a strong season as a second-round find. He averaged 11.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists while starting 54 of his 70 games, shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 32.3 percent from three. Charania called the 25-year-old wing a “foundational piece,” and that kind of language fits the role he’s carved out in Erik Spoelstra’s rotation.
The money lands below the non-taxpayer midlevel exception when the extension begins, which gives Miami some room if Larsson keeps climbing. For now, the Heat have another useful, physical, unselfish player under control before restricted free agency could become a problem.
Jayson Tatum also weighed in on one of the league’s most talked-about split-ups, and he did it plainly.
On The Dan Patrick Show, Tatum was asked about the biggest public misconception around his relationship with Jaylen Brown after the Celtics traded Brown to the 76ers.
“For me, I love that guy,” Tatum said, via Mike Prada of The Athletic. “What we were able to accomplish together in nine years, we went to the conference finals five times, we went to the championship twice, we won a championship, we’ve shared All-Star games together. You can’t talk about him without talking about me, and vice versa.”
He also addressed the reality behind the breakup.
“Unfortunately, the business of basketball is always going to play a part,” he said. “Nobody has ever played together forever.
But it’s not a thing to be sad or upset about. It’s a thing to celebrate what we were able to do.”
That won’t end every argument about how close Tatum and Brown really were, but it does put the basketball part in clear focus. They spent nine seasons together, reached the conference finals repeatedly and won a title. Now Brown is in Philadelphia, and the possibility of an Eastern Conference playoff meeting is right there.
The relationship can be celebrated. The rivalry can wait.
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