Detroit Pistons all time leader in steals

For years the Detroit Pistons have needed a lockdown wing defender and they hope they found him in Ausar Thompson, the 5th pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Detroit has had some of the league’s best defenders over the years, guys like Ben Wallace who racked up steals and blocks on his way to multiple Defensive Player of the Year awards.

But Wallace, widely considered one of the best defenders of all time, isn’t even the Pistons all-time leader in steals.

Here’s a look at the top-10 thieves in Detroit Pistons history, and whether Ausar Thompson has a chance to crack the list.

Detroit Pistons all time leader in steals

This top-10 only includes the steals these players swiped while playing for the Pistons:

• Isiah Thomas (1861)
• Ben Wallace (931)
• Joe Dumars (902)
• Lindsey Hunter (896)
• Andre Drummond (823)
• Chris Ford (785)
• Vinnie Johnson (708)
• Grant Hill (694)
• John Long (649)
• Bill Laimbeer (632)

I don’t think it will surprise anyone that Isiah Thomas is the Pistons all-time leader in steals, but it is somewhat surprising that its by such a wide margin. But unlike most players on this list, Thomas played his entire 13-year career with the Pistons, averaging 1.9 steals per season in that time and swiping more than two per game five times.

Lindsey Hunter might be a surprise for some people, as I’ve often said the tenacious defender is one of the most underrated Pistons of all time. His fourth place on this list is even more impressive when you consider he mostly came off the bench for Detroit.

Will Ausar Thompson lead the Detroit Pistons in steals?

Even though he has yet to play a regular season game, Ausar Thompson does have a chance to eventually crack this list given what we’ve seen so far. He averaged 2.4 steals per game in OTE last season, albeit against teenagers, but he backed that up in Summer League, swiping 2.3 per game while playing disruptive defense all over the floor.

So all Thompson has to do is play 13 seasons for the Pistons and average nearly two steals per game in that time. Easy stuff.

When you consider things like “load management” (Isiah Thomas barely ever missed a game) and the fact that players switch teams far more often than they did in the past, Thompson is going to have his work cut out for him if he ever wants to be considered one of the Pistons all-time great defenders.

Let’s revisit this in a decade.