Isiah Thomas is the Pistons all-time leader in assists.
The Detroit Pistons were established during the 1948-49 season. The franchise has made 42 playoff appearances, taking home three championships along the way. There are plenty of big names who have spent time in Detroit during their career, so let’s focus on the assists column and highlight the top-five players in that department in franchise history.
Thomas played for 13 seasons in the NBA, all with Detroit. He made 12 All-Star teams and finished inside the top-10 in MVP voting four times. In the 1984-85 season, he led the league in assists with an average of 13.9 dimes per game. In 1983-84, Thomas began a streak of four straight seasons in which he averaged at least 10.0 assists. For his career, he averaged 9.3 assists over 36 minutes per game.
Like Thomas, Dumars spent his entire career with the Pistons. He played 14 seasons, logging 35 minutes per game. In seven of his first eight seasons in the league, he played in at least 75 games. He began his career by averaging at least 4.0 assists in each of his first eight seasons.
Bing spent the first nine seasons of his career with Detroit. He won the Rookie of the Year Award in the 1966-67 season, averaging 20.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game. Bing seemed to always be on the floor, averaging at least 37 minutes per game in seven of his nine seasons with the Pistons. For his career, he would go on to average 6.4 assists over 675 games with the Pistons.
Billups played for seven different franchises during his career. He spent bulk of his career with the Pistons, playing 482 games for the team across eight seasons. Billups was key in leading Detroit to the 2004 NBA championship. The following season, he helped the Pistons reach the Finals again where they lost in seven games to the Spurs. Billups’ best individual season was the 2005-06 campaign when he finished fifth in the MVP voting with averages of 18.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 8.6 assists. He averaged 6.2 assists per game during his time with the Pistons, which is more than he averaged with any other team.
The Pistons selected Hill with the third overall pick in the 1994 Draft. He made the All-Star team and won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1994-95, averaging 19.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game. He spent the first six seasons of his career with the Pistons, averaging at least 6.0 assists per game in four separate seasons. He finished inside the top-10 in MVP voting in each of his final five seasons with the team and dished out 6.3 assists per game during his tenure as a member of the Pistons.
