When it comes to drafting NBA players, there’s no such thing as a perfect prospect. Ausar Thompson is no exception. Sure, he plays with the weight of Detroit’s hopes and dreams on his shoulders every game and makes it look easy, but like every other NBA freshman, he has his flaws.
“But what about Victor Wembanyama??,” one might ask. Even he needs some work. Of course, he’s already a great player, but his decision-making, ability to create space and capitalize on it, and his shot selection need to be tightened before he can become the world-ending player of our hopes and dreams.
The other rookies are the same. Everybody wants these guys to be good, but they all need to work on something. Scoot Henderson needs to re-establish his grip on the game of basketball. Anthony Black needs to assert himself as the flamethrower that he is in the meager minutes he receives. Brandon Miller needs to stop posting his garbage time “highlights” on Instagram.
Then there’s the Thompson twins, Amen and Ausar. The Overtime Elite products were drafted at picks four and five, respectively, and they just might be the real deal. They have all the makings of it, at least.
Amen is the guy who shows out, and Ausar is the one who holds it down. They have good heads on their shoulders. Which is to say, all these fools want to do is play basketball.
The twins aren’t without their problems, though. Yeah, Amen, the point guard, is an offensive energy bomb, lighting up games on a whim. Yeah, he’s fast as hell. Sure, he treats the paint as his personal runaway truck ramp, screeching to a halt only after deftly laying the ball in or jamming home a lob. That’s all cool, but he still needs a bit of work.
Amen’s ability on the defensive end isn’t lacking, per se, but it can certainly be improved, and it has a lot to do with his natural position. He’s a big point guard who is most engaged when the ball is in front of him, and when it gets down to it and he needs to defend off the ball for a stretch, his court engagement wanes.
Amen needs to be directly tapped into the action, or else he begins to drift. That said, he is only 20 years old, so this is nothing that a couple of years in the league can’t fix.
Ausar, the big wing, is different. He’s good at damn near everything, and he doesn’t make the same mistake twice. He drives like Amen, and he similarly lights shit up.
He has a basketball IQ well beyond his years, and he’s still not old enough to buy a beer. He passes the ball with the same ease as a seasoned stoner. But, unlike his herb-inclined metaphor mate, Ausar can pass both left and right, and every other direction, too.
Most impressively, Ausar is already one of the best wing defenders in the league. He put the clamps on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in his first week in the NBA. It’s impossible to watch a Pistons game without his defensive activity jumping through the screen.
Ausar is a real-life basketball robot, taking in environmental input and executing plays in his CPU until he’s certain what needs to be done. And when he does something wrong, albeit rarely, his computer’s AI unit is constantly learning in order to ensure that such a misstep doesn’t occur again.
For all of the abilities on Ausar’s Pokèmon card, though, he still has one big, fat blank section because he can’t fucking shoot.
It’s rare to see a non-big drafted inside the top 10 without a working jumper. But it doesn’t matter! Notable bust Ben Simmons can’t fucking shoot either, and he’s still getting to the bag like a young finance bro at a quote-unquote “dive bar” in New York City.
Ausar and Ben’s games contain multitudes, but these multitudes don’t necessarily include shooting, and they don’t have to.
As a matter of fact, these men each slot into a new type of player that I call the pocket knife. A good pocket knife has every tool that you might need in life, but, sadly, it can’t shoot. It’s useful in everything but a shootout.
Does anyone really need a pocket knife to be able to shoot something, though? Fuck no. That’d be ridiculous. It’d be cool, but it’s just not necessary for such a tool. We can apply these same principles to a pocket knife player, as long as they’re good at everything else.
Ausar and Ben can do just about everything else on the basketball court. This season, Ausar is ripping down 10 rebounds per game, six defensive and an astonishing four offensive. He’s a rookie! And he plays on the perimeter! This is nuts.
The crazy thing is, Ausar is putting up similar numbers in his first NBA season. What’s more, he’s punching in a solid steal every single game. Ben only does this every other game. Clearly, Ausar has a real feel for the game already, and that just cannot be taught. Of course, he still has a lot of room to improve.
Again compared to Simmons, Ausar is a slightly worse assister, averaging nearly four per game to Ben’s nearly seven per game, but this is nothing to worry about for the rookie. He isn’t a point guard; he’s a connective playmaker.
As he settles into his role with the Stones, things will get better. Even still, he’s a much needed bright spot in the team’s stormy and tumultuous lineup. Detroit needs some hope right now. At least they can say they got this pick right.
Still, there’s the dreaded shooting stats. To evoke the cursed name of Ben Simmons a third time, the two have eerily similar shooting numbers. Ausar puts up a middling 11 points per game on stinky 50.8/13.8/69.8 splits. The splits are fine for a rookie, but that three point percentage is ghastly.
Similarly ghastly are Simmons’ shooting numbers this season. The Brooklyn point guard averages 6.5 points per game on 52.3/00.0/56.0 splits. The man knows he’s not a shooter, and so does everyone else, but this is just ridiculous.
Both Simmons and Ausar can attack the rim with exceptional ease, but shit gets a bit shaky when range is required. Simmons has six shot attempts per game and has an average distance of made shots of a disgusting 4.49 feet, and once he leaves this range, he is completely ineffective.
Actually, that’s not true. Once Simmons does leave this range, he does not shoot. It’s incredible, really. If you don’t believe me, look at his shot chart.
As the young Atlanta-via-Chicago great Sahbabii once said, “[h]e scared to shoot like Ben Simmons, we just checked his stats.” I knew Simmons wasn’t much of a shooter, but this is even worse than I expected. I mean, the fool can’t leave the paint!
Some people were giving him one last chance to redeem himself this season. The Simmons summer hype machine was once again working at full force. But now that he’s sidelined with another back ailment, and proven he hasn’t gained any confidence, it’s pretty much impossible to have any more hope for him.
Thankfully, Ausar is different. The mfer can’t shoot, but he at least tries to shoot. He attempts over ten shots each game, with two of these attempts coming from three point land. His splits, as we saw, are gross, but, again, he’s just a boy. He’ll come into his own soon enough. Here’s his chart.
Yeah, he’s not shooting very well, but he’s taking a lot more shots than Ben Simmons, trying his very best to start making them. Once he does, he’ll graduate from pocket knife to certified superstar, but for now, we should be happy with his output. The dude isn’t afraid to set the record for airballs this season, and that willingness to fail is admirable.
Anyway, let’s forget about poor Mr. Simmons and focus on some pocket knife players who loosely compare to Ausar.
Is there a true comp for Ausar?
As a preface, Ausar is different from each of these players and he’s already shitting on their personal rookie numbers, but there are certainly shades and hues of them in his game. The only difference is that they’re all better shooters and are solid-to-good at most anything on the court. As such, we’ll compare the career stats for all these players to see what Ausar might become.
First up is Bam Adebayo. Bam and Ausar are defensive technicians, but they can contribute offensively as well. For his six-year career, Bam is averaging 15 points, nearly nine rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block, with an eFG% of 55.4%.
Bam is one of the best, no doubt, but Ausar is coming close to these numbers as a rookie. As a reminder, the young man is posting 11 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and damn near two blocks every single game.
Yes, his three point shooting sucks, but he still has a not so awful eFG% of 45.2%—again, he’s a rookie! To so closely compare to a young great like Bam is crazy, but to already be doing so in his first 15-ish games is nuts.
Here’s a sign in favor of Ausar’s offense: his assist and free throw numbers are eerily similar to Bam’s at the same age. Bam has become a knockdown midrange shooter, and he’s the hub of the Miami offense. It’s easy to see Ausar following a similar path.
| Player | AST% | FT% |
| Thompson (’24) | 14.6 | 70.7 |
| Adebayo (’18) | 14.7 | 73.5 |
The thing is, Bam is a center, so a comparison of the two will always be a bit of a reach. But the fact that Ausar’s rebounding numbers compare favorably to one of the league’s best bigs proves how unique of a wing he is. He can become a new kind of playmaking big-wing hybrid, something we’ve never seen before.
The fifth overall pick also compares well to Christian-truther Jonathan Isaac. Isaac, a draftmate of Adebayo, is a funny player who has missed significant time in his young career. He posts slightly worse numbers than Ausar, but he compares well when it comes to blocks and steals, averaging a steal and slightly more than a block per game.
That said, Isaac, as a true big man, hits his threes and free throws at an average clip, which is a lot more than Ausar, obviously. If he can merely increase his numbers to mirror those of Isaac, he’ll be a walking double-double as a wing who can finish at the rim and knock down open threes. And the league just isn’t ready for that.
At worst, though, Ausar could become something of a Jarred Vanderbilt-type player. He’ll serve a solid role on a contender, but he’ll never be the star. And I’m sure Ausar is fine with the possibility because he’ll still be absolutely paid and will be able to play the game he loves.
If he ends up like Vanderbilt, he’ll be a defensive dynamo and a useful playmaker, making the most of his opportunities when he gets them, and this will be A-okay.
The one thing that Ausar and Vanderbilt undeniably share is a motor that won’t quit. Both of these dudes will happily die on the court like Vikings who believe in Valhalla. Their non-stop activity shows in their rebounding numbers. They go after every single missed shot, every loose ball like they’re playing for souls.
The thing about Vando, though, is he’s a pocket knife. So, he’s the first player benched in a shootout. At his position, this might be true for Ausar, too–unless the jumper comes around. But with his gym rat work ethic, there’s no reason to doubt him.
Plus, he’s already way more advanced than Vanderbilt, the only thing that he’s lacking is Vando’s swag. When Vanderbilt was Ausar’s age, he was playing four minutes a night.
The truth is, Ausar isn’t Vanderbilt. He isn’t Isaac or Adebayo. He’s a unique combination of the three, and he’s going to carve his own path in the league. He plays a different position than any of them. He’s the first of his kind. Today, he’s one of the league’s premier pocket knives. Tomorrow, who knows?
So yeah, Ausar Thompson is the shit. There’s a real chance he’s better than all of these players combined. Even if the shooting never comes around, he’ll still be a valuable starter on any team (hopefully the Pistons). I mean, like I said, the young fellas can swing the rock, crash the glass, and lock down the finest players in the league, but he just can’t shoot yet.
To all this I ask rhetorically, who doesn’t need a pocket knife?
