Season Review: Ausar Thompson’s Impact CATALYST for Detroit Pistons’ Dramatic Turnaround This Season

Season Review: Ausar Thompson’s Impact CATALYST for Detroit Pistons’ Dramatic Turnaround This Season

in today’s episode of Lockdown Pistons podcast we’re reviewing Assar Thompson’s season and discussing why he proved to be the Piston’s second most important player we’ll talk about that today’s episode Locked On Pistons Podcast let’s go you are Locked on Pistons your daily Detroit Pistons podcast part of the Locked On Network your team every day what’s the deal welcome back to another episode of the locked on pistons podcast per usual I’m your host Cuckahill you can find me over on Twitter cuckahill i want to thank you guys for making lockdown pistons your first listen every single day we are free to podcast platforms and if you haven’t already head to the YouTube channel at locked pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast you’re listening to this that’s another great way to support the podcast and today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel right now new customers can get $200 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins check out the description down below for the playback and the substack while I have Jane Ivy season review written out film breakdown all of that coming out either tonight or tomorrow morning so stay tuned for that that’s coming to you guys really soon but let’s go ahead and get into today’s episode we’ll review Assar Thompson’s season the positives the negatives and my overall takeaways from his second season in the NBA so let’s go ahead and get into it we’re going to start with the positives and something you’re going to realize as we go through the positives are Assaar when you when you’re evaluating Assar’s season i’m not going to spend I’m going to spend a little bit of time but not too much time will be spent on his individual stats because he’s not going to be someone who scores 20 points a game at least right now i don’t think that’s really ever probably going to be who he is but his raw box score numbers are probably never going to jump off the page as oh my god he just averaged 19 10 five like that’s not what he’s going to be however you are going to feel his impact on the team every time he’s on the floor and that’s where you really see how great of a player or how good of a player he was uh this past year for the Detroit Pistons so I want to start with this in order to set this up to showcase how good he was this year and how large of an impact he had on the Pistons this year you have to rewind a little bit and see what they were without him so I want to start in December because December I’ve realized over the over recently to be honest i’ve seen a lot of people believe that December is when the Pistons really started to turn the turn the the game around their season around and it wasn’t really so much just a SAR coming back that turned their season around it was they were starting to turn around December they were already starting to play well and that’s just unequivocally false if you go to December the Pistons had a record of five and five in the month of December their net rating in the month of December was minus 5.6 in the month of December their defensive rating they had the the third worst defense in basketball in the month month of December again they had the third worst defense in the month of December and if you guys were listening to the podcast when this the the December happened you guys will remember I came on the podcast i believe the podcast was named like “Is this a fluky December?” Because the Pistons did win five games in the month of December but their net rating was horrible and their defense was just getting worse and worse so I came on the podcast and said “Is this really sustainable are they actually getting better or are they just winning some highscoring lucky games at the end here and this isn’t really sustainable?” We talked about that on the podcast that was the narrative around the team at that point that was in December when Assar was on like that 15inute uh I I believe he came halfway through and then 15 minute restriction during that time then you entered January obviously everyone’s heard this that many of times but this is how much the Pistons flipped i had to paint the picture in January when Assarus put into the starting lineup until the end of the year the Pistons jumped from the third worst defense in basketball during the month of December they jumped to the eighth best defense in basketball for the rest of the year after Sar was put into the starting lineup their net rating after Sar Thompson was put in the starting lineup went from what I say 18th in the NBA around you know just slightly below average um minus 6 point what was it – 6.4 I just had the number where is it let me go back and look minus 5.6 in the month of December it jumps to sixth in the NBA at plus 5.2 2 for the rest of the year after Assar Thompson was put into the starting lineup assar Thompson being put into the starting lineup and being able to play more minutes is what turned the Piston season around it unlocked their defense it unlocked Jaylen Durren defensively or covered some of his weaknesses defensively they played faster they forced more turnovers they were able to become one of the best transition fast break teams in the entire NBA solely because Assar Towns was put into the starting lineup and he warped their defense that is what happened and that shows how impactful he is already as a secondyear player in the NBA i do want to go through his numbers from January uh 4th until if basketball reference will not freeze on me here basketball reference by the way got to upgrade your site don’t know what’s going on here every time I use this site on my PC I’m recording it freezes non-stop it’s it’s terrible anyways during those games those 45 games from January 4th to the end of the year Assar Thompson put up averages of 11 points a game 5.4 rebounds a game 2.5 assists 1.8 steals a game with 0.9 blocks a game shooting 55% from the field and 68.3% from the free throw line which is much higher than it was at the beginning of the year when he first came back he slowly started to become better and better and better at the free throw line uh as the season went on i believe if you even go over his last uh if you go over his last like 15 games it gets even higher his free throw percentage but yeah you go over his last 20 games he shot 73% from the free throw line so he started to become a better and better and better free throw shooter as the season went on so that was his averages after he was put into the starting lineup now I want to go into what the team looked like when he was on the floor and when he was off the floor this is including when he comes back this is including after January 4th and moving on just when he subbed off the floor when Assar Thompson was off the floor for the Detroit Pistons this year they had a net rating of plus 1.03 so actually they were a positive team even with him off the floor which is pretty good to be honest the Pistons really turned it around there um but when he was on the floor their offense jumped from 1 115.5 offensive rating to 116.1 their defensive rating jumped from 114.5 defensive rating to 112.2 defensive rating their offense and defense both got better every single time Assar Thompson came onto the floor and they had a defensive or they had a net rating of plus 3.82 with Assar Thompson on the floor there is no other player on the Detroit Pistons outside of Tobias Harris whose onoff was so crazy because his backup four was so bad and Simony Fonteo there is no other player on the Detroit Pistons that has had I mean obviously we’re not going to include Kade because Kade’s the face of the franchise but there’s no other Piston on the roster that has had this big of a impact this big of a change in how the Pistons performed this year and was as big of a catalyst to the Pistons achieving what they achieved this year other than a Sar Thompson his impact was felt drastically this year now I want to kind of go to my goodness man can these places stop can everything just stop freezing on me every single time I go to it like my goodness anyways finally loaded uh I want to look at what he shot at the rim after January 4th as well once he started to get in better shape and once he was put in a starting lap etc he shot 67% at the rim which is better than last year he was in the 52nd percent and this is all according to clean the glass he was in the 52nd percentile at the rim a lot of those were dunks he dunks a almost everything around the rim you see him dunk the ball last year he was in the 50th percentile around the rim this year he’s in the 62nd percentile so he jumped uh 12 uh percentages this year um percentiles I should say this year in the NBA now we will get into some of his negatives later and that will come up with the you know some of his layups around the rim but he become a much he became a much better finisher this year for the Detroit Pistons throughout the year and especially as the season went on he as he started to get in better shape uh obviously as the year went on um the other point I want to bring up is this is that this is a Sar Thompson this this was a Sar Thompson coming off blood clots not having an off seasonason at all missing the beginning of the season and having to come in halfway with no practice no offseason no training camp having no stamina having to work his stamina up and his game shape up as the season was going on and he was able to impact the team as he did as we just pointed out imagine him with an off seasonason an actual training camp when he’s actually at peak stamina you guys remember those of you guys who watched Assar Thompson his rookie of year Assaar his rookie year had non-stop motor 99 stamina was never tired that was not the case this past year and for good reason we understand why but just imagine if he gets back once he gets back to that 99 stamina you know full out motor never really getting tired imagine what happens then imagine when he has an offseason actually develop and get training have a training camp who knows what the what the ceiling’s going to be for this guy obviously it’s hard to paint um defense is hard to qualify or quantify with numbers obviously we talked about his steals almost averaging three steals a game like that’s I mean that tells you a pretty good uh that’s a pretty good indicator obviously how good the defense was with him on versus off the floor that tells you a pretty good indicator the defense jumping 25 what was it 20 spots in the league from when he came back into the starting lineup versus when he wasn’t playing that gives you a good indicator how good he is defensively but there aren’t really any perfect numbers for defense to illustrate how good he is but if you watch the games along with those numbers that we can bring you know that he was one of the best defenders in the NBA this year on a per minute basis and when he’s able to play 30 plus minutes I think he’s going to be all defensive member for the rest of his career at least the rest of his prime that’s how good he is defensively we’re not going to talk about his playoff season because we already went through his playoff season in a previous review this isn’t the playoff review this is the season review so overall I think you walk away from Assar Thompson’s second season in the NBA saying he got better he showed just how impactful he is he showed just how important he is to this team success and I believe that he showcased that he is the second most important player on this basketball team when it comes to winning basketball games and impacting this team i think he’s the most he’s the second most important player on this team there are a few other things that he improved on he’s he his handle got slightly better this year he was trying a lot more things with the ball in his hands uh a lot of crazy behind the back crossover moves it’s still a little too loose it still needs to get much better but it did get better from last year to this year going into the second season um but yeah I thought this was a ultra success of a second season for Assar Thompson i can’t wait to see what his third season brings for him so let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter what did you guys feel about Assar Thompson’s second season what were the positives were there any positives that I did not bring up that you guys feel like I should have brought up let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter when we come back we’ll get into some of his negatives and some of his weaknesses that he has to improve upon and trust me there are some weaknesses that he has to get better at we’ll break them down coming up today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel the NBA playoffs are in full swing and every night the NBA finals are here almost every other night delivers highlight worthy performances major momentum shifts and can’t miss moments whether it’s a game-winning shower or a 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and available on all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the YouTube channel locked on Pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on that’s another great way to support the podcast and make sure you guys are looking over at the substack if you’re not subbed over over there on the substack click the description down below subscribe over there we got Jane Ivy’s season review coming to you guys it’s a very lengthy breakdown full of film stats it’s a It’s a real in-depth breakdown i think you guys will really enjoy it so if you guys aren’t subbed over there and you guys haven’t seen the Assar Thompson Jaylen Duran K Cunningham along with all the film breakdowns we did after every single playoff game go check it out sub over there i think you guys really enjoy it we’re close to 500 subs over there i really would appreciate it all right so let’s go ahead and get into Assar Thompson’s negatives from this past year and look I know that I am and I’m proud to say this i’m I’m cool with being this guy in the community i am the Assar Thompson guy i’m probably the highest on Assar Thompson in the community um I think a lot of people are high on him now but I I’m going to maintain that I am the highest everyone remembers that I drafted him fifth overall a few years ago obviously in the locked on mock draft and got laughed at by locked on mock uh what was it the mock draft um got laughed at by them and people Assar was not the popular pick at five people want Cam Whitmore Jarus Walker like he was not the popular pick and the Pistons ended up going with who I wanted and I believe they’ve been proven right by selecting him so yes I am very high on SR but that does not mean I am blind to his weaknesses and don’t understand where he has to get better at so let’s go ahead and get into it the first area that I think is a little bit concerning so if you remember coming into the draft I was pretty I don’t want to say high i I I would say I was higher than some of the other evaluators on his potential to improve as a three-point shooter um at the end of his OT season he was taking a lot of off the dribble threes a lot of step back threes self-creation threes i was really a believer that he could eventually become a three-point shooter and his rookie season he was at least taking some threes right his rookie season he took 1.8 threes a game now he shot 18% which was way lower than I thought he I thought he would come in at like 26% way lower than I thought but he at least he was taking 1.83 a game you’re like “Okay they’re trying to develop it.” Then there was this big deal made of Fred Vincent being brought in to develop him and Ron Holland’s jumper now I understand he dealt with blood clots and wasn’t able to really practice all summer i get it okay I understand so maybe that changes things moving forward but this year it wasn’t that he wasn’t It wasn’t that he just wasn’t making threes the Pistons essentially said to him “We don’t want you taking threes we think it’s a waste of possession for you we think it’s a waste of a possession for us and really it’s not really giving you any value to be honest for you to shoot these threes and not shoot that well on them we think you provide more value in the dunker spot as a handler in the screen and roll game all that kind of stuff we think you provide more value rather than us putting you in the corner and asking you to shoot threes and when you do get the ball at the corner we want you to drive the closeouts and trigger trigger into DHOs which is what started happening as the season went on he didn’t even take one three a game this season which is pretty concerning to me because now I went from pre-draft to being okay I think he can become a decent three-point shooter i’m a believer in it to now I’m I’m at after his second season where I’m pretty I I I believe pretty much he’s probably never going to shoot threes that’s where I’m at right now maybe everything changes going into the next year maybe Fred Vincent works a miracle and now all of a sudden he comes out next year shooting two threes a game and he’s shooting 35% on them maybe that happens but the fact that the Pistons went from having him shoot threes to try to develop it to now telling we just don’t want you to take him at all does not give me much confidence that it’s something that they really believe that he can eventually do cuz he wasn’t even taking him they didn’t even want him taking open ones so that’s I think that’s the biggest area of concern for Assar because when you drafted him obviously we’ll get into the other part but when you draft him there was the part we’ll eventually get into and I’m sorry if you guys can hear someone mowing lawn and behind me they’re doing maintenance in my um in my apartment complex either way um three-point shoot you had to believe in his three-point shooting coming around at some point or coming around at all and I believe that um and I’m not sure that’s the case anymore so that’s a little bit concerning to me that’s probably my biggest concern from him um this second season is I don’t know if that three-point shot will ever be a part of his game um the second problem or the second weakness I would say with his second season and it’s hard as far as it’s hard for me to say these weaknesses because again he didn’t have an offseason in training camp so I wonder if these are things that will improve now that he actually does have one is not silent with blood clots but nonetheless we have to be fair and talk about what we saw this season um I know I said in the earlier segment that his handle did get a little better and it did but it didn’t get nearly it didn’t get good enough to where JB Bigger Staff was trusting of him enough to allow him to be a secondary creator within the half court which is the big reason why you draft him at five you draft him at five because he’s an all-world defender he’s one of the best athletes in the entire NBA plus he’s a secondary career with playmaking shots that can that can you know run some offense for you that that was the swing factor and I really believed in that and I still very much believe in it to a very high degree we saw some games against Philly when he was able to play point guard it looked really good we see him I just put out a whole compilation of him as a a transition playmaker we know how good of a passer he is we know how good of a processor he is but his handle has not gotten good enough at least as of right now to where JB Baker staff trusts him to be a consistent secondary creator within the half court and that’s why his assist numbers are still low they’re around 2.3 a game because he just doesn’t have a high usage he’s not being asked to create within the half court because they just don’t trust him yet which is a little I I won’t say it’s concerning to me i think it will get better i believe he’s going to be able to do it but that still was a weakness from this past year this was something that people expected people like myself expected him to be able to do this season and he just wasn’t tasked with doing it very often which was a bit disappointing and something I hope he’s able to improve upon enough to where they’re asking him to do it next season because that really is the swing factor to him becoming this great great basketball player the other area of his game that I I think he must improve upon his finishing did get better around the around the rim it it certainly did however he is he still is not as good of a finisher as you’d like him to be like he’s around what the 56 or 52nd percentile like I said 56 I believe it was shooting around uh what was it 67% at the rim he was 62nd percentile at the rim shooting 67% at the rim that is fine that’s good but for someone of his with his wingspan his athletic ability he should be able to finish much higher than that he should be a 70% plus finisher at the rim especially when the majority of all of his shots are coming at the rim and the problem is that when he’s dunking the ball I mean he’s he’s finishing but he doesn’t he hasn’t been able to finish consistent enough to where you’re a great finisher i think he should be a great finisher this isn’t good enough to me 62nd percentile i want him in the 70 plus percentile in order to get there he has to become a better finisher on his layups better finisher with his uh a better improve his touch around the rim i think a lot of it has to do with what we talked about pre-draft still i don’t think his footwork around the rim is still very good i think he still makes finishes a lot harder than they need to be he could take one more step one more dribble and he’s just at the rim and he’s finishing either with a easy dunk or just an easier layup at the rim i do also think he goes to his he’s oddly very comfortable with his left hand maybe sometimes a little over comfortable because he goes to his left hand and tries to take tougher finishes with his left hand too many times i feel like when he can just go with his right his main hand and just go with an easy finger roll layup i think that’s just something you can coach out of him and maybe with some training you can go over film and be like hey we know you like going to your left hand but this right here you probably didn’t need to do that think that could improve but nonetheless his finishing around the rim needs to get even better if that’s going to be the main source of his offense if all of your shots are coming at the rim you need to become very elite at those shots and right now according to Cleaning Glass he’s just good at them he’s not elite he’s just good as a as an alley finisher he’s great as a dunker he’s great but on layups he’s still not great enough or good enough to where he’s he’s able to really um dominate the game like inside the paint if you know what I’m saying um outside of that the only other thing from his from his season that I think he needs to improve upon and I don’t know if this is something he’ll ever really improve on because I feel like this is something that just comes with the kind of defender he is and I think that as he gets further into his career refs will give him a little bit more respect on the defensive end but he does get into foul trouble at times because of how aggressive he plays defensively and that does take him out of games puts the Pistons in in in a tough position um like we saw in the playoffs but even during the season he did that at times especially during times when he was struggling remember that stretch in the middle of March when he was really struggling and people were like “What’s wrong with the SAR?” blah blah blah a lot of that was due to the fact that he was in foul trouble and wasn’t able to play as aggressive and just wasn’t playing as many minutes because of it so he needs to get better at defending without fouling however I just think that’s going to be a hard thing to kind of coach out of him i think you kind of just have to hope that the refs give them more leniency like they give these great defenders like we see in the finals with Lud Door and Alex Russo where they’re where their reputation allows them to get away with a little bit more and I think that’s something you just got to hope with the SAR although there are some fouls yes that he has like half court 94 ft away from the basket where you’re just like “Hey it’s not worth it there just get back you don’t need to pick up this foul you should be a little bit smarter when he picks up the second foul when he picks up the third foul about what he wants to do then.” That is an area where he has to improve upon um but that’s all I’ve got right now with that let me know in the comment section down below are there other any other weaknesses that I did not point out that you guys think of that you’d like to see him really improve upon let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter Cucker Hill coming up my final takeaways from Assar Thompson’s second season in the NBA i’ll give those coming up so I want to thank you guys again for making Lockdown Pistons your first list of every single day we are free available on all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on that’s a great way to support the podcast description down below for the Substack Jane Ivy season review coming up and the playback room we’ll watch some of the Final games together if you want to do that head over there also if you haven’t already make sure you guys are tuning in to last episode where we had Keith Smith cap expert CBA expert head of spot track head over there watch that episode because Keith does a great job of really explaining where the Pistons are at heading into this offseason capwise the impact on the CBA extension decisions all of that stuff so you have a be the best understanding possible of what the Pistons what their position is right now when it comes to the CBA and the cap and some of the decisions they have to make moving forward because of that so go check that out if you haven’t already um but my final takeaways from Assar Thompson’s second year I kind of spoiled it in the first segment but I very strongly believe I believe all of the numbers back up and even if you just watch the games you watch the Pistons before January and you watch the Pistons after January that Assar Thompson is the second most impactful player on this basketball team his defense this is now two years in a row where Assar Thompson himself warps the Pistons defense that when he’s on the floor and when he’s in the lineup the Pistons defense is one of the best in the league and when he’s off the floor they crash to one of the worst this is now two back-to-back years his first two years in the NBA as a rookie and as a sophomore he’s having that kind of impact i could never have guessed that kind of impact that’s otherworldly impact and we talked about this in Jaylen Duran’s review of the playoffs we talked about in his him and Osar’s playoff review over on the substack but there is a a there is a strong part of me that also believes that Assar Thompson makes Jaylen Duran work jaylen Durren’s only positive duo net rating in the playoffs was with the SAR when he’s not playing with Assar during the regular season the defense drops heavily falls off the cliff so part of me believes the only player on the team that makes Duran or can that I don’t want to say makes Dur because it sounds disrespectful to Duran but Assar Thompson being on the floor with Duran I mean there’s no other way I can really think of saying it other than makes Duran a passable defender and allows them to to reap the benefits of Duran’s offense because Assar is covering everything defensively along with that I think you saw offensively that despite his limitations and this was something we talked about all playoffs but it was even more evident during the regular season like I said the offense got better when he was on the floor offensively and why is that the case it’s because despite his weaknesses despite the turnover here and there that makes you roll your eyes despite the his inability to shoot threes despite the every now and then possession in the half court that gets a little clunky because they don’t space it right because he can’t shoot threes despite all of that their offense is better with him on the floor because their best offense is being able to run and being able to force turnovers being able to score in fast breaks being able to score in transition and his ability to take advantage of how defenses like to guard Cade where they put two on ball and his ability to attack four and three situations as a play finisher and as a decision maker out of the short role or as a ball handler that is why the Pistons offense is still better with him on the floor despite the fact of the occasional eye roll at the layup at a mis layup at a turnover at some of the spacing at times that’s why it’s still better with him on the floor so just imagine after an offseason when he gets to actually train when he actually gets to develop what he looks like this is an incomplete player that already had this type of impact on the floor for the Detroit Pistons and this is all without me even mentioning it’s kind of just like a given when you talk about Assar but you can’t you can’t just gloss over it because it is one of it probably is the biggest reason why he’s able to do all this he’s probably a top first percentile athlete in the NBA him and his brother are are some of the best athletes we’ve ever seen in the NBA with their size with their wingspan their speed from one from one end of the floor to the other their quickness their vertical their explosiveness their ability to double jump their ability to get get high as quick as they do they’re two of the best athletes we’ve ever seen so you take a player like that and sorry you can’t I know that’s a given we already know that but you you kind of have to mention that when you bring up the fact that he’s this all world defender that he has that kind of processing and playmaking ability and finishing ability you combine that with the type of athlete he is it’s just a very unique just a very very unique basketball player and I’m not sure we’ve seen many of these type of players of him and his brother because of all that into one usually you get the athlete that’s like that but doesn’t have the greatest you know processing isn’t the greatest passer usually you get the processor and the passer and the playmaker and they don’t really have a lot athleticism to him like obviously you know some if someone goes in the comments and says LeBron I’m going to spaz like come on if someone says LeBron James in response to that like can we be real right now you don’t see many players like that it’s usually one or the other it’s very rare that you get this type of athlete that has that all world defense and knows how to play the right way high IQ passing playmaking processor the only other guy I can think of that jumps off the jumps off the the the top to me is Andre Goddala prime Iggy and I’m I was a little young during this guy’s prime so I don’t know if he was that athletic i know he had great size and wingspan but I know he had all that other stuff if he was I I feel like I remember him being athletic pretty athletic but someone older than me can correct it also Andre Karolinko like those are the guys that come to my head those are the only ones I can think of that are like this so I’m I’m am very interested to see how Assar Thompson looks going into a season where he actually gets to train and develop but after his second season he was a part of the Pistons breaking their playoff win drought he played much better in the playoffs as the series went on but this isn’t a playoff series review so let me go ahead and just stay away from that the regular season he was the single biggest reason why the Pistons turned their season around in January he warped their defense he got better as a player moving as the season went on and I believe he’s the second most impactful player second most important player on this basketball team that’s my takeaways that’s my final takeaway from Assar Thompson’s second season in the NBA let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter do you guys agree disagree what are your thoughts again comment section down below or over on Twitter cuckill that’s all I’ve got for you guys today thank you guys for making Lockdown Pistons your first listen of every single day free and available on all your podcast platforms if you haven’t already head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on and until next time I will see you guys later stay safe out there until next time peace out everybody

Is Ausar Thompson the key to the Detroit Pistons’ resurgence? Host Ku Khahil breaks down Thompson’s sophomore season, revealing how his insertion into the starting lineup transformed the team’s defense from third-worst to eighth-best. Discover Thompson’s impressive stats, including his 11 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.8 steals per game, and learn why his impact goes beyond the box score.

Khahil analyzes Thompson’s strengths, from his elite defensive skills to his improved finishing at the rim. He also addresses areas for improvement, including three-point shooting and ball handling. With comparisons to NBA greats like Andre Iguodala and Andrei Kirilenko, find out why Thompson might be the Pistons’ second-most impactful player.

Tune in for an in-depth look at how Ausar Thompson is reshaping the Detroit Pistons’ future and what it means for their playoff aspirations.

SUBSTACK: kukhahil.substack.com

PLAYBACK: playback.tv/watchpistons

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