Ausar Thompson: Poised to Be The Defensive Breakout Star of 2026 for the Detroit Pistons

Ausar Thompson: Poised to Be The Defensive Breakout Star of 2026 for the Detroit Pistons

Bryce, this is one where I am just giving you the floor and letting you rock because this one is probably one where there’s a bit of projection involved 100%. Also is like truly elite on defense uh in the minutes that he played last year. It is aar Thompson. Yeah. Positionally I’m just going to call him like athletic athletic disruptor. Like I don’t even know that there’s like a position for him necessarily. It’s just like he is using his athleticism to break on offense. Like that’s it. So you know you watch every game that Assar Thompson plays on defense. So just we give you the floor here. Yeah. I I love that um label for him because I think that’s what it is. While I also think at some point we probably want to get into the nuances and the finer details of his game which I thought improved. And I’ll just mention off the top early last year I was very critical of Assar, you know, navigating ball screens and and getting through screens in general and every once in a while he’d be a little bit lax and that would make him late and he got better at that throughout the season and but ultimately what makes him special and I’m glad you mentioned the projection because I think of all of the players we’re going to talk about this is probably the most like most people would probably have him in the 20s and I think for me and I where I had him ranked push this up a a little bit for sure was I think I know what level of defender he’s going to be and I think I know where he’s going to be this next year and if he plays the minutes and the games and all of that he’s going to very much be in that conversation. But first and foremost is the athleticism. It’s not quite a men but it’s really close. So he is able to do the chase down blocks and the low man rim protections and all of that but he also plays extremely hard. He does make the hustle impact plays. He chases down loose balls. He gets deflections. All of those things that are beyond just the box score disruption type of things. And again, I think he got better and better throughout the year at the point of attack. He got better playing with his chest, keeping his hands off, staying down. He had to guard Jaylen Brunson in that uh NBA playoffs against the Knicks. And while there was some times he had to learn things, and I’m not that Brunson didn’t get it at times, I felt like every time a SAR went to the bench, you saw Brunson like just turn it like, “Okay, I got to go get it right now because he’s over there taking a rest.” And so I just think he’s extremely overall impactful while continuing to grow his like point of attack, ball screen navigation, all of that. And then one final thing, he’s a big-time defensive rebounder for a wing that can then start transition. And a lot of today’s conversation will be about guys who start transition. Um, and the final episode as well. Assar is a guy that starts transition for the Pistons with disruption and with defensive rebounding. Well, look, like I would argue that there’s really only one other guy that we’re going to talk about today that does it at the level that Assar does. And I would agree. Yeah. I mean, it’s pretty real like the ability to grab and go. The ability to just like he is so athletic that at times like he will just grab the ball out of midair like as a block shot or as like a steal, right? Like he just takes the ball from people. And then when he does that, he has enough ball handling ability and athleticism in the open court to be able to start early offense for the Detroit Pistons. And that is super super valuable and I think it’s an underrated part of defense because it’s you know only half defense right it offense certainly plays a role in that too. So with Assar what stands out I’m really glad that you brought up the idea of like Jaylen Brunson like the tricks of the trade kind of being able to get him right the little up fakes the things like that. The foul trouble is ultimately why, you know, I had him uh right around here. Honestly, I had him like two spots lower, but like I had him right in this space. Uh there are guys who can kind of trick him a little bit who can like get him, but it almost doesn’t matter because he’s so athletic and like so gifted. And the other thing about the Thompsons that I think goes so underrated is these are not small dudes. Yeah. Like I think people sometimes pigeon hole with them them just purely athletically and in terms of frame with somebody like Andre Jackson, right? Like these dudes are like 220 lbs. Like they they are thick through their chest. They are strong. They are powerful athletes. Like Andre Jackson is more of a run up and down the court athlete who like never gets tired and like can you know sprint and do everything like that but like I think there are times where like he doesn’t take contact like you watch him guard Jaylen Brunson whereas you watch Assar Thompson guard Jaylen Brunson like Assar can take the bumps that that’s not the issue. It’s more that he will just like get caught sometimes like on the on an up fake or something like that. You know what I mean? Like the other thing is like he’d have like silly fouls trying to deny him off the ball or 80 ft away from the basket and stuff like that, but it wasn’t physical. It was just it was kind of Brunson was very smart in that series and very very deliberate trying to get him in foul trouble because he did not want to have to deal with him anymore. Yeah. And the twitchiness is just so sick. I I love him. Like I I think that if we were making bets right now, I think he will probably be in the top 10 next year if we were to do this project next summer. Yeah, I think he’d probably be in the top 10. It’s just ultimately that these other guys have like proven a little bit more or had better defensive seasons than what he did this year. Not to say he was a bad defender by any stretch. Honestly, I thought he was an unbelievable defender this year. But, you know, between the ability to get steals and like get into passing lanes and the reactivity there, I think he is like generally pretty good at not overextending himself and like gambling. I would agree with that. or be somebody that is uh as disruptive in passing lanes as he is. Like he s he tends to get home like he tends to have like really good he has a really good IQ and sense of timing on when to go and like go for balls and passing lanes and things like that. Um yeah, I mean he he’s just a stud on defense. Like it’s just the little tools of the trade that I think are going to come as he continues to get more experience. like you know he has played 2900 minutes so far in his career entirely just because he had the blood clot issue. Um a man has played you know what so far between the playoffs and everything like he’s played almost 4,000. So there there is just like a little bit of a small difference there that you can see in a men’s twitch year and everything athletically it’s like a little bit different but Assar is you know going to be on that level. Yeah, maybe not quite like the level where we have a men ranked, but you know, I think he’s going to be a top five to 10 defender in the league at some point. He is really really just disruptive all over the court, man. Like it is it is sick to watch him. I I think that’s where I ended up with my ranking was trying to like hedge like hey I think I know where he’s going to be in 12 months and you know not even 12 months but like whenever we’re doing our middle of the season all in you know all defense things and it’s like man I don’t want to look crazy for having him at 23 oh you know five months ago but also trying to appreciate what some of I mean like you said a few of these other guys are pretty established across the board honestly all but one is pretty established um with their career. One other guy is pretty young, but um you know is a is a big time defender in his own right obviously, but uh I I’m okay with him being here for now. I just with the caveat that I do think it’s going to rise. Yeah. And again, the way that he is able to disrupt guards, the way that he is able to disrupt wings. I mean, there were times I felt like where they would put him on fours and there were no issues there. Like physical fours. Uh, you know, not really fives yet, but I think that as he gets stronger, he might be able to do it. Sure. Like that’s kind of the thing. He’s so athletic that like if you wanted to play like a crazy five, they’re not going to have to. But like if you wanted to run something out like that, I could see it where it could work. Like but again like if you do that then you’re kind of reducing his helpside impact where he’s a monster, you know, in terms of ground coverage. Like he just covers an immense amount of ground all over the court. Like he’s a real you know rim rotation guy being able to get there and get home. Uh you know and certainly contest shots. I think he actually does a really good job of verticality too, uh, as a rim protector, like going up and rotating from the weak side and like retreating while still getting incredibly high in the air and using his length to its fullest potential. Um, and then additionally, like, you know, he can go from there to like close out onto shooters and like potentially block a shot on shooters, right? Like like there are times where like he’ll even get home and like deflect a ball out of bounds like before the pass even gets there. like he’s just all over the place defensively. I I think Assar Thompson is awesome on defense and it’s only going to get more and more impactful. I I like I said, if we do this project again next summer, I would bet you that he ends up a good deal higher than this. Yep. I agree.

What makes Ausar Thompson of the Detroit Pistons one of the best defenders in the NBA?!

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Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.