Expectations For Ausar Thompson This Season With The Detroit Pistons?

I I I’d love to hear like what you think he could have this upcoming season because I I feel like he’s a big X factor. Yeah. I I I’ve been calling him the secret sauce, right? Like when he came back, that’s when things like really started to take off for Detroit. Uh it’s weird. I My expectations for him are to just like see him play an entire season, don’t get hurt, uh and like be the insane athlete he is. Uh maybe that results in like an alldefense team. Maybe that insult results in like a most improved player candidacy. Uh like I know like Zack Low was like talking him up on the latest edition of uh the Zack Low show and I I don’t think that’s like uh it’s nice to have national people like care about the third or fourth guy on the Pistons. Um but yeah, I don’t think uh I don’t think the shot is going to be in a space to where um like teams are going to have to guard him on the perimeter. And so my expectation for him is uh improve the handle, right? You like we’re talking about we’re talking Rade, we’re talking about Jaden Ivy. Um maybe Assar can be like a tertiary ball handler for this team and that’s something that they can actually like give him the room to explore during a long regular season. Um because I think I think the handle has a better chance of getting to a place where that becomes like a weapon for him offensively than the shot does. Um for now, my expectations would be like, “Hey, SR, like you don’t have to shoot, you don’t have to shoot uh threes. Like, shoot them if you’re open. Don’t worry about it too much.” Um but you do have to make your free throws, right? I think he got he got noticeably more comfortable at the free throw line as the season went along, and I’d like to see that continue. Um, that was that was a big like point of improvement for me just because like he’s so he’s so he’s so quick as a driver that like if like guys are going to foul him if he has the ball in his hands and he starts driving. Um, and so you’re going you’re like if you’re going to get fouled like it’d be nice if we could get like actual free throws out of this. Uh, it was a nice decent jump like 60% to 64% over his rookie year but like I’d like to see that get closer to like 70 75%. It’s so funny because a couple weeks ago I got in a heated argument over what’s more important, him developing a three-point shot or a handle. And I said handle. And uh the the guest that I had on was crashing out over it. I was just like, man, like if he develops a handle, he can get to the free throw line. I think that opens up his game more getting to the free throw line. Not only that, like you make some like you have to rewind your TV type passes because you’re like, “What? Did he just really make that pass like underneath the basket like that?” Like I think I think his passing I don’t want to say it’s underrated, but I don’t think it gets talked enough in my personal opinion in the Piston space. But yeah, I I do agree. He doesn’t have the ball enough to pass it enough to like where it becomes like a talking point, I think. Yeah, I mean like if he had a tighter handle, maybe he does take on more on ball reps because I think he’s more than capable of it. I know JB kind of experimented with like the point of SAR and I think a lot of teams last year didn’t really know how to guard him because he’s just so fast and so strong and uh by the time he jumps or cuts, you’re like, “Oh crap, it’s going in.” Or like the like the Knicks assistant coaches every time he was in the dunker spot about to cut like they’re yelling at Josh Hart and Josh Hart’s like, “What?” and then like he’s up in the air. It’s just like right his athletes. It’s just crazy. Um I don’t expect a three-point shot to just go from like whatever it was this year, I I haven’t even checked, to like 40%. I I just don’t see it that way. If he can develop a handle, I think it’s great. Uh I’m with you on the free throw percentage. Like if he can get from like 64 to 70ish, I think that’s just a a win. You can kind of check that off as a box of like what you want to see improve on. But to me, like if he develops any sort of a jump shot, I I I think that’s a big win for the Pistons. Yeah. And like even if that’s those those like 10-ft like moonshot jumpers he was shooting his rookie year. Um but if he’s able to get to his spot like into the paint and like rise and fire and make those shots consistently, then like yeah, you like you’ll take that offensive contribution. And then like defensively like everybody already knows what he’s going to do defensively. He’s going to mess stuff up. like he’s just going to like shut down guys. Like it’s going to be great. Yeah. I like his defense is crazy. Like you could set a screen and it doesn’t matter. He’s like glued to the defender. Like I I’ve never seen like someone like set a pick and the SARS are still on him and then like if he does get beat his recovery speed like I don’t know how many times last year I had to rewind my TV because I didn’t believe the recovery of him like blocking a shot or contesting a shot or covering for Jaylen Duran because he wasn’t paying attention or just like little things like that. I’m like man this this kid is just so different. Like both of him and his brother like they’re just like A1 athletes man. It’s It’s honestly like really just fun to watch them play basketball. Yeah, they’re they’re really fun to watch, man. Uh I still have to watch that um podcast of him and his brother. I keep seeing it on my timeline. I just have not haven’t had the time to watch the the podcast with the old man of the Yeah, man. I’m I’m trying to watch the like Pablo Tori Kawaii Liner podcast. Like I haven’t had time to do that. So, it’s just like Yeah, it’s it’s in the backlog, right? It’ll keep Oh, that that Pablo podcast and then the Mark Cuban followup I think was even better than the just the whole like him finding out about the Kawaii stuff, man. Like um I didn’t think we would be getting this much like juicy like content in September. I know Champs Karania kind of trolled all of us saying it’d be the busiest NBA off season ever, but I mean I didn’t expect this kind of stuff. Um like the the memes are just funny. It’s just like, you know, Kawawaii gets banned for 50 games and he’ll be healthy just in time for the playoffs or everything like that. Like it’s it’s so funny, man. Like Yeah. [Music] Ooh. Ah. [Music]

On Pistons Talk Podcast, Anthony was joined by Laz Jackson from Detroit Bad Boys. The topic of discussion was what to expect from Ausar Thompson this upcoming season.

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