Ausar Thompson is breaking the #nba
There’s only 5 players in NBA history to record over 40 rebounds and 10 blocks in their first 10 games, 4 centers who would win MVP and Ausar Thompson, a 6’ 7” shooting guard
Ausar Thompson is breaking basketball, ***plain and simple**.*
Ausar was the 5th pick of this year’s draft. Last year, he was in the overtime league where we were unsure about how he would stand up to NBA competition. His twin brother Amen was thought to be the better brother and while Ausar was hyped, he was almost overshadowed, but what makes him so different already is piece #1, he’s embarrassing some of the best NBA players 15 games in.
Defense is usually one of those things you have to learn when you come to the NBA. Players can tell you their welcome to the league moment which is usually getting embarrassed by an NBA star dropping buckets on them.
In the history of the league, there are only 36 NBA rookies to make the all-defense team, none in the 2000s.
So when we see a guard not only having highlights blocking Joel Embiid as help defense, but also being matched up with stars every night and annoying them, we need to take a closer look.
Here, he’s guarding Zach Lavine, and here and here and here, Zach couldn’t do anything and needed an illegal screen.
And Zach isn’t the only offensive player Ausar has pressed.
Now every good defender would want to press stars, it takes them out of their rhythm, it forces them to spend more energy, so why don’t they? Because what ends up also happening is you get beat, stars draw fouls because you use your hands and not your feet.
So how can he keep pressing them? You guessed it. He’s that quick.
Ausar is a freak of nature, something like we’ve never seen allowing him to do special things which we’ll get into piece #2, but even when he’s wrong on which way the player is going, he’s able to recover. He already understands where the ball will be, when the player is gathering.
These instincts for chasing down the ball happens with every part of his game. He’s the only rookie averaging a double double and yes he leads guards in rebounding already.
And not just rebounds, he’s almost averaging as many blocks as Wembyanama. But the crazy thing is, he’s actually making several rookie mistakes, ball watching, losing track of his man, getting lost on team’s offensive schemes.
Like the time he blocks Jimmy Butler, he actually lost complete track him, but was so quick that he made up for it. But before we get to his biggest strength physically, the rest of his game breaking build let him do things that complete the package.
Amen, his twin brother, has a reported vertical of 44 inches, what? Ausar supposedly has a 38 inch vertical, but looking at these clips, he’s floating. No seriously, he’s actually floating. I don’t buy the 38 inch vertical, especially when he’s able to hang in the air and finish like this.
but also I watched him running against Tyrese Maxey, who is one of the fastest players in the league today. Tyrese consistently is embarrassing defenders with his speed and then there’s Auasar Thompson, running at the same pace easily to the point that Tyrese just gives up on chasing, but ok Tyrese might not just wanna spend energy on defense. What about on offense? Tyrese Maxey gets some space with a screen, steps back. Ausar catches up and blocks him.
And even here, Ausar is recovering from collapsing, closes out, then immediately changes direction to stay with Maxey on the drive.
While his length helps, his speed is what makes all of those parts of his game look like he’s a cheat code.
But all this leads us to piece #3, Ausar is doing things we’ve never seen. Like I said, he’s the only player on this list that’s not a big man.
And he’s the only guard that’s close to averaging double digit rebounds. While he might be listed as a forward, Ausar has always played point guard and is a ball handler that’s being forced to play minutes at the 3 because the Pistons already have so many guards. And there’s only been 3 guards since the beginning of the league that averaged over 10 rebounds a game and Ausar might be the 4th.
There’s never been a guard that averages 2 blocks a game, in fact, the highest amount was Michael Jordan in 1988 with 1.6. Ausar is at 1.8 right now.