When you’re a team coming off one of the worst seasons in NBA history, a season when you set an NBA single-season record for most consecutive losses, league-wide and casual interest in the product you’re offering is going to be minimal at best.
That was reflected in the national TV schedule prior to the start of the season, where the Pistons were handed one ESPN national broadcast (and you could even argue that was fortunate on last year’s evidence), the home battle against the Philadelphia 76ers last Friday.
Now, I don’t need to drag you through all the water that’s crossed under that particular bridge between last year’s debacle and the current iteration of the squad that has found a modicum of confidence, but with a young and exciting team now firmly in playoff contention, led by a first-time All-Star finally making his long-awaited superstar breakout, curiosity for the Pistons and Cade Cunningham was high.
Except Cade would be absent. He was the victim of a bad landing on Evan Mobley’s foot late in the previous game, a loss to the East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. He would miss the showdown in front of the world due to an ankle sprain that would, thankfully, cost him all of one game.
Immediately, the narrative shifted to how a beleaguered Philadelphia squad boasting all members of their so-called “Big Three” for a rare occasion could use this opportunity against a Pistons squad missing the head of the snake, garner some positive momentum, and gain a much-needed win.
It seems no one told Ausar Thompson that particular script.
It’s been a weird year for Ausar reputationally, as the exploits of twin brother Amen in Houston have garnered national headlines and a top 20 spot in Bill Simmons’ annual trade value ranking on the Ringer, while Ausar has largely been forgotten by the national media following his absence through blood clots, and subsequent slow return, but his performance against Philadelphia on national TV helped bring his name back to the forefront.
Cade was a doubt all throughout the day, but whispers of his absence only grew louder when he wasn’t spotted on the court in his usual pregame warmup spot, with news filtering through shortly after that he would indeed miss. The lineup was then announced, with veteran flamethrower Malik Beasley getting the start, with all other starters remaining the same.
Interestingly, Ausar Thompson was nominally listed in the “first” spot, usually reserved for the point guard, and there was cautious optimism that JB Bickerstaff would let the second-year phenom run the offense, to a certain degree anyway, while Cade sat, and we’d not be treated to a diet of Malik Beasley isolations for 48 minutes. Beasley has been exceptional for the Pistons, but he is not a ball handler.
It took all of nine electric first-quarter minutes for Ausar and the Pistons to allay any fears that the Cade-less Pistons would be a rudderless mess. What followed instead was a masterclass of perpetual motion, as Ausar worked in perfect synchronicity with Jalen Duren and Beasley to run a style of offense not seen by the team this season.
Where the team, rightly, I might add, plays to the strengths of their burgeoning star in Cunningham by being slightly more deliberate in the half court, operating in pick and rolls and deferring to his decision making, removing Cade from the equation turned the Pistons into a more direct, motion-oriented team running off curls, using weakside dives, and turning up their transition even more.
With Ausar as the de facto primary ball handler, the Pistons were able to play in space and play with pace. By aggressively pushing the ball up the court, the Pistons were able to force mismatches and scrambled defensive looks.
Take this example here. Ausar gets the ball in a transition setting and pushes, finding his way all the way down to the baseline with little resistance. Not sensing an opportunity, he kicks it out to a trailing Tobias Harris, who attacks a disjointed Sixers defensive setup, easily scooting past Justin Edwards, drawing a vaguely interested Joel Embiid, before dropping it off into the dunker spot where Ausar has remained, who finishes with the reverse.
This example is also good to highlight how Ausar can use his athleticism more effectively in the dunker spot, which was the cause of a lot of the frustration relating to his usage even dating back to his rookie season, where he would often be camped in the corner, a terrible place to be for a career 19% three point shooter.
If Ausar isn’t in the dunker spot, I like him off the ball most on the wing because it frees up his athleticism without being confined to the corner and allows him options. If you look at this example, Ausar is one pass away from the ball with Kelly Oubre on him. Oubre, knowing the scout, is cheating slightly off Ausar, knowing that the Sixers’ game plan is to likely leave Ausar open from three and dare him to take that shot.
When Sasser swings the ball to Ausar, Oubre recovers, but shades him outside, on his dominant right hand funnily enough. The thing about wing catches vs corner catches is it becomes harder for the defender to funnel you one way without the extra help defending near the baseline provides.
Harris comes up to set a screen, which Oubre anticipates, but Ausar is able to use his athleticism to attack the paint where Oubre is funneling him. Then, it’s a levitation contest, which Ausar is not losing.
Back on the transition angle, it’s clear that Ausar is one of those rare athletes who puts fear into opposing defenses, and it’s evident when you see just how much teams collapse when he’s sprinting the floor.
This is a simple example but one that highlights his transition decision-making and rare athleticism well. As soon as Ausar gets the ball, he senses an opportunity and sprints down the court. He beats Justin Edwards so easily that it forces both Kelly Oubre and Paul George to collapse and step in front of him at the rim.
Despite the speed at which he plays, he’s still under control enough to deliver a pass right into the shooting pocket of Tim Hardaway Jr, who nails the transition three. Simple basketball, to be sure, but having an effective decision-maker in transition who is also a threat to posterize any opponent is an extra wrinkle for a team to defend.
Over the last ten years, the modern NBA has trended towards athletes who can grab long rebounds and immediately push in transition, and Ausar is no exception, as is Cade Cunningham.
Again, when you attack with speed, it forces the defense to make a decision, and again, we see Embiid forced to step up to meet Ausar, who finds a willing Jalen Duren running in transition. Duren has become a Grade A credible lob threat this season, polishing an efficient connection with Cade Cunningham that is now extending to Thompson.
But just because Ausar is a 99th percentile athlete in a league full of the best athletes in the world doesn’t minimize him to a track star only. Not only does he have Diamond League athleticism, but he also has the poise and intelligence to go with it.
The primary offense with Ausar was always going to be early opportunities in transition with a steady mix of shooters off screens in the halfcourt, but that didn’t stop the occasional pick and roll, and this is a timing masterclass.
See him directing traffic as he brings the ball up, telling Beasley to stay low in the corner before calling Isaiah Stewart over for the on-ball screen. The underrated part of this entire play isn’t the screen from Stewart (which is probably borderline, but oh well), nor is it the pristine spacing afforded by having Beasley, Harris, and Hardaway Jr all on the perimeter, leaving the paint wide open.
No, it’s the fact that when this action is initiated, it’s done with 19 seconds on the shot clock. Ausar brought the ball up with such purpose that the Sixers were barely able to catch their breath. See the perimeter defenders all rooted to the spot, watching on as Ausar attacks the screen, gets downhill, and freezes old friend Andre Drummond with a beautiful up fake before dishing to Stewart for the easy dunk.
Again, it’s a simple offense, but its effectiveness is due to the speed and urgency with which it is run.
The Point Ausar experiment has legs, even if Ausar himself is still finding his. You see the results diminish as the game goes on, as it becomes clear he is still finding his oxygen after his blood clot diagnosis almost a year ago now.
Still, if the Pistons can work in more looks as Ausar’s primary ball handler, it frees up so much offense for Cade Cunningham as well. We’ve seen his effectiveness being allowed to play off the ball, an aspect of the offense that basically disappeared when Jaden Ivey went down, but with Ausar developing and Dennis Schroder now in the fold, every effort should be made to throw multiple ball handling looks at defences.
It allows Cade valuable rest during possessions rather than shouldering the load, and it helps get Ausar involved in the offense by using his athleticism rather than shackling him in the corner where he helps no one.
Malik Beasley was the star of this game with his career-high 36 points, but Ausar was the fulcrum around which the entire offense revolved while Cade was out, and he needs to stay involved moving forward.