Stanley Johnson was all raw athleticism and potential. Ausar has a far more clear picture of what his game could be. With his athleticism and evidence of Bball IQ, I have no doubt he will be an effective defender at the NBA level. The offensive end is where the question marks are. Is he a primary creator in the half court? Can he shoot? Drive? Finish? Those are where the question marks are. But I think he’s far from being as much of a question mark as Stanley Johnson.
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He has made so many plays in four games (yes I know it’s summer league) that require way more advanced bball IQ/vision than Stanley Johnson ever flashed tho.
Ausar is almost doubling Stanley’s assists and rebounds from his “breakout summer league” performance that was just three games where he made ugly 3PT shots.
I get that’s it’s all summer league and I’m being extremely hyperbolic but Ausar appears to impact the game in so many more ways than most rookies it’s hard not to get excited.
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SJ’s problem was that he didn’t have enough athleticism. He was more brute strength.
Stanley Johnson wasn’t even a good athlete, he was big and could jump but couldn’t move
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Let’s just say that Stanley Johnson is a likelier outcome than Giannis, D-Wade, or Michael Jordan.
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Scottie Barnes, honestly.
I think what makes the Thompson twins’ performance in Summer League significant is that they were picked 4 and 5th despite the major caveat they were coming from a seemingly glorified rec league for future burlesque dancers, dunking their way through little blind children and into the lottery.
Summer League has real professionals and the best athletes the college game could possibly have. If the refrain is that we need to see them play against more methodical, organized competition when they’re already such cerebral players, then I’m feeling really friggin good about their prospects as players.
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Yeah not bad
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I mean there is this thing where people compare to stars because it’s a pretty universal touchstone. We know what Giannis plays like, very few of us know what Erlinger Bottlefuxk thst ylu saw playing for the Dayton Dingleberries in 19 dickety 2 played like. Nobody is saying Ausar will be multiple time MVP so can we stop doing the “lol he won’t be Giannis” thing - we know.
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Andrew Wiggins but genius seems like an acceptable compromise
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Exactly, you don’t need to tell us he won’t be Giannis, we already know he’s Michael Jordan.
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James Edwards has consistently compared him to Andre Iguodala, which I think is more realistic, if still ambitious. Also a much better fit for the style of play I’ve seen in a few SL games.
I don’t hate the Iguodala one but I’d bet my life savings that Ausar cracks 6 rebounds per game more than two seasons in his career
Yeah that’s fair. I see him as more of an ancillary piece than a dominant on-ball creator — so like Wiggins or Iguodala.
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I don’t think it’s hard to see why people say Giannis - the length, on ball skills, passing, defense, lack of a jumper
He obviously lacks the general size (height/girth) and Giannis has a next level ability to finish
There is a difference between saying a guy “plays like that” and “he’ll be as good as that”
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I’m a more likely outcome than Giannis or MJ. But I don’t think I’ve seen a ton of comparisons to players of that level outside of style of play.
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Giannis scores at the rim more than anyone in the league. From what I’ve seen of Ausar’s scouting reports, finishing is a concern.
Dylan pulled this, he was like 58% at the rim
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I think Scottie Pippen is your best case scenario.
I’m hoping for Andrei Kirilienko type production, stuffing the stats sheet in a variety of ways.
To me, Ausar is a high-end role player who helps our the stars. If you rely on him as a top two option, your team is in big trouble.
We’re presumably talking about the absolute tippy top of his ceiling, right? So of course that’s true. But I do think those kinds of ceiling outcomes are on the table.
Johnson’s peaking as a below replacement wing and I would guess that’s, I dk, 10-20th percentile outcome for a 5th pick. That’s considerably more likely than a 99th percentile outcome.
So yeah sure maybe his 70th percentile outcome is like @mgl says, non-broken Ben Simmons. 30th is a rotation caliber defense first meh to bad shooting wing.
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